The Locomotive Currently (Slightly) Trapped | Santa Fe "2900" 2926 | History in the Dark 

If only class 1 railroads would allow steam locomotives on their tracks would be awesome.

I live in Albuquerque. The NMHR has done an UNbelievable GREAT job from the begining! As to railroads letting this engine run on excursions...As I understand it, the state of New Mexico owns the tracks from Belen NM to Colorado. Hopefully someone with knowlege of that can/will comment on what's necessary for this engine to 'fly like a bird' 👍

Alright, as one who works on this locomotive I will be the judge of this video. Edit: first off, the man hours are incorrect. From what Spargo and Rick have told me it can be added up to almost 280,000 hours. Second, the reason she seems “stranded” comes down to a few factors. One: she’s in the middle of Albuquerque, and as a local I can confirm we have MASSIVE amounts of crime around here. And 2926 in her current state is worth nearly 5 million dollars, and when we brought her to the rail yard we had to pay for over night security because during restoration some parts where stolen. Two: New Mexico is very new to the mainline Steam excursion. The last time New Mexico had a major mainline steam excursion was when big boy came in 2019. Three: she JUST came back and we want to get used to her and run her in a bit before we do anything extreme. Yes she is a northern said to have gone 120 mph once, but she’s still a 79 year old steam locomotive that just came out of a 23 year long restoration. So for now we’re gonna go easy, but until then we do have a LOT of plans for the future What I have to say next isn’t so much criticism as it is explaining a few thing. Yes, 2926 was indeed bought for one dollar. Long story short the locomotive as it stood still had its original asbestos boiler insulation and was a basically a threat to people who came to the park. it was either they had to get rid of the locomotives jacketing and asbestos themselves or get someone else to do it without paying anything. So it was a win win, we got a steam locomotive and they didn’t have to deal with asbestos in their park. This exact same thing happened with fellow At&SF northern 3751 you may wonder why did she take so long to restore? It comes down to getting things the right way rather than the fast way, as we could have simply had her finished in 2010 but then a lot of her equipment would most likely have gone unchecked and we would already be into her next overhaul. oh yeah and I guess we where only funded by donated money so..

The big problem is lack of PTC. I know when I worked for ns we would shuttle the nkp 765 in tow using our own engines, but due to lack of ptc it was restricted to being in tow.

I love 2926. In the 1970's my dad customized an HO scale PFM Santa Fe 4-8-4 to create a model of 2919. That locomotive was the pride and joy of his layout. 2926 looks just like it. BTW, there is currently a Request for Proposals open to buy the Flying Yankee from the New Hampshire DOT. According to the New Hampshire Union Leader, it will sell for $1. The RFP is open until the 3rd of January at 3 PM. Make your bid Darkness. I will move back to the US to help you with the restoration!

It's an old Case law where the minimum requirement for a proper sale of a valuable object of any significance is $1. We're talking cases from the Time of Washington's Presidency that has been reference numerous times. You can't "give" or "receive" something or somethings that are more than $10,000 that's owned by a government body it has to be "sold" so the reach around is the "$1 sale".

Selling stuff for $1 is common practice where theres titles, paperwork, etc. The government doesn't believe in gifts.

Visited this beautiful machine several years ago, unforgettable experience to see her being worked on. Not only has she been completely rebuilt but brought up to current safety standards which was a lot of extra work. Well worth the trip.

A beautiful and impressive looking locomotive that deserves a run at track speed with her extending stack raised high. I would enjoy seeing this happen, especially if she does a double header with 3751.

I think Santa Fe did a bang up job when it comes to steam preservation.

