Western Pacific 4-8-2 #179

Does anyone know what happened to the 179. I she still around

Wes Barris' site ( http://www.steamlocomotive.com/ ) doesn't list it.

As you probably know these were FEC locos either sold by the
railroad trustees or by the holders of the equipment trust paper
on them, secondary to destruction of the FEC's southend, and
the following Great Depression, of the 1930s.

For a long while, into the 70s, there were at least
one NdeM 4-8-2 lying around ( and probably several) in scrap
lines or yards. Unfortunately, all the decisions about preserving
their modern power came down on the side of their Niagaras and
Hudsons. So a last shot at preserving, a 4-8-2 analog to
the WP locos, passed from the scene. Worse than the
decision to not save any 4-8-2s was their decision not
to preserve some of their modern 3 ft. gauge big
articulateds or 4-8-0s, as they were unique NA locos.
However, that is only a subjective opinion.

In truth not many mountains survived, as stuffed power,but a
couple did operate in extensive excursion service (from CN and
Frisco) in later years. Worth looking, at if you are travelling near
them, are the stand alone stuffed IC giant at (appropriately)
Centralia, Illinois, and the GN 4-8-2 at Willmar, Minnesota.
The latter is on the south side of the main highway, at a
CoC historic/welcome center. It was restored cosmetically
at three year intervals, into the 90s so it was very pretty.
A plus that can be easily found in winter, was a roundhouse
with through truss turntable which was north of the highway
near the park. I don't know if that has survived or not till
today, but was definitely a good place to study the past.
The New York Central , which owned about half of all the
4-8-2s built in NA(called 'L' class Mohawks by them), has had two
survive. One Pennsy' M-1' ( which represented about 20%
of all 4-8-2s) survives.
Good-Luck, Peter Boylan