A group of volunteers in Albuquerque has labored for years to restore a Santa Fe 2926 steam locomotive that hasn’t rolled down a set of tracks in 65 years.
With more work and a bit of luck, the locomotive will chug into Las Vegas, New Mexico, about the time the long-closed Castaneda Hotel there reopens to overnight visitors in 2019.
The New Mexico Steam Locomotive & Railroad Historical Society has worked for 15 years and spent $2.8 million to get the Santa Fe 2926 running again, reported the Albuquerque Journal. From 1944 to 1953, it transported freight and passengers from Kansas City through Albuquerque to Los Angeles and San Diego.
The article conveys how far the group has come in restoring the old engine:
Donated to Albuquerque in 1956 in celebration of the city’s 250th anniversary, it had been an immense yard ornament in Albuquerque’s Coronado Park, on Second Street just south of I-40, since that year. Savaged by the weather and used by the homeless as a shelter and a toilet, it was a rusting hulk and a health hazard.
The New Mexico Steam Locomotive & Railroad Historical Society was formed to rescue the locomotive. In 1999, the society bought the locomotive from the city for $1 and moved it the following year to side tracks at Second and Menaul. In 2002, the locomotive was moved to its present home on Eighth Street.
Renovation has been an intimidating task. Some of the parts and even some of the tools needed for the job were no longer available and had to made. Four separate sections of the boiler, one as big as a dinner table, had to be removed and replaced because they were too thin to hold up under pressure.
The group cleared a big hurdle when the engine’s boiler passed a test overseen by a Federal Railway Administration inspector in July. If it had flunked, the crew would have faced a lot more rebuilding.
Photos and videos of the crew at work may be seen at its Facebook page.
When the Santa Fe 2926 is up and running in 2019, the group plans to take it to Las Vegas, New Mexico, for its first voyage in 65-plus years. A natural stopping point there would be the Castaneda Hotel, a century-old Harvey House that Allan Affeldt, owner of La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona, plans to reopen, also in 2019.
If those schedules can be coordinated, that would be one heck of an event.
(Image of the Santa Fe 2926 locomotive via Facebook)