Revenue service

No. 6323 was constructed in February 1942 by the American Locomotive Company in Schenectady, New York as the twelfth member of the Grand Trunk Western's U-3-b class. The U-3-bs were a class of 4-8-4 "Northerns"(or "Confederation" types as sometimes referred to by the GTW) that were primarily used for fast freight and passenger trains.^[1] No. 6323, in particular, was mainly assigned to pull the Maple Leaf passenger train between Chicago, Illinois and Toronto, Ontario in Canada alongside the GTW's streamlined U-4-b locomotives. It was also often seen pulling mixed freight trains across the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and Northern Indiana. The U-3-bs were also well liked by crews for being such reliable steam locomotives and for having enough power to pull up to sixteen passenger cars or eighty freight cars with equal ease on flat lands, and No. 6323 was no exception.

Throughout the late 1950s, the GTW was in the process of retiring their steam locomotives and replacing them with diesel locomotives, and by 1961, No. 6323 was the last steam locomotive on the GTW's active list. During the locomotive's final two years of service on the railroad, the Michigan Railroad Club sponsored several excursion trains that ran across the GTW's trackage, with No. 6323 being the main motive power. The first excursion train took place on December 1, 1960, between Detroit, Michigan and South Bend, Indiana. Throughout 1961, the GTW used No. 6323 to pull several excursion trains between Detroit and South Bend, as well as trains that led to Port Huron, Michigan, Valparaiso, Indiana, and Chicago.^[2] The last excursion train took place on September 20, 1961, which marked the very last regularly scheduled train the GTW ever hosted by themselves. That was also the last time No. 6323 ever moved under its own power and would be officially retired from service.^[3]

Preservation

After being retired, No. 6323 was sold in November 1961 to Fred Crew, who stored the locomotive in Downtown Detroit. After Fred passed away in October 1971, No. 6323 was sold again in 1973 to Robert Johnson, who was a member of the Illinois Railway Museum (IRM), and he had No. 6323 partially disassembled while being stored.^[4] In August 1981, No. 6323 was moved to the IRM's grounds in Union, Illinois, and the locomotive received a cosmetic repaint soon afterwards.^[5] No. 6323 subsequently spent over two decades on static display outdoors while receiving some cosmetic touch-ups as time flew by.^[6] While on display, No. 6323 was often coupled to a maintenance of way tender, No. 6323B, which came off of a fellow GTW U-3-b that had been scrapped years prior.^[7] In the early 2000s, No. 6323 was moved inside one of the IRM's locomotive houses to be protected out of the weather, since its paint was beginning to chip off, and the rust on its tender was beginning to be exposed. As of 2023, No. 6323 still on indoor display at the IRM, and it is also awaiting a future cosmetic restoration to become more presentable to the general public once again.