(The Associated Press circulated the following story on May 27.)
HANCOCK, Mich. — The Copper Range Locomotive No. 29 in Hancock was a long-dormant relic from a bygone era. At the Mid-Continent Railway Museum, it’ll be the missing piece of the puzzle.
Workers loaded the train onto two separate trailers Wednesday at the Quincy Smelter site for transport to the museum in North Freedom, Wis. There, it will be put on display and eventually restored.
The move to the museum will cost about $20,000.
The locomotive, built by the American Locomotive Co. in February 1907, was used for freight and passenger service until its retirement in 1953.
In 1967, the Copper Range Railroad sold it to Keweenaw Central Railroad, a Calumet-based tourist operation that ran until dissolution of the Copper Range Railroad in 1972. Since then it has sat idle.
The museum acquired the locomotive from Mineral Range Inc. owner Clint Jones, who ran the Keweenaw Central.
Jones told The Daily Mining Gazette of Houghton he had gotten in touch with the museum through a mutual acquaintance and was glad to contribute the piece.
“It’ll be the best thing that ever happened to it,” he said.