The Final Hurrah: Grand Canyon Railway 29

Grand Canyon Railway 29 is a 2-8-0 Consolidation type built by ALCO in 1906. It pulled iron ore trains for the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad until 1960 when it was retired. In 1989 it was bought by the Grand Canyon Railway and was restored to operating condition in 1990. In 1995 the engines was taken out of service for a rebuild and came back in 2004. When Xanterra Resorts took ownership of the railroad, one of their goals was to better protect the environment with less emissions, and ended daily steam operations to the canyon. This resulted in 29 once again going out of service and would be put on display at either the canyon or Williams, AZ. In August 2016, the National Park Service was about to celebrate its centennial, and for the occasion, steam would operate for 4 consecutive days, and 29 was brought back to a service to help celebrate. The last day of steam featured a doubleheader with 2-8-2 4960.

Since 2016, 29 has been used to pull regular excursions to the Grand Canyon National Park, and was used in a photo charter in 2017. However, it’s boiler was close to expiring, meaning it would need to go back out of service to be taken apart, inspected, and reassembled. This is known as 15-year rebuilt, meaning this process happens every 15 years, or after 1472 days of operation.

Trains Magazine hosted a special photo train with 29, only days before the engines would go down for its inspections. The 2-Day event featured 29 pulling classic Harriman coaches on day 1, while day 2 featured yard shoots with a freight train, side-by-side runbys, doubleheader, and 29 pulling Harriman coaches. It’s unknown how long 29 will be out, or whether it’ll be brought back altogether, but we can just hope it’s not for long.

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