‘OLD 1258’ MAKES LAST RUN
TO MARTINEZ CITY PARK
May 1, 1959 ~ Contra Costa Gazette
Engine 1258 had the “right over all traffic” as it traveled up Ferry, Escobar, and Talbart Streets to the Martinez city park where it will be “enshrined as a monument to personify steam engines per se as to the glorious romantic era of steam.”
“Official” orders for its clearance were given today by Norman Boyer, S.P. telegrapher, to add a bit of ceremony to the gigantic moving task which started yesterday when Bigge Drayage Co. low bed trucks began loading the huge engine.
Many stores and offices were deserted in downtown Martinez as hundreds of persons gathered at the S.P. depot to watch unusual loading operations.
Only the tender was moved to the city park by late last night. The engine was moved this morning into the fenced-in area, prepared by city crews.
Most prominent among the crowd gathered at the depot were Park Superintendent E.P. Vanni whose dream of a locomotive for the park was finally fulfilled, and Mrs. Maxine Johnson, whose initial donation started off the fund raising drive, conducted by the Gazette, to pay for the transportation.
One of the last steam locomotives to be retired from active service, No. 1258 was donated to the city by Southern Pacific Co. for display purposes only. The S.P. Co. will provide an appropriate plaque to describe the locomotive for future generations, who may never see one in operation.