1879 steam locomotive will take last trip across Oklahoma City

A historic 19th-century steam locomotive is set to make a slow trip across Oklahoma City this weekend to make room for improvements at State Fair Park.

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. locomotive No. 643 is a steam engine built in 1879 that first came to Oklahoma City in 1900. It is joined by a coal car and a caboose. The locomotive and the other cars currently sit at State Fair Park, on the site of the future MAPS 3 Expo Center.

Tuesday, workers used cranes to lift the locomotive onto a special trailer. The steam engine will remain at State Fair Park until Sunday morning.

At 7 a.m. Sunday, the locomotive is scheduled to be trucked to the Oklahoma Railway Museum, 3400 NE Grand Blvd., where it will be displayed.

The engine will be moved from Fair Park north on May Avenue; east on NW 10; north on Classen Boulevard; east on NE 13; north on Lincoln Boulevard; east on NE 23; north on Kelley Avenue; east on NE 36; and south on NE Grand to the museum. The route is posted on the Oklahoma Railway Museum website.

City officials have said the trip is expected to take up to two hours.

The locomotive formerly was housed in State Fair Park’s Travel and Transportation Building, which was demolished as part of MAPS 3 improvements at the park.

The Oklahoma State Fair is donating the locomotive to the railway museum and paying for its transport.

The locomotive, which covered more than 1 million miles in its working life, is estimated to weigh 80 to 100 tons. The coal car and caboose weigh an estimated 40 tons each.

The locomotive was moved to State Fair Park in 1953 after Santa Fe retired it from service and donated it as part of what was eventually a transportation exhibit. The other train cars were donated by different railroads. They were towed to the fairgrounds on railroad lines that have since been deconstructed.