The Pacific-type locomotive was donated to the city by the Soo Line and was on display in Carson Park in Eau Claire from 1960 until 1996, when it was removed and the nonprofit Locomotive & Tower Preservation Fund began restoration work. It was returned to service in 1998. With no railroads available to operate the engine in the Eau Claire area, in 2006 the locomotive was leased to the museum and moved to Duluth. It operated on the Museum’s North Shore Scenic Railroad from 2007 to 2013 when it came due for its mandatory federal inspection and overhaul.
Under terms of a contract with the city reached in 2015, the locomotive was sold to the museum for $2, but with the stipulation that the city could repurchase the engine within three years. That three-year term came up in August 2018 and the city exercised its option to purchase the engine for $4. At that point the museum began charging the city $100 a day for storing No. 2719, and also asked the city to insure the locomotive since it was no longer owned by the museum.
City officials and interested individuals attempted to raise funds for a new display home for the engine in Eau Claire, but those efforts never bore fruit. In April 2019, the city council passed a resolution that would allow the engine to stay in Duluth, but only under certain conditions. The resolution directed city staff to retain ownership of the engine but to seek a long-term lease. The lease would require the engine to be brought to operating status in three to five years, and that the lease not be longer then 20 years. At the end of its operating life, the resolution said, the engine would be returned to Eau Claire.
The lease was major sticking point for the museum, which did not want to invest scarce resources into a steam locomotive it does not own. Through the summer as negotiations went back and forth, the storage charges continued to mount. This fall the chair of the museum’s board of directors and the head of the city council met and hammered out the agreement that forgave the storage charges if the city would sell the engine back to the Museum. That agreement was approved unanimously last night by the city council.
At the council meeting City Attorney Stephen Nick said, “The sale is final, we certainly hope that the relationship is ongoing between the City of Eau Claire, the Eau Claire area and Duluth. It’s a very fine Museum.” Lake Superior Railroad Museum Executive Director Ken Buehler said, “We are very honored that Eau Claire has seen to it that this important piece of railroad history is preserved in an accredited Museum.”
The Soo purchased No. 2719 from American Locomotive Co. in May 1923, at a cost of $47,091.64. It is one of seven preserved Soo Line Pacific’s. No. 2719 and sister No. 2718 (now on display at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wis.) gained a measure of fame pulling excursion trips in the late 1950s. The Minnesota Railfans’ Association chartered the two engines for several trips from Minneapolis into western Wisconsin. On June 21, 1959, No. 2719 pulled the last steam-powered train on the Soo Line, a round trip excursion from Minneapolis to Ladysmith, Wis.
Since 2017 the Lake Superior Railroad Museum has been operating Duluth & Northeastern 2-8-0 No. 28 (ex-Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range No. 332) on the North Shore Scenic. The museum’s long-term plan is to restore No. 2719 when No. 28 come due for its mandatory federal inspection and overhaul in about 13 years.
Other preserved Soo Line 4-6-2s are No. 730 in Gladstone, Mich.; 735 in Minot, N.D.; 736 in Appleton, Wis.; 2713 in Stevens Point, Wis.; 2714 in Fond du Lac, Wis.; and 2718 in Green Bay.
