90-year-old steam locomotive rides the rails again after getting 12,000 hours of restoration work

Alive and Steaming

By DAVID CLOUSTON

Salina Journal

ABILENE -- The toot of the train engine whistle and piercing hiss of escaping steam was loud enough to startle onlookers and drive small children to clap their hands over their ears -- signals that Santa Fe 3415 had returned to life.

"I just have to know," Abilene Mayor Nesha Bailey asked of the crowd before the restored steam locomotive could get going Saturday, "how many people out there played on this train in the park?"

"Who would have thought that the train that children played on for so many years, that sat in the park for longer than I've been alive, would one day be pulling passengers?" Bailey said. She commended the restoration volunteers. "What an awesome asset to add to Abilene."

A throng of onlookers turned out Saturday morning for the inaugural run of the restored Santa Fe 3415 by the Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad.

The 90-year-old steam locomotive was retired from service 56 years ago by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, and put on display in a city park in Abilene two years later. Four years have passed since volunteers with the Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad began restoring the 3415, with an eye toward powering the railroad's excursion train one weekend a month on the 5.5 mile route from Abilene to Enterprise.

The locomotive was christened Saturday by Mary Jane Oard, manager for the Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad, who smashed a beverage bottle across the cow catcher at the locomotive's front.

The inaugural took on a festive historical air, as reenactors in period garb, portraying gunfighters and law men, high society women and saloon girls, mingled with visitors recording the scene with digital still and video cameras.

The locomotive idled in front of the former Rock Island depot at Old Abilene Town, south of the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum. Watching the excursion railroaders test out the locomotive's controls was Harvey Williams, 87, of Topeka.

Williams retired from the Santa Fe Railroad in 1977 after a 30-year career as an engineer. It was the 1960s when the transition from steam to diesel power took place, he said.

"They'll talk to you," Williams said, of the steam locomotives' distinctive cadence. Smooth-riding, they were not, particularly at high speeds. With the locomotive running 80 to 90 miles an hour, it wasn't uncommon for crew members in the cab to climb off sporting bruises from being jostled around, he said.

The 3415 locomotive was built for powering passenger trains. One of 50 of its kind built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, it could reach speeds of 100 miles an hour or better, said Joe Minick, chief mechanical and operations officer for the execursion railroad, and the leader of the volunteers who restored the 3415.

Altogether the volunteers spent about 12,000 hours on the restoration and finished it for less than $300,000. Missing parts had to be in some cases fabricated from scratch, while others were received from non-working sister locomotives on display in other cities. Repairs to the 3415's boiler had to be done by a certified contractor.

Although the 3415 was built to run fast, federal transportation regulations limit its speed to 15 miles an hour on the Abilene to Enterprise line, Minick said. When fueled to capacity with 7,000 gallons, and full water tanks, the 150-ton locomotive is too expensive to operate on a daily basis, which is why the Abilene & Smoky Valley railroaders plan to take it out for excursions only one weekend a month.

"It's a screwy little thing to drive," Minick said, smiling. "I can tell you. It takes a little while to get onto."

Organizers of Saturday's event auctioned off seating for two lucky passengers on two jump seats in the cab of the locomotive for the initial run to Enterprise. A donor gave $500 for one seat but allowed that seat to be sold a second time. The seats then brought $150 and $140 each.

n Reporter David Clouston can be reached at 822-1403 or by e-mail at dclous ton@salina.com.

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