SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California State Railroad Museum and its support group, the California State Railroad Museum Foundation, have launched an effort to restore Santa Fe steam locomotive No. 1010, a 2-6-2 built by Baldwin in 1901, for use on the museum’s Sacramento Southern excursion railroad.
The project — the largest steam restoration project undertaken by the museum since its opening in 1981 — is described in the current edition of the Museum Foundation’s “On Track” magazine.
No. 1010, which was donated to the museum by Santa Fe in 1984, is most notable for its role in the “Death Valley Scotty” excursion, in which prospector and performer Walter E. Scott contracted with the Santa Fe in 1905 to break the speed record for a cross-country train trip. No. 1010 was one of the 19 locomotives used in the 44-hour, 54-minute trip from Los Angeles to Chicago — which broke the old record by about eight hours. The locomotive powered the three-car train between Needles, Calif., and Seligman, Ariz.
Funding for the project has begun with an initial matching grant of $300,000 provided by three families — Jeff and Marsha Gibeling; Art and Linda Grix; and Craig Hoefer of the Hofer Family Foundation. That is approximately half the money needed for the restoration project.
The locomotive was part of the pageant that opened the museum in 1981, powered by compressed air, and is still capable of moving short distances in that fashion. It is occasionally displayed in the museum’s roundhouse.
Reading this article about the ATSF 2-6-2 Prairie type steam engine reminds me a lot of the similar, contemporary, ATSF’s competitor, SPRR’s fleet of 2-6-0 Moguls, one of which, (the 1673), is on display at the Toole Ave. Amtrak depot in Tucson, AZ.
One of the finer rail museums in the country and with many fine and historic pieces of rail equipment in their collection. Recently the State of California has been getting harsh criticism and negative publicity about their move to go green and eliminate emissions and polution and that includes their trains and many locomotives either being pulled out of service, retired or placed in storage because they don’t qualify or meet the new zero emission standards that California is implementing. However California has and is doing a great job with preserving old rail equipment and locomtives and preserving their rail history. As evidenced by the California State Rail Museum and many a small town preserving their railroading heritage and history by displaying old equipment in the towns once served by these railroads and equipment and even preserving and restoring their town depots and stations. Keep up the good work and preserve and save even more historic old ;ocomotives and equipment for future generations to see and enjoy.
Joseph C. Markfelder
The collection of operational Santa Fe steam continues to grow. Let’s try for a Texas next.
Awesome soon the California State railroad museum will once again have 2 operating steam locomotives granite rock co. 10 and Santa Fe 1010
WOW!!! I didn’t even thought that Santa Fe 1010 would be restored to operation.
WOW!!!
In 1955, No. 1010 was fired up by the Santa Fe for the final time for a television re-enactment of the Scott Special for the “Death Valley Days” program about the special train. This locomotive was also prominently featured in a 1958 episode of the TV series Sky King, entitled “Stop That Train”.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Let’s recall that the veteran Santa Fe 2-6-2 No. 1010 was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1901 for Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. It started out as a Vauclain compound locomotive before it was rebuilt into a conventional locomotive in the 1910s. It was primarily used for various passenger trains across the Southwestern United States, before it was reassigned to freight service in the 1940s. It was retired in 1955 and was kept by the Santa Fe for several years for preservation purposes.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün