2002: Engine No. 1 rolls again

May 29, 2002

By Dan J. Williams

El Paso Times

Suspended by crane cables as thick as your arm, UTEP's 55,000-pound "grand old lady" made a slight bow, settled to the street and began what is expected to be the 145-year-old steam locomotive's final journey.

Engine No. 1, a campus display since 1960, was removed from her glass house Tuesday and taken to an East Side warehouse, where she will be refurbished for display at the Union Plaza Transit Terminal in Downtown El Paso.

"I think this is a real milestone," University of Texas at El Paso President Diana Natalicio said. She was among about 200 faculty, students and campus employees who gathered to watch the move.

"It's going to be in such a better place ... where it's a lot more visible," Natalicio said.

In about seven months, the locomotive that once carried ore for mines and smelters from El Paso to Arizona will be the centerpiece of the Union Plaza's $11.1 million terminal and parking facility.

The plaza at San Antonio and Durango streets also will house Sun Metro's trolley fleet and will include 400 parking spaces and 12,000 square feet of shopping space.

"It's kind of sad," said Karla Hernandez, who graduated from UTEP last spring and now works across the street from the locomotive display.

"It was nice to have it on campus, but it'll be better Downtown where they'll take care of it better and more people will see it."

Hernandez and her friend, Bernadette Segura, said while students and faculty may not have fully appreciated the locomotive's historic value, Engine No. 1 was never unnoticed.

"It was our reference point, one place on campus that everybody knew well," Segura said.

"When we'd give directions, we'd say, 'You know where the old train is?'

"Now, I guess we'll say, 'You know where the old train used to be?' "

To historians, the old engine was much more than a UTEP landmark.

"This is one of the three oldest, almost original, engines in the country," said Harry Bean, president of the Railroad and Locomotive Historical Society, Southwest Chapter.

"I've been wanting to see it restored for years."

Moving and restoring the train will be funded by a $1.1 million grant from the Texas Department of Transportation under the agency's historical preservation program. The engine removal was completed Tuesday.

Today, the 15-man crew with Southwestern Industrial Contractors planned to move the tender, the car that carried the engine's fuel and water.

Bean said Engine No. 1 used wood for fuel during much of its 32 years of service in Wisconsin. It later was converted to coal, and by 1889 was running the tracks between El Paso and Arizona as part of the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad, a subsidiary of Phelps Dodge Mining Co.

In 1903, Engine No. 1 was retired from active service, and in 1909 it was put on display at the corner of Stanton and Franklin streets, where it remained until it was deeded to UTEP and moved to the campus in 1960.

Natalicio and Centennial Museum Director Florence Schwein said a museum in San Diego had offered $80,000 to $100,000 for the engine.

"Not enough for a grand old lady," Schwein said as she watched the engine being hooked to a tractor-trailer rig for its short trip down Interstate 10. "It's 90 percent original parts. ... It's priceless.

"Something like this that relates to the heritage of the city belongs here," she said.

Comments

[Wilmer Geraci]

That's a piece of history right there. Isn't it a wonder that metals joined together could form such a remarkable machine? Today, trains are one of the most visible means of transportation in any major city.