So as a volunteer at the Railroad Museum of Oklahoma in enid I can tell you the joys of having to run on a class I railroad. We have frisco 1519 and even if we got the 20 million to restore it to operational condition (5 million to get towed to get restored, 3 million to restore, and another 12 million for a engine shed, spare parts, and the machinery to make new parts) to get the engine on a class I is not as easy as you think I know that the insurance cost that BNSF required Frisco 1522 to have to operate excursions got so high that no one wanted to pay the ticket cost so Im going to probably bet they would charge the same price as 1522's so getting tickets sold would be difficult. Plus you need to go thru the same engineering school as the railroad you want to operate on which is normally free for actual employees but are thousands of dollars for a non employee plus you would have to keep up some form of certification. Now that you got the cert and the insurance dealt with now you have to deal with the Fuel and getting the 4500 gallons of bunker C and the 12,000 gallons of water (which has to be filtered of scaling first) and lord knows how much of that you consume a minute. Then you have to schedule water and fuel stops and then you have to "rent" a diesel and crew If you don't have PTC. And even after all that trying to schedule around the railroads schedule is another chore of its own. You have to find times that they arnt operating a whole lot and even then your not gareenteed anything. We used to run on farmrail but the new president of farmrail shut us down because we "distrubted traffic" even though they dont have that much traffic from my understanding. And all of this is just for the engine, we haven't factored maintance on rolling stock, staffing those cars, dealing with ticket sales......Yeah its a fun thing to deal with

I wanna see NYC 3001 in Elkhart Indiana restored into working condition. It would be amazing to see the NYC locomotive running again, but i'd hate for her to end up unable to run due to the same problems 2926 is going through.

Union Pacific's no foreign steam policy stems from mechanical and operational issues involving NKP 759 in 1969, but there have been exceptions such as when 4449 required wheel work and was removed from the AFT and shopped at the UP's Omaha shops, double headed with the 8444 to and from.

I am glad to see Santa Fe locomotive 2926 has been restored and returned to service again & 2926 first moved under it's own power after being repaired in July 2021. Engine 2926 is now officially the largest 4-8-4 type locomotive in operation again and this is the second ATSF 4-8-4 engine to be returned to service after locomotive 3751, the 2926 is a handsome locomotive and a great representative of ATSF steam power. Hopefully in 2024 engine 2926 will finally have a chance to travel long distances across New Mexico and be able to start hauling special excursion trains which many people are eager to see happen.

They did an amazingly good job of restoring the engine.

2926 is equipped with PTC. It's the second steam engine to be equipped with PTC.

Dear Grand Canyon Railway, here's an amazing opportunity!

Any fairly sizeable steam locomotive restoration for operation should have reasonable plans for not only how to pay for the rebuild but also a sustainable arrangement to operate in a manner to generate enough funds to pay for that operation as well as setting aside enough for future maintenance and rehab work. Most importantly this requires a viable plan as to where the locomotive can reasonably be expected to be allowed to operate (willingly and to some degree beneficially to the rail line provider) AND have access to a passenger consist appropriate for the type of operation and large enough to generate positve income-almost as difficult these days as getting the steamer back in operating condition to begin with.😮

I actually have this engine, the railking one in my collection, probably the best looking train in my collection still.

I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s stranded. Yes 2926 is only running on that little Line, but there working on a Deal with NMDOT to run to different parts of the state. One of these lines is from Albuquerque to Raton Pass, my best bet is that 2926 is going to be running on State owned Tracks

I really want to see 2926 go to Denver

I'm a engineer on the HVSY in Nelsonville Oh and we have a 1920 coal fired steam engine that I run along with the GP 7 and GP 10

Alan(ATSF 2926):But I am Restored to Operational Condition Already

Years ago, there was an article in Railroad Magazine titled " Forgotten Locomotives". One line stated " Well intentioned city officials were actually pioneering when they blindly accepted such gifts, unaware of the problems involved in maintaining them.". Look at all the lawyers' ads now. We live in such a litigious society. N-S started considering rail.excursions a nuisance and a potential source of civil lawsuits after Mr. Moorman retired.

Token dollar sales are common where a money pit is sold to a not for profit society. Any asset needs to be sold for a dollar value. It can't be gifted else it lacks a paper trail. It is also sold at that level as a tax write off but to do so, it has to be traded for a dollar value. There is just nothing stopping that dollar value being only $1.

Hopefully one day will get to see 2926 along side, 3751. Heck, I wouldn’t complain about diesel assistance because not only is that necessary but also I happen to be a big fan of diesels, and I am not going to lie when I say that it would be kind of awesome to see a Santa Fe or BNSF diesel in the red war bonnet Paint scheme or the yellow and blue freight bonnet, paint scheme next to this

In the early 1970's someone from the High Iron Company commented that when they approached a railroad about running excursions there were up to eight reasons that they didn't want a steam locomotive running on their property. In those days there were a number of steam qualified employees still working there. In this litigious age, no one wants to put up with headaches and the potential tort law situations.

Now you gotta do one for Santa Fe 3751 and what she is best known for in terms of being Santa Fe's first 4-8-4. ;)

please do a video on the porters steam loco the Japanese class d5, the Chinese QJ 2,10,2 or just exsamples of asian trains how do gear trains work something on saddle bolier and side tanks (like the big water boxes) tank engines double ended diesel trains (and electric) eletric trains American and European switches other then the British class 07-09 what to do if the train stalls one talking about the different types of steam funnles and there uses, a video on steam locomotive combination breaks (steam and vacuum brakes) a short video on how a Armstrong turn table works what did train flagman do what did trains (mostly steam) do when going in tunnels, ive heard of gas masks or just useing a wet cloth, or did they bring in other engines like later on they used electric trains, or were there no bigv tunnels. evaluation of electric trains why are some trains wagion tops (the stream lining thing to boilers) railway terms abd slang one on the meaning of flag and lantern colors like green on rear engine means theres another one coming soon, the different types of cut offs/reversers/Johnson bar some are a big lever, some are a big valve wheel, and ive also seen some that are like rods, one exsample is train sim world 3 and im not sure where to find the other reverser and how much water do steam trains take usually, and how much would the crew drink

2926 could run on New Mexico Rail Runner Express due to the trackage that they run on was sold to them by BNSF in 2006

My Late Father use to work for Temkin in one of the blast mills. Cool to know the company he worked for made parts for these engines

I feel like if 2926 was restored only a good few years earlier, it would’ve had a lot of places to run (Pre PSR isms)

The Santa Fe's 4-8-4 Northerns are my my favorite steam locomotives. No questions

The society is working hard to get 2926 ready for mainline excursions. All of their efforts move at the speed of volunteer hours and financial resources. 2926 will run excursions for everyone to enjoy. Patience is a virtue.

Can you do a video on Cotton Belt 819 at some point? That's my all-time favorite steam locomotive.

As long as the tracks are still privately owned class 1's will never not be difficult

my mosin with a 180-185 grain Hornady cartridges is pushing the 3000fps range and is absolutely crazy when it comes to putting wild game down, few years ago i shot a blacktail buck at 70-85 yards away and it went through both front shoulders the lungs and there wasn't much of a heart left when i cleaned it out, i only found one small bullet fragment but other then that it went through both sides pretty dam clean like, and to answer a question before its asked yes i do all my own butchering

SAVE HER I JUST RAISED $383 FOR HER

Bottom line is liability insurance! It takes coverage of many millions of dollars coverage for excursions. If some one gets hit at a crossing or a derailment happens, who covers it. These incidents can cost into the hundreds of millions. The main line companies are either self insured or under written by someone like , Loyd's that deal with large accounts. They have the frequent revenue for their daily operations that it's not too bad per ton per mile cost. Private coverage is ungodly high. The private operation we had at St Louis closed down and the loco was returned to NMOT for display again. They couldn't generate enough revenue to cover the insurance costs.

I love this video about Santa Fe 2926! Now do my favorite steam locomotive, Santa Fe 3751

I would love to see the 2926 pull a 25 car passenger special or an intermodal! Put the two trailing diesel locomotives on idle and let this magnificent 4-8-4 go all out! It’s too bad that the younger fans miss out on this!

