Group Works To Move, Restore A Train At The Tulsa Fairgrounds

A train landmark at the Tulsa Fairgrounds could be getting a new location and it might be hauling people again.

Mose Weinstein and Mike Massey are up against a deadline to move a 50-ton steam engine.

The fairgrounds wants it moved and it hasn't moved under its own power in more than 50 years.

"I just hope we can get the extension done on time," said Weinstein with the Oklahoma Heritage Railway Association. "I've been in love with railroading since I was a little boy."

That's part of why Massey and Weinstein, who are post apart of the Oklahoma Heritage Railway Association, have big plans for #207.

"My dad, granddad and great-granddad were all railroad men," Massey said. "We plan to raise funds and have it rebuilt, and put it back in service, pull passenger excursions with it."

They've cleaned it up and repainted it, believing that there's potential for it to run again. It ran on fuel oil, pulling a logging train in Southeast Oklahoma before a fire disabled it and the railroad gave it Tulsa County.

Despite the history and the time that's passed, the group has some confidence this 1917 engine could still have a future not as a landmark, but as a functioning steam engine.

"We want to see if we can breathe some life back into this old engine, and I think Tulsa is ready to see it run again, if at all possible," Massey said.

With the cosmetic work mostly done, the next step is mechanical and that's more expensive.

The group is raising money, first for the move to a safe space and then the next phase of restoration.