When Lori Lindsey bought The Mineshaft Tavern in Madrid, N.M., in 2007, she acquired the restaurant, museum, and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe No. 769. After consulting with restoration experts, Lindsey is seeking funding to restore the 2-8-0.
With encouragement from Santa Fe, N.M., resident Andrew Delgado, Lindsey consulted with steam restoration experts. She has now set her sights on restoring the locomotive and even rebuilding a track on the old right-of-way to Waldo.
“Expected complete operational restoration will cost $1.5 million to $2 million,” Lindsey says. “The hope is that New Mexico will build out or fund more heritage railways for tourism. It’s too valuable to let it degrade further, and it would be very exciting to see a steam engine going through the center of the town.”
The locomotive was originally built by Richmond Locomotive Works of Richmond, Va. Built in 1900 for the Santa Fe Pacific Railroad, the locomotive was originally numbered 266 until SFPR merged with AT&SF, and it was renumbered 3045, and later renumbered 769.
Madrid was a coal-mining town, and SFPR built a 6.7-mile spur from there to Waldo, N.M., where it joined the main line. In 1950, No. 769 was sold to the Albuquerque and Los Cerrillos Coal Co. where it continued to transport coal until 1959 when the company went bankrupt, and the locomotive was parked in front of the enginehouse and hasn’t moved since.
First steps would include moving the locomotive to a better spot on the Mine Shaft property where the restoration work won’t interfere with the operation of the restaurant and museum. For more information and to help with the restoration, visit this GoFundMe page.
A map recon on Google maps shows that the ROW is still nearly intact. There may be 4-5 buildings in the way and a trestle to be replaced for it to get all the way to Waldo, but there have been out-in-the sticks revivals that have worked. Who knows?
Good luck to her.
Her gofundme page mentions that they just need to “dig up the tracks”. Well, it will take more than that I am afraid, because there is no track left all the way to Waldo. What you see is what you have. So unless you can find a donor in the world of Buffett it may be a hard row to hoe.
She would be better off just selling the engine outright to a museum with a restoration staff and having them take it away by truck. I get the appeal and the desire to save it, but it’s value outside of central New Mexico, and off the beaten path I might add, make this a difficult proposition.
I wish them luck.
Can’t speak for the condition of the locomotive. On our last visit, The food was great!