FRESNO, Calif. — A Southern Pacific steam locomotive on display in a Fresno park for almost 70 years is about to receive a new home.
SP No. 1238, a class S-10 Baldwin 0-6-0 built in 1918, is slated to be moved from Fresno’s Roeding Park to the city of Kingsburg, about 24 miles to the southeast, KSEE-TV reports.
There, it will be displayed at the Historic Kingsburg Depot, an SP station built in 1875 and restored to its original appearance in 2016. The station now serves as home of the Leon S. Peters Learning Center and as an event venue.
The locomotive has been in Roeding Park since its donation to Fresno by the SP in 1956, but was acquired by support organization Friends of the Kingsburg Depot in 2022. The depot website says the locomotive will be preserved “in a historically accurate context” for educational programs, and will be accessible to the public. It is protected by a fence in its current location. More information on the locomotive is available here.
The move is scheduled for May, although an exact date has not set. The Friends hand-laid 300 feet of track earlier this year in preparation for the locomotive’s arrival, according to the Depot’s Facebook page.
The Friends group is soliciting tax deductible donations for the project to relocate the locomotive. Donations can be made here.
Now why does that engine remind me of the MDC 0-6-0?
It’s so sad to see that this adorable yard switcher hasn’t returned to rolling on rails for almost 70 years… If possible, it should be used for running small tours.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
In the end, it’s California’s win again in the name of railfanning.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
A well-deserved retirement after 38 years of intensive service.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
How will it be moved? Have to wonder how to mitigate the problem of the wheel and driver bearings probably being frozen without any movement all these years?
Here is 0-6-0 1238’s sister 0-6-0 1221 on display, long before I came here in 1984, in Deming, NM.
https://eddiesrailroad.blogspot.com/2015/04/preserved-southern-pacific-railroad-0-6.html
Lucky New Mexico, just like lucky California!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
I guess another oil fired sister yard switcher – Southern Pacific No. 1237 – is stationed east of Amtrak Depot in Salinas, California. The Monterey and Salinas Valley Railroad Club cares for the locomotive and has done a static restoration of it.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün