Southern Pacific Railroad Locomotive No. 1673

About this property

Southern Pacific 1673 is an M-4 class 2-6-0 "Mogul" type steam locomotive, built in 1900 by the Schenectady Locomotive Works; the engine was delivered in November of that year, and by early 1901 it was based in Tucson, Arizona and operated primarily in southern Arizona hauling freight trains. From 1901 to the 1940s, No. 1673 logged over a million miles in service, primarily operating out of Tucson where it hauled freight trains on several short line routes in southern Arizona, occasionally traveling as far south as Nogales, Arizona, and as far west as Yuma. Other destinations included Benson, Patagonia, Elgin, Fort Huachuca, and Tombstone. No. 1673 also underwent several major overhauls and alterations during this time. In 1905, the engine was converted from using coal to oil. By 1922, the locomotive was taken out of service once again for a major rebuilding in the Sacramento, California, shops that saw the installation of a superheater in its smokebox, which in turn necessitated the conversion of the engine from using slide valves to piston valves. By the early 1950s, No. 1673 was relegated to yard work as a switcher, its Vanderbilt tender replaced by a smaller squarebox tender, and even then it was seldom made use of as time went by and diesel locomotives began to supersede steam powered ones. It had a brief starring role in the 1955 film Oklahoma, for which it was fitted with a diamond stack and other turn of the century equipment and colors. By 1955, it was seeing little use, mostly sitting in serviceable storage until March 18 when the engine was used for a few days for a publicity photo shoot in Sahuarita, Arizona. Two days later, it was also the star of Southern Pacific's 75th anniversary in Tucson, Arizona, during which the locomotive pulled an excursion train from the Southern Pacific Depot to the Pacific Fruit Express yard all day long, after which the railroad presented the locomotive to the city. == Display at historical society and Himmel Park == Shortly afterwards, the engine was placed on display in front of the then Pioneers Historical Society in June 1955 (later the Arizona Historical Society). The locomotive was in excellent condition and still operable when donated to the city. In 1962, the locomotive had to be moved to a display location at Himmel Park in Tucson due to construction at the Historical Society to expand the size of its buildings, which left no room for the engine. The engine sat for many years there at the park, exposed to the elements and gradually deteriorating, as well as suffering periodic vandalism and theft of equipment, including its builder's plates and gauges. Various proposals to move the locomotive to other locations, or to refurbish it, were put forth, but little progress was made. During one abortive attempt in 1965, the locomotive was steamed up to clear out the whistle, and run a short distance on the display track at Himmel Park. No. 1673 was slightly damaged when it ran off its track, but a volunteer derailing crew had the engine back up and repaired in a year.

Location

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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