When the Skyview High School marching band and dance team went to the Fiesta Bowl Band Championships last month, one aspect of their travel adventures might have rung a bell with a few local train buffs.
It was a locomotive bell.
The Skyview itinerary included a side trip on an excursion train from Williams, Ariz., to the Grand Canyon. (Although things didn’t go quite as expected, with Skyview’s traveling party getting snowed in after the train returned to Williams.)
The company that operates the tour, the Grand Canyon Railway, holds a small piece of Northwest history … if the word “small” can be applied to a railroad locomotive. The excursion railway acquired a local landmark, the SP&S 539 steam locomotive, almost four years ago.
The railroad relic was built in 1917 for the Northern Pacific Railroad and acquired by the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway in 1944.
After 40 years and 174,378 miles of service, it was retired to monument status for 40 more years in downtown Vancouver, where it was on display in Esther Short Park.
The locomotive then spent 10 years parked in Battle Ground while train enthusiasts tried to figure out how to make it part of a regional tourist railroad system.
The locomotive and its coal tender finally found a new home in Arizona in March 2007.
Still sidetracked
It isn’t ready to go to work yet, said the railway’s chief mechanical officer. Sam Lanter, who was in Battle Ground to help load up the SP&S for its 2007 journey, said the locomotive is still in storage.
“After we acquired the locomotive, the economy took a little downturn,” Lanter said by phone from Williams. “Our business fell off a little bit; well, more than a little bit.
“We really have not had the need to put money into that locomotive yet,” Lanter said. “However, we still have it here with the eventual intention of restoring it to service as the economy picks up.”
Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from our newspaper beats to write the story behind the story, fill in the story or just tell a story.
