By Railfan & Railroad Staff

HOUSTON — The Texas Railway Preservation Association announced over the weekend that they hoped to restore a Southern Pacific 2-10-2 to operation. The locomotive, 982, was built by Baldwin in 1919 and has been on display in Houston for decades. 

As part of the restoration, the group has also acquired a former Great Northern Railway steam locomotive tender to replace the SP locomotive’s tender that was sold to the Heber Valley for parts. The replacement tender is coming from the Museum of Transport in St. Louis. 

Locomotive 982 was built as 3651 and worked for SP until the 1950s. It was donated to the Houston Junior Chamber of Commerce (or Jaycees) and put on display in the city. It stayed there for more than forty years before being selected in the 2000s for inclusion in a new museum. The locomotive was moved to the museum site and plans called for a building to be built around it. But the plans for the museum fell through and the locomotive — now without a tender because it wasn’t going to fit into the new building — found itself without a home. The locomotive was donated to the Texas Railway Preservation Association in 2020 and moved to a secure site soon after. 

It’s unclear where the operational restoration will take place or how long it will take. However, the group said it has talked to groups interested in using the locomotive. For more information visit www.trpahouston.org. 

Editor’s Note: This story was updated to reflect that the locomotive’s original tender has not been scrapped but was instead sold.