On a warm morning in the San Joaquin Valley, a meet occurs at the Modesto Amtrak Station...wait, on single track? Yes, but probably not the kind your thinking of. As Amtrak 710 performs its station work here, it pauses a stones throw away from a newcomer to the station - Santa Fe 2921. After calling Beard Brook Park home for 57 years, the 1943-built product of the Baldwin Locomotive Works was moved to its new home by the Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) under the cover of darkness during the third week of July. The move, fully sponsored by the utility company that has also promised to be part of the locomotive's cosmetic restoration, took place in two parts with the locomotive being move first and the tender following second over two separate nights. The white paint covering the engine and tender make up a protective coating that was to prevent any of the equipment's original, lead-based paint flaking off during the move to the station.
