On Wednesday, fire hose stretched from a nearby hydrant in anticipation of filling the boiler with water for a last pressure test and partially filling the 24,500-gallon tender. Barring another surprise, No. 2926 will be in steam next week for the first time in 63 years.
“This has been a lesson in humility and a lesson in keeping going,” says Mike Hartshorne, president of the New Mexico Steam Locomotive and Railroad Historical Society. “No one here quits easily.”
It’s been a long time coming for NMSL&RHS, founded in 1997. Aided by contract heavy equipment, the group pulled No. 2926 from an Albuquerque park in 1999 and in 2003 moved it to an industrial spur where the restoration commenced.
The engine was to be fired up early in June until a routine move returning 120 feet of locomotive and tender built by Baldwin in 1944 to the engine house ended abruptly when a 14-foot H beam supporting rail over the service pit shifted. That dropped the lead axle of the trailing truck onto the ground.
There, No. 2926 sat for more than two weeks until Hulcher Professional Services could rerail it. First, however, the restoration crew tore down the company store to make room for the rescue and braced the pit walls against the weight of Hulcher’s sideboom Caterpillars.
Since then the errant H-beam has been replaced with added gussets, new rail laid by Albuquerque-based GandyDancer LLC, welded rail clips installed, and work begun on a 10-by-24-foot framed company store replacing the earlier metal shed.
Once the fire is lit, everything from cleaning steam lines to raising the safety valves will happen privately for safety reasons. If that goes as planned, the site will be open to the public on Wednesday, Aug. 22, for crew, fans, the news media, and anyone curious to see the million-pound behemoth living, breathing and demonstrating its six-chime whistle.
Meanwhile the crew is prepping for its annual open house from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday Sept. 29. The free event features educational displays, model trains, live music, free hotdogs, soda and water and an expanded line of No. 2926-related merchandise in the company store.
Plans to operate No. 2926 continue amid the uncertainty of working with Amtrak, which would provide the engineer and insurance coverage. One goal is to run from Albuquerque to Las Vegas, N.M., over former Santa Fe Railway trackage now owned by the state of New Mexico and BNSF Railway’s Glorieta Sub where only Amtrak’s Southwest Chief operates.
Additional information can be found on the NMSL&RHS website www.2926.us.
Joe, there is a wye at French I believe.
Nice to see a locomotive coming back to life instead of going back to the park (Soo 2719) or sitting idle, unlikely to ever steam again (SSW 819 etc).
Amtrak has at least one road foreman that I know of, qualified on steam.
Amtrak would provide an engineer? Amtrak has engineers who are qualified to operate steam locomotives? Or would Amtrak furnish a pilot and a road foreman to ride in the cab? Am I wrong?
Given Amtrak’s current stance on special runs or moves, I doubt that they’ll have anything to do with 2926 at all. If the 2926 crew needs qualified steam loco engineers, they’ll probably have to “borrow” someone from the 3751 or 4449 groups. Those engineers are well versed in the operation of big steam and also have the trust of BNSF railroad.
Very exciting, the 2926 is an impressive locomotive.
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No wye or turntable in Las Vegas. Any plans to build a wye or just drag the locomotive in one direction?