I'm sorry, but that is incorrect. Soo 2719 was donated to the city of Eau Claire, WI, and spent years on display in Carson Park, along with a relocated interlocking tower. The name of the group that restored her, Locomotive and Tower Preservation Fund, Ltd. makes reference to both. In addition, the L&TPF operates a steam powered park train in Carson Park during the summer.

The UP roundhouse that some would have liked to see become a museum and permanent operating base was actually in Altoona, WI, about five miles to the east.

Chippewa Falls figures into the story in that there was the connection between the UP from Altoona and trip friendly Wisconsin Central Ltd. At that time the Soo roundhouse still existed in CF, but the turntable was too small for the 2719 with its present 12,000 gal. tender, and the property had environmental issues. There was some talk of moving to CF, but i don't know if any of it was serious.

At one point in time Soo 2719 and 1003 occupied adjacent stalls in Altoona, and it looked like the beginnings of a steam Mecca, but alas, such was not to be.

NKP-384 is a long term lease deal.

Jack -

Any movement on the possibility of the L&WV restoring the NKP (W&LE) 0-6-0 to operation?

Les

Soo experts,
What about Soo 2425, formerly a park loco in Enderlin, ND, and now with a group in MN?
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32194

Don't forget Southern 542 that was traded from Tanglewood park in N.C. for NCTM's ex. IC
0-8-0. She was recently cosmetically restored.

Pokey Smokey in Portsmouth, Va.

http://hamptonroads.com/2010/10/portsmo ... g-comeback

http://hamptonroads.com/2013/04/pokey-s ... portsmouth

Also Southern 722 was technically in a park in Asheville when she was owned by the Asheville Chapter NRHS, and she was sold to GSMR who will hopefully one day bring her back to service.

3751 was sold for the grand sum of $1.

Since this has evolved into donations in addition to sales, way back in 1986, the City of Peru, Indiana donated C&O Kanawha #2789 to our group. They had been considering scrapping the 2-8-4.

Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, Indiana)

If we need to define sell vs. donate, we also need to define "City." PSRM owns SP 2353 and SD&A 104, as listed above. They were donated, but not by cities, but by state-chartered fairgrounds.

2353 was donated by Imperial Valley Expo/California Mid-Winter Fair & Fiesta, 45th District Agricultural Association. This facility is located in the city of Imperial, CA, in Imperial County, about 90 miles east of San Diego.

SD&A 104 was donated by the San Diego County Fair/Del Mar Fair, operated by the 22nd District Agricultural Association. This facility is located in Del Mar, CA, a few miles north of San Diego

I believe she was owned by Norfolk Southern and only loaned to the Asheville NRHS. It was NS who sold her to the GSMR.

Ran across this neat photo on E-bay of SP 0-6-0 #1294 on display at the San Francisco zoo.
A search indicates the locomotive was scrapped in 1981.
This loco is off-topic for this thread as it was not sold to a preservation group, but still a neat pic. The kids obviously enjoyed this one.

The ad on E-bay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Southern-Pacifi ... 8355918%26

(I will delete the photo in a few days).

Look at that no safety devices and kids all over it. Kids today don't know what they are missing.
Al

That is a good example of the playground equipment approach to locomotive display. The theory was that if you can’t keep people off of it; make it safe to be on it. The picture shows the shortcomings of that compromise as limits are being pushed even further with the aid of railings.

I can think of four engines removed from outdoor display in Michigan, with various results.

PM 2-8-4 1225 was given by the MSU Museum to the nonprofit Michigan State Trust for Railway Preservation, Inc. in 1980, now the Steam Railroading Institute. This engine is due to return to operation Dec. 1st.

PM 1223 was moved from one park to another around 1984: from the Michigan State Fair grounds (now closed) to the City of Grand Haven, Michigan.

A Detroit Edison Co. 0-6-0 in Champagne Park in the City of Allen Park, Michigan, was scrapped by the city in 1970. (Similar engines survive at the Toledo, Lake Eria and Western tourist line in Grand Rapids, Ohio; at Illinois Ralway Museum; and in a park in Marysville, Michigan).

I believe the Port Huron and Northwestern 3-ft. 2-4-0 now in the Port Huron city museum was at one time in a park in northern Michigan, before passing to the Edison Institute and possibly other hands.

I don't know which is harder or less certain of success: prying locomotives out of the hands of city governments or similar institutions, or caring for them afterward.

My favorite park-engine story came from some individuals who sought to liberate a large locomotive in another state for restoration and operation in the 1970's. Before a city council meeting at which disposition of the chooch would be taken up, they took the step of dumping paint on the derelict hulk, so that they could make reference to the extent that it was being vandalized. It didn't work; it was still too soon for the elderly voters in love with the engine to have died off. That engine is still there.

Aarne H. Frobom