Hey Guys, It’s big Diehl again, and today, we’re heading down the streets, well down the tracks here in Albuquerque to the Sawmill Spur, where we caught Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe number 2926 (on KZfaq here ‪@atsf2926‬ ) as it went on its first journey outside of the compound where she’s been worked on for the last twenty years here in Albuquerque.
Built in 1944 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, this 4-8-4 Northern type was used across the Santa Fe System and is now the largest operating northern type locomotive in existence being nearly 65,000 pounds heavier than the Union Pacific "Living Legend" the # 844.
Officially capable of speeds at 110 miles an hour, the locomotive was built with Timken side rods and wheel bearings and would be found pulling some of Santa Fe’s most prestigious trains such as the Super Chief (the forerunner of today's Amtrak 'Southwest Chief' and Southwest Limited) the El Capitan, Chief, Fast Mail, Grand Canyon, California Limited, etc... In 1953, she was retired then later donated to the City of Albuquerque in 1956 for the city’s Semiquincentennial celebration and put on display in the City’s Coronado Park only a couple of blocks away from where the event in 2023 occurred.
By the late 1990s the condition of the locomotive became worse and was needed to be moved from the park, and in 1999, the locomotive was sold to the New Mexico Steam Locomotive and Railroad Historical Society and moved in 2002 to the current restoration facility.
She was fired up for the first time in August of 2018, but due to the pandemic and related delays, the locomotive did not move under her own power until July 2021. Nearly two years later, the locomotive finally ‘escaped the cage’ and went down the Sawmill Spur to Tractor Brewing.
Just after four pm, the locomotive left its display on 4th Street and headed back to the barn to be put away for the next time. We'll go trackside in the Sawmill district of Albuquerque ( or 'Burque' as some call it) and catch this massive Northern hot and under steam. We then catch it moving along the Sawmill Branch as it heads home for the night. The locomotive may soon take to the rails in the distant future running on the main rails like locomotives such as Santa Fe 3751, Southern Pacific 4449, Spokane Portland and Seattle 700, Union Pacific Big Boy 4014, Milwaukee Road 261, Soo Line 1003, Nickel Plate Road 765 and Norfolk & Western 611. Will the locomotive take to the rails of Glorieta and Raton passes? Or will it head out on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s Transcon and join up with thenGrand Canyon Railway near Flagstaff and be caught on the virtual railfan camera?