The “One Dollar” thing is a standard requirement to make the donation a legal contract. A court will not enforce a one-sided contract.

So 3751 was purchased for $0.01, and 2926 was sold for $1!? Dang Santa Fe is cheap, so just image the cost for 5000?

Yeah, selling the locomotive for $1 is cheap, but the same thing happened to Santa Fe 3751, so it's not a big deal.

611 had her clearence on Buckingham but it has some diffrences from 2926, Yeah I know that Amtrak and CSX share tracks but Buckingham fully owns the line, Railrunner does own some of thier tracks but BNSF and Amtrak goes through it.....It probabaly has to due to the fact that they needed more money to restore the tool car, restore the turntable at the abandonded Albuqurque railyards, that one policy that amtrak put up in 2018, and needed permission from the state

It would be interesting to see the 2926 run on the Buckingham Branch along with the 611. They could be doubleheaded and compared and contrasted, even though the 2926 was designed to run at much higher speeds.

I’m very fortunate to have a loving family that cares about me. Not everyone has that. Being adopted give children a chance to know that love.

That loco looks cool.Happy your back to trains🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

Are there any Norfolk Southern tracks near 2926 because Norfolk Southern is really good about letting privately owned steam locomotives like the 765 and the 611 and the 4501 and the 630 run on their line.

Honestly, I appreciate that you don't do the intro anymore

People don't understand how dangerous steam powered vehicles are''''....Boiler explosions are nothing to fool with....

You can thank the FEDS for keeping steam at bay on mainlines. Nobody wants to PTC their steam (except UP of course).

It looks like a fantastic restoration. How about it BNSF, let her run at least once on the mainline between New Mexico and Chicago.

0:57 I always wondered what those type of side rods were called

In the UK we ship our steam locomotives that are not mainline certified from one private railway to another on road transporters. An idea might be to do this to the Union Pacific lines as surely they are steam friendly. I travelled behind their Big boy from Ogden a few years ago!

Please do a video on Nashville Chattanooga & St. Louis 576

the Soo line 2719 was similar in the cost of $1 then $2 then $3. I do believe.

I pray for the day her and 3751 meet up

She needs to run on the Gramd Canyon

Hmmm...the former Santa Fe main line through and around Albuquerque is now owned/controlled by New Mexico Rail Runner commuter rail agency (Rio Metro Regional Transit Agency), not BNSF (although BNSF retains all freight rights). Local transit agencies are notoriously politically-sensitive, so if the state legislature wants to see her run, it's perplexing to me why Rio Metro would be an obstacle. In fairness to the UP and their steam policy - they have 100% control the THEIR steam locomotives, 100% control of the maintenance and their own in-house staff of steam locomotive experts (hats-off to Ed Dickens and crew). This way they KNOW with a high degree of certainty the condition and reliability of the engines. They do not have the same depth of control or knowledge about someone else's locomotive. The liabilities of running these things on the main line are enormous.

GET HER ON THE HIGH IRON , LET HER RUN TRACK SPEED !!

An outright donation could involve a "gift tax" based upon the monetary value of the gift. To avoid this, you must charge at least a full dollar for the sale. IRS rules.

The fact the that 3751, aNOTHER northern, is 2 GOD DARN STATES AWAY, WHICH WOULD BE THE LASHUP OF THE CENTURY. HASENT HAPPNED YET, IS SO FRUSTRATING, THAT I AM AT THE POINT OF ABTRACTING (tdac refrence)

Kinda curious on well a locomotive would run if someone would redesign feom the ground up using modern technologies. Could have controls with electronic lock out to allow multi unit configurations with only 1 crew. And a computer would control the inputs on the unmanned locomotives.

