The Grand Canyon Railway has completed its restoration of 2-8-0 29, which had been out of service since 2019. The railroad announced on social media that the locomotive had made a successful test run on August 26.

Locomotive 29 was built by Alco in Pittsburg, Pa., in 1906, for Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad, an ore-hauling railroad in Michigan. After the locomotive was retired in the early 1960s, it was purchased along with several other LS&I steam engines by a new tourist railroad, the Marquette & Huron Mountain. Eventually, the engine was sold to the Mid-Continent Railway Museum. In 1989, it was sold to the Grand Canyon, along with three other ex-LS&I 2-8-0s, Nos. 18, 19, and 20. Locomotive 29 was returned to service in 1990 and became a mainstay of the railroad into the 21st century. It was later joined by former Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 2-8-2 4960. 

The Grand Canyon, which operates on a former Santa Fe branch line to the famed national park, operates steam on special occasions. 

—Justin Franz