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Why & How
La Junta Move
When the City of La Junta, Colorado decided to create a new visitor’s center, they contracted Bassett Construction and G-Force Specialty Transportation to relocate its former Santa Fe Steam Locomotive #1024 from its location at Potter Park to its new location, the future La Junta Welcome Center, located at the intersections of U.S. Highway 50 and Barnes Ave. The engine was built for the Santa Fe Railroad in 1901 and spent many years in passenger service around the La Junta area. It lived out its final years as a switcher until it was retired in 1956(?)and had been displayed at Potter Park since.
Initially, G-Force suggested pulling the locomotive on its own wheels using a method referred to as “panel tracking.” However, on closer inspection it was determined the running gear was seized up. G-Force Specialty Transportation then had to custom-fabricate a steel pan with a section of panel track for the #1024 to be loaded onto. The steel pan and track weighed approximately 5 tons and was loaded with the locomotive, estimated to weigh 110 tons.
On the first day, in order to drag the locomotive onto the skid pan, each driver was jacked-up, and the rails beneath it were greased, which would allow the locomotive to slide,without the wheels turning. To everybody’s amazement, while being pulled onto the skid pan, the drivers suddenly broke free, and began turning for the first time in over 65 years!.
The Locomotive on the skid pan was then “slid” over steel plates, lightly coated with biodegradable grease, by being winched slowly forward using an Oshkosh 8X8 Prime Mover, equipped with twin 55,000 lbs. hydraulic winches. The 0.6 mile journey to the locomotive’s new, more visible location, took 3 days, with one day being devoted to winching the locomotive up to the hilltop. The journey to its new location comprised of moving the locomotive through mostly residential areas which included five 90-degree turns and a tight S-curve near the original location. As the locomotive was moved past nearby residences, the local electric company was able to simply raise any lines that may have interfered by the use of an aerial bucket.This would have been a more costly endeavor if the locomotive would have been loaded on a trailer, as the lines would have to have been removed and replaced, since the locomotive on a trailer would have been at least 2 feet taller . The locomotive’s tender was moved separately, on the sixth day, on a 60 Ton low-boy trailer. Because there was no way to load the tender from the rear, due to power lines being located a few feet from it, the tender was loaded front-end first onto the low-boy. Once at its final location, the tender was winched onto the skid pan, rotated 180-degrees, and then winched onto its new track and finally rejoined with the locomotive.