This isn't the only time a steam engine has veen sold for a dollar. I don't remember the others but one iirc is a fairly notable excursion engine i just can't remember which

Sneak her to the Niles canyon railway

This is wonderful, wish only the best for 2926. Now, shall I re-iterate.... BR Class 27, 27, 27 for bad, BR Class 44,45,46 for good, and BR Class 35,35,,35 (or should that be Hymek,Hymek,Hymek?) for unfortunately traduced locomotives? (and when are you going to do the mixed - but ultimately good - story of the Class 86's?)

This stuff brings out my inner cynic. How many "restored/running" old steam locomotives does this country need? Especially since there always seems to be "public" money thrown in somewhere. Or some kind of "socialize the losses/privatize the profits" thing. Take a gander at the "3463" mess in Topeka. What a Charlie -Foxtrot. Rumor around Topeka has it that the engine had just come out of overhaul when it was donated to Topeka, including fresh overhauls on a lot of the (now rare) components. Seems that a bunch of those parts and pieces have now disappeared. Seems pointless to restore them to operating condition if they have no place to run. Assuming you even need a railroad museum....would it not be better to have a larger display of (properly restored, but non operational) railroad equipment, than putting your entire budget into a running resto that can't "run" anywhere? All I can say is that the headlines proclaimed "2926 takes the Mainline!!!" Sure it did. For a mile or two of 10 mph running. I'd laugh, if it weren't so pathetic. The Class Ones can barely operate their own trains. And you sure aren't going to operate a 2900 on what passes for track on your typical shortline. Unless of course someone steps in (again) with "public" money.

Send her to the Heber valley rr. It's a private line owned and not connected to the main line

Should do a video on the reading and northern2102

Can you do a video on Union Pacific 3985?

bet it would be easier if she had PTC installed

Come on Union Pacific, let’s not be difficult about this, okay?🙄

This is just me, how about for the 200th anniversary of the Transcontinental railroad have every stem locomotive from the smallest to the biggest and then have diesels after that run on the line

Why are you making a big deal about the One Dollar. My grandfather sold an acre and a half to my mother and father for $5 that adjoined his land. He also sold a similar lot to my aunt and uncle for $5. This stuff happens all the time, what's the big deal? It was nice. We had an Aunt, Uncle and 5 Cousins right next door and our grandparents were a five minute walk away through our beautiful shared woods. Unfortunately, none of that land is any longer in our family.

never heard of an symblolic dollar?

N&W 1218 ❤ AT&SF 2926

what if she went to the grand canyon railroad . . . atsf 3751 went there a few years back and was perfectly fine

It’s also the federal government giving these steam engines grief

Hey Darkness, I would like to see you buy Madame Queen from the City of Amarillo for $1. Maybe, BNSF could start a Steam Program.

Imagine this thing running across the colorado pacific

Honestly, despite how big the community is, that's alot of steel. Might be able to patch USS The Sullivan's with it's steel. Trains got there place, I honestly think that all of 'em should be static displays unles they bring an income to there local economy, less choo choo's longer lasting museum ships...

Shame on Union Pacific (and other class 1's) for not letting 2926 Spread Her Wings And Fly.

*Sigh* you what I'm going to drive 2926 I'm sick of the locomotive just sitting doing nothing but rolling back and forward everyday so if I was the engineer of 2926 a huge fan of the Santa Fe railroad I adore to join the New Mexico heritage railroad society. And I got excursion plans for this fat boi here and I'm gonna change the world of trains forever.

The one dollar nominal token price is well enshrined in law. It's a legal thing.

Why does he keep talking about Union Pacific like they have any say in this? BNSF owns all the track near Albuquerque.

I believe it's because of P.T.C.

They restored the locomotive, waste down millions of dollars building it, they put back to steam again and it's still trapped?

Just get Amtrak

i would have given 10 dollars for it

Typical foamer. Doesn’t really know anything about the real costs and liabilities involved. I’m the retired general manager of a small tourist excursion railroad that operates a steam locomotive. Before you can even negotiate with any main line operator you first have to meet all the Federal Railroad Administration rules.