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PITTSBURG —
A crowd of well-wishers gathered early Sunday morning to watch as Engine 1023, the last existing Kansas City Southern Railroad steam engine, started its journey from Schlanger Park to a new home at Carona.
Transported by a 20-foot-wide trailer and engine manned by crews from Tilton and Sons House Moving, the train left the park at 9 a.m. and arrived safely at Carona around 3:30 or 4 p.m.
Among those seeing the engine off were the three McVickers sisters, Marsha McVickers Largent, Bella Vista, Ark., Roberta McVickers, Flagstaff, Ariz., and Shari McVickers Prins, Tulsa, Okla., along with their mother, Judy McVickers.
“We’re here to honor our father, who died Sept. 2,” Largent said. “He worked for the Kansas City Southern, and his father, Frank McVickers also worked on the railroad. He would have been here today if he could have been. He loved bringing my kids here to the train.”
Bob Wilson’s father, Joe Wilson, worked on Engine 1023.
“That would have been in the 1950s, probably not too long before they retired it,” he said. “I played on it as a kid. Probably everybody in this end of town played on it.”
Sheila Johnson, Pittsburg, said that she was there because her husband, Bud Johnson, wanted to be there.
“He wants to see how it’s going to move around the corner,” she said.
But there was more to it than that.
“We’re watching history,” Bud Johnson said.
Many wished the train could have stayed in Pittsburg.
“I hate to see it go,” said Lucile Hubbard. “To me, this is a souvenir, and I wish they’d left it here.”
Largent agreed it was said to see the train taken away, but also good, because now it will preserved at the Heart of the Heartlands Railroad Club facilities at Carona. The train had deteriorated from lack of maintenance and being out in the elements.
Tom Hubbard, Lucile’s husband, said that more could have been done to preserve the engine at the park.
“I was a machinist at McNally’s, and all the City of Pittsburg would have had to do was provide supplies,” Hubbard said. “All us guys at McNally’s would have volunteered our time to do the work.
At least they can all be pleased that Engine 1023 made its journey without any trouble.
“There were no incidents, no problems getting around corners,” said Larry Spahn, president of the Heart of the Heartlands Railroad Club. “I couldn’t see how they could get around the corners, but they did it. Tilton and Sons House Moving is good at what they do.”
A crowd of well-wishers gathered early Sunday morning to watch as Engine 1023, the last existing Kansas City Southern Railroad steam engine, started its journey from Schlanger Park to a new home at Carona.
Transported by a 20-foot-wide trailer and engine manned by crews from Tilton and Sons House Moving, the train left the park at 9 a.m. and arrived safely at Carona around 3:30 or 4 p.m.
Among those seeing the engine off were the three McVickers sisters, Marsha McVickers Largent, Bella Vista, Ark., Roberta McVickers, Flagstaff, Ariz., and Shari McVickers Prins, Tulsa, Okla., along with their mother, Judy McVickers.
“We’re here to honor our father, who died Sept. 2,” Largent said. “He worked for the Kansas City Southern, and his father, Frank McVickers also worked on the railroad. He would have been here today if he could have been. He loved bringing my kids here to the train.”
Bob Wilson’s father, Joe Wilson, worked on Engine 1023.
“That would have been in the 1950s, probably not too long before they retired it,” he said. “I played on it as a kid. Probably everybody in this end of town played on it.”
Sheila Johnson, Pittsburg, said that she was there because her husband, Bud Johnson, wanted to be there.
“He wants to see how it’s going to move around the corner,” she said.
But there was more to it than that.
“We’re watching history,” Bud Johnson said.
Many wished the train could have stayed in Pittsburg.
“I hate to see it go,” said Lucile Hubbard. “To me, this is a souvenir, and I wish they’d left it here.”
Largent agreed it was said to see the train taken away, but also good, because now it will preserved at the Heart of the Heartlands Railroad Club facilities at Carona. The train had deteriorated from lack of maintenance and being out in the elements.
Tom Hubbard, Lucile’s husband, said that more could have been done to preserve the engine at the park.
“I was a machinist at McNally’s, and all the City of Pittsburg would have had to do was provide supplies,” Hubbard said. “All us guys at McNally’s would have volunteered our time to do the work.
At least they can all be pleased that Engine 1023 made its journey without any trouble.
“There were no incidents, no problems getting around corners,” said Larry Spahn, president of the Heart of the Heartlands Railroad Club. “I couldn’t see how they could get around the corners, but they did it. Tilton and Sons House Moving is good at what they do.”
He said that the engine is still encased in the protective framework the Tiltons placed around it.
“She’s still strapped in her steel girdle,” Spahn said. “They’re going to start dismantling it one piece at a time.”
As soon as feasible, work will start on restoring and preserving Engine 1023.
“She’s ailing,” Spahn said. “She’s stood her ground, but there’s been a lot of rust damage, and there’s no telling what’s inside the smoke box. They burned real high sulfur coal back then.”
As bad as the engine’s condition is now, it’s nearly miraculous that it still exists. Spahn credits the late Buzz Johnson, father of Kaye Lynne Webb, for saving 1023 from destruction.
“They scrapped all the other KCS engines and if it weren’t for Buzz Johnson, they’d have cut this engine up and turned it into Edsels,” Spahn said.
The plan is to sandblast the rust, prime the metal and get some Imron polyurethane enamel paint on the engine. A protective shelter will be built over it.
“We’ll get her looking pretty again,” Spahn promised. “She’ll be like an old lady with a lot of make-up, but she’ll be the belle of the ball one more time.”
