There is a long history between breweries and the railroad in New Mexico, dating all the way back to the 19th century when the Southwest Brewery and Ice Company sat right alongside the main rail line just south of present-day Lomas Blvd.

This Saturday, a big piece of restored railroad history will roll right up to a modern brewery for a special fundraising event.

Steam Locomotive 2926, which once sat in front of Coronado Park, has been undergoing a lengthy restoration process over the past two decades-plus. For a second time, it will make the one-mile round trip from its restoration site to Tractor Wells Park for a special fundraising event, which will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

I caught up with John Roberts, the president of the New Mexico Steam Locomotive & Railroad Historical Society, to learn a little more.

“Specifically Saturday, the locomotive 2926 will be moving from our restoration site at 1833 Eight Street to Tractor Brewing Wells Park at 1800 Fourth Street,” Roberts said. “The event at Tractor, we expect to be there staged at 10 a.m., and it will go until 4 p.m. We’ll keep to the schedule as best we can.”

Once the locomotive is in place, the event will begin.

“We’ll have a merchandising booth, a membership signup, and groups to do tours,” Roberts said. “Since this is a fundraising event for us, so we’ll be charging for ground walking tours and charging for cab tours. Cab tours are pretty special when it’s all live and steamed up.”

Walking tours will be $10, cab tours will be $20, and there will also be a donation box.

“We tell people running a steam locomotive is not cheap, so we need all the funds we can get,” Roberts said.

2926 was purchased back in the late 1990s, Roberts said, out of necessity.

“I wasn’t part of the group at the time, but back in the late 90s, the Big I interchange was being redone,” he said. “And, for some reason, the locomotive sitting in front of Coronado Park was in the way of that effort. People heard about this, and that the city had to do something with the locomotive, so a group got together and said, hey, we need to save that locomotive. They approached the city and said we’ll take this from you and preserve it. Back in 1999, we paid a symbolic dollar to the City of Albuquerque, and they sold us the locomotive.”

It has been a long process to get 2926 running again. Roberts said it has taken about 250,000 volunteer hours, and while he did not have the exact amount of money spent, the value of the restoration to date is estimated at $3.5 million.

“It was really just preservation, just really unique Albuquerque and New Mexico history, so let’s not let it go to waste,” Roberts said.

For anyone who has been up to the historic railroads in Chama or Durango, this locomotive is quite a bit bigger than either of their engines.

“They are narrow gauge, we are standard gauge,” Roberts said. “They are much smaller than we are. They are about a third or half the size. The first thing you’ll notice is how big this locomotive is. It is massive, it’s 16 feet tall, 10 and a half feet wide, and with its tender, it’s 100 feet long.”

The wheels alone are 80 inches in diameter, he added. Also, if anyone wishing to come visit has sensitive hearing, you might want to pack your earplugs like you would if attending a doom metal show at Launchpad or Sister.

“Also, when it’s alive and steaming, it gets noisy,” Roberts said. “Whether it’s the oil feeding the burner, or the steam escaping here and there, or the whistle, it pretty much makes noise constantly.”

This will be the second visit to Tractor for 2926, though it will be the first where the event is focused on the locomotive itself.

“The very first time we put it all together, we couldn’t get all the pieces together quickly enough,” Roberts said. :They already had an event (scheduled) there. They put us in there, but it wasn’t our event.

“There were a lot more people than Tractor expected. Their beertender got swamped, Taste of Love kitchen got swamped. We’re hoping for the same kind of turnout this time, because they have stepped up, all hands on deck now. They will be fully staffed.”

There is another good reason to partner with the brewery, Roberts said.

“One of the reasons we’re partnering up with Tractor, we’re trying to attract a younger crowd to this sort of thing,” he said.

Do take note that Tractor will not begin serving beers until noon, and musician Irie Kristoff will also perform at that time, Of course, you can always stop before noon to see 2926 en route to Marblefest, where Traktoberfest will be one of the beers being poured.

A big thanks to John for meeting up for an interview. We do love it when living history combines with our craft brewing scene.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister