For the first time in more than a half-century, the boilers were fired up on the Santa Fe 2926 steam locomotive in Albuquerque — a major milestone for a group of railroad buffs that have worked to restore the train for about 15 years.
The Albuquerque Journal was there Wednesday when the New Mexico Steam Locomotive & Railroad Historical Society got the train’s boilers working at the Eighth Street work yard.
Plumes of dark, hazy smoke climbed out of the locomotive’s smokestack at about 6:30 a.m., signaling a landmark moment in a renovation project that’s been underway for more than 15 years.
“We got a little more steam testing to do and then we’ll put the pistons on it,” an elated Michael Hartshorne, society president, said Wednesday morning. He said the organization’s goal continues to be to get 2926 up and running on the rails again, perhaps making excursions to the Grand Canyon or the old New Mexico railroad town of Las Vegas.
Santa Fe 2926, a 1944 Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway steam engine, made its last run on Christmas Eve 1953. It was donated to the city of Albuquerque in 1956 and placed in Coronado Park, on Second Street just south of Interstate 40. It stayed in the park, savaged by the elements and used by the homeless as a shelter and toilet, until 2000 when the Steam Locomotive & Railroad Society, organized specifically to rescue Santa Fe 2926, bought the locomotive for $1 and moved it, first to side tracks at Second and Menaul and then, in 2002, to 1833 Eighth NW
In the last 15 years or so, the society has amassed more than 170,000 volunteer hours and $3.1 million in donations to try to bring the locomotive back to life.
The society posted this video of the boiler tests:
Yard Limit Productions also produced this video from the boiler tests last week:
The society will hold an open house at the work site at 1833 N. 8th St. NW in Albuquerque (map here) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 29. It’s about 1 1/2 miles north of Central Avenue (aka Route 66).
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 fully reopens to overnight visitors in 2019.
(Image of the Santa Fe 2926 locomotive via Facebook)