A Consolidation type (2-8-0) locomotive, #761 was one of ten Class 759 (#759-#768) engines built in 1900 for the AT&SF by Baldwin. It apparently worked mainly out of Chicago, IL. Retired in 1955, it was donated that year to the City of Wickenburg, AZ.
Unfortunately, the AT&SF would not allow #761 to be displayed on its property, so the locomotive had to be hand pushed by the people of Wickenburg on tracks laid along two city blocks to its first resting place in Stone Park. On the way, the engine jumped the tracks, locked its wheels and it took two days to get it there. Nearly fifty years later, in 2003, it was moved from Stone Park to its current location beside the historic AT&SF depot on Nth Frontier Street between W Yavapai and W Apache Streets.
A coal burner, #761 weighs 173,080 lbs, 154,880 on its 57” drivers. With a 30 sq ft grate, 183 sq ft firebox and total heating surface of 2,190 sq ft, it operated at a boiler pressure of 200 psi delivering 39,458 lbs
tractive effort. It has 21” x 30” cylinders fitted with Stephenson valve gear. The tender weighs 105,000 lbs light with a capacity of 6,000 gallons of water and 8½ tons of coal.
Above, the old AT&SF depot at Wickenburg remains very nearly in its original configuration. It is amongst the oldest of the Santa Fe's wooden stations in Arizona and serves as headquarters for the Wickenburg Chamber of Commerce.
The structure stands in its original 1895 design, without additions or modifications, and is one of the few such surviving examples of "Wild West" railroad architecture. It last saw passenger
service in May 1969 when the Santa Fe discontinued the daily train between Phoenix and Williams Junction.
Right, #761 is displayed with a Southern Pacific 1900 Series Drover Caboose bought by the Wellik Foundation in 2003. Drover Cabooses were set at the end of cattle trains to house drovers to tend to the herd. This Drover Caboose ran on the
Southern Pacific as widely afield as Montana and California.
There is an active BNSF line running through Wickenburg. Far right, BNSF EMD SD40-2 #7068, BNSF GE ES44C4 #6620 and BNSF GE 9-44CW #5099 haul a an intermodal double stack west through Wickenburg.
