USA: Steam is back at Grand Canyon Railway

[John Ashworth]

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It's Time To Get Fired Up! Steam is back at Grand Canyon Railway.

Dates for 2010 steam runs are posted.... Plan a trip to Grand Canyon Railway and be pulled by a steam locomotive running on waste vegetable oil.

Steam in the 21st Century

The Grand Canyon Railway commemorated the 20th anniversary of its rebirth Sept. 19, 2009 with a special roundtrip run to the Grand Canyon of its Steam Locomotive 4960 fueled by recycled vegetable oil.

The Sept. 19 event featured live music, photo opportunities with the steam engine, a ribbon cutting and remarks by local dignitaries.

The steam locomotive also made several eight-mile trips throughout the days of Sept. 5 and 6, 2009 with a single class of service in the train’s historic 1923 Harriman cars.

“In addition to commemorating the history of the Grand Canyon Railway – both its original run of almost 70 years beginning in 1901 and its modern run of the last 20 – we are looking to our future as an eco-friendly railway,” said Gordon Taylor, general manager of the Grand Canyon Railway. “When we moved to an all-diesel fleet last year we decided to keep the steam locomotives maintained so that we could use them for special occasions like this, our 20th anniversary of the return of the Railway.”

For several years the Railway operated the steam engines from Memorial Day to Labor Day, but last year it discontinued their regular runs because of environmental considerations. Operating an all-diesel fleet of locomotives year-round saves a considerable amount of fuel and reduces greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants associated with steam locomotives.

The Grand Canyon Railway recently became the first tourist railway in the United States to receive ISO 14001 third-party certification of its environmental management system (EMS) after a two-year process involving complete review, development and implementation of environmental initiatives in all of its operations.

The Grand Canyon Railway has two operable steam locomotives that have been restored to like-new working condition. Locomotive No. 4960 was built in 1923 by Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia. It operated a freight- and coal-hauling service for the Midwestern Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (CB&Q) railroad until the late 1950s and made its first official run on the Grand Canyon line in 1996. Locomotive No. 29 was restored in 2004 at a cost of more than $1 million and 26,000 man-hours of labor. An SC-3 class locomotive, Locomotive No. 29 was built in 1906 by ALCO in Pittsburgh and weighs 185 tons.

Trains began traveling to the Grand Canyon Sept. 17, 1901 on a spur built and operated by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company. The Grand Canyon Railway continued to operate until 1968 when the spur was closed. In the mid-1980s businessman Max Biegert purchased the tracks and brought the Grand Canyon Railway back to life with the first train running Sept. 17, 1989, 88 years to the day after its maiden run.