TUCSON, Ariz. — An important symbol of Tucson’s history, Southern Pacific Engine No. 1673, has a grand new home at the Downtown train depot, reports the Arizona Daily Star.
After a 10-year effort, a group set up to preserve the historic 102-year-old steam engine is putting the finishing touches on a deluxe enclosure for the old locomotive and its tender.
The Historic Locomotive # 1673 Task Force plans to open the exhibit to tours following a Sept. 10 ribbon-cutting ceremony at the depot, which is on East Toole Avenue between Fourth and Sixth avenues.
The project is part of the ongoing restoration of the train depot under the Rio Nuevo redevelopment plan – including a planned railroad museum. The city expects to complete the entire depot project by the fall of 2003, at an estimated cost of $7 million.
Locomotive task force leaders hope the No. 1673 exhibit will help educate tourists and locals alike about the vital role the railroad’s arrival in Tucson in 1880 played in the city’s growth.
“What made it important to me is, the railroad put Tucson on the map, it linked this town to the United States,” said Dave Devine, a rail buff and a member of the # 1673 Task Force.
“It was a very important part of Tucson’s history, and Southern Pacific was a major employer in Tucson for a long time.”
Built for Southern Pacific in 1900, Engine No. 1673 was based in Tucson and logged more than 1 million miles hauling freight throughout Southern Arizona.
The locomotive pulled its last train in 1954 and was donated to the city by Southern Pacific in 1955 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the first train in Tucson.
Engine No. 1673 was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
The silver-and-black locomotive and tender languished at the Arizona Historical Society grounds and later at Himmel Park until it was trucked to the train depot in December as hundreds of rail buffs looked on and cheered.
The $191,000 enclosure was funded mainly with money from the Federal Transit Administration, together with about $60,000 raised by the 15-member # 1673 Task Force.
“It was a hell of a lot of work . . . we did a lot of scraping and painting,” task force member Howard Greenseth said of efforts to maintain and restore the engine over the years.
With its new digs, Engine No. 1673 has gone from the poorhouse to a comparative penthouse.
The locomotive and its tender endured years of vandalism at Himmel Park before it was protected by a chain-link fence, which was later topped with razor wire.
In December, the old duo was trucked from Himmel Park to the train depot as hundreds of rail and history buffs cheered along the route.
The engine’s new home has a roof with skylights and spotlights, a concrete deck with benches made with train rails and black, tubular steel fencing.
Plaques in English and Spanish trace the history of the engine and its place in Tucson’s history.
While plans haven’t been finalized, Devine said task force members tentatively plan to conduct public tours of the Engine No. 1673 exhibit a few times a week.
The restoration work is an ongoing project.
Devine said the task force hopes to replace many controls in the engine’s cab that vandals stripped away over the years. The cab’s wooden floor needs to be replaced and the tender needs to be repainted, he added.
Greenseth said he and other # 1673 Task Force members are still piecing together the history of the old locomotive, adding that locals frequently share their old photos and memories.
“I’ve had at least 50 or 60 people come up to me and say, ‘I used to play on that engine,’ and I always say, ‘Is there anything you’d like to return?’ ” Greenseth said.
Meanwhile, the city is working with an ad-hoc committee to form an operating entity and budget for the planned railroad museum, Rio Nuevo Project Manager John Updike said.
The committee, which includes Greenseth and other members of the # 1673 Task Force, Old Pueblo Trolley and a model-railroad group, is tentatively planning to form a new group, the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum Association, to operate the rail museum.