According to "Steam Locos of the Burlington Route", #6323 was converted to
Class M-4-A in June 1935 and sold for scrap in April 1961. The latest photo
I've found of #6323 was taken at Galesburg in July 1956 as part of a
railfan special (Steam Locos page 133).
After a period of between 1 and 4 years on the Galesburg deadline, all 18
members of the class were sold for scrap to Northwestern Steel & Wire of
Sterling, Illinois, between October 1960 and May 1961, although two were
used there for a time as stationary boilers.
The latest photo of an M-4-A is of #6319 at Sterling on 28 December 1963.
The latest freight service shots I can find are dated 17 October 1958 and
show #6315 at Centralia and Herris. There is an accompanying comment that
the last two of the class were kept hauling coal to avoid conflict with
mining companies and miners.
Hol Wagner in Bulletin #21 confirms that the last M-4-A run was #6315 on the
6 September 1959 Chicago-Galesburg fan trip previously mentioned.
Back to the subject of the sand domes. The conversions to M-4-A took place
between November 1934 (#6327) and February 1940 (#6311 and 6319). Hol
comments that "In rebuilding the plodding M-4's into higher speed power, the
locomotives' weight distribution was changed somewhat. To improve the
situation to replace some of the weight that had been lost up front, between
1938 and 1940 the rear sand domes of all 18 M-4-A's were relocated to a
position between the steam dome and the forward sand dome". Based on the
conversion dates, one would presume that the sand dome change was made on 7
units post-conversion and the other 11 units as they were upgraded.
Rupert
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