Thanks to Olin Anderson, who alerted me to this post from the Facebook page of the San Antonio Railroad Heritage Museum in Elmendorf, Texas, from back in September. Elmendorf is where Texas Transportation 1, the ex-Pearl Brewery Baldwin-Westinghouse locomotive, has been stored for a number of years. Recently, SARHM repainted the locomotive in its cheery TT yellow livery. Per this post, in September it was moved back to home territory in the Pearl Brewery area of San Antonio. It appears that the locomotive may have been deposited in (I'm hoping "in" and not "behind" because it looks like it doesn't have its doors or windows installed) the ex-Samuels Glass Company building at Newell and Karnes Streets. Recent Street View images suggest this building is undergoing a major renovation, so I can only presume that locomotive 1 is part of the plan, joining fellow TT locomotive 2, which is attractively displayed under a roof about 750' to the northeast. Locomotive 1's location has been updated to return it from Elmendorf to San Antonio, but for the moment it's still "stored" and not "displayed."
Which brings up a question: anyone know who owns the two TT locomotives? My best guess is that it's whatever company owns the land that Pearl Brewery once sat on, but I'm not sure what to call the company. For the moment, both are listed as still being under Texas Transportation ownership, though that seems a bit disingenuous given that rail operations ended over 20 years ago.
I visited the former Pearl Brewery (now a housing/retail/restaurant development) this year in mid-October. Texas Transportation 1 was parked outdoors behind a construction barricade, completely covered with a tarp. The adjacent building appeared to be under renovation. As you mentioned in the post, Texas Transportation 2 was at the opposite side of the complex and looked very nicely preserved, for all appearances ready to go back into service if it only had a railway to operate on!
ReplyDeleteI visited Pearl in the late 1970s and had the pleasure and privilege of taking a cab ride in #1, including the street-running section.