Fresno’s historic train engine that embodied the city’s origins finally has a new home.

For years, Fresno City Councilmembers have worried about the cost of maintaining and protecting the Southern Pacific Engine 1238 at Roeding Park.

Back in 2022, councilmembers reached an agreement with the Friends of the Historic Kingsburg Depot to find a home for it at that city’s popular museum. But they left it to the nonprofit to figure out how to move it.

Michelle Roman, CEO of the group, says that by the end of Monday the train engine will be on the tracks at the Kingsburg Depot where it will join the rest of the attractions at the living railroad museum.

“We are thrilled to have kept this engine in Fresno County and make it part of our living railroad history museum in Kingsburg,” Roman said. “I had this vision for this locomotive to come to the Kingsburg Depot for a long time, and I can’t wait for it to roll into town on Monday.”

Failed Move in May Made January Move Much Easier: Roman

The engine came to Fresno by way of a 1956 donation agreement with the Southern Pacific Company. For years, it had been behind a short fence at Roeding Park where vandals damaged the train.

In 2022, Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias announced the plan to move the train.

While donating the massive train engine was relatively easy, moving it became a different challenge, Roman told GV Wire. To move the 67-ton engine and accompanying tender — the 45,000-pound fuel attachment — to Kingsburg, Friends had to contract with Bakersfield T&T Truck and Crane Service.

They tried to move the train in May 2025 but by the time they had it figured out, movers told Roman that they would be unloading it well past dark. It took a nine-axle truck to haul the massive engine.

They had to cancel the move and reschedule it for Monday.

Roman said having the trial run helped Monday’s move go smoothly.

“It was kind of like a practice run, so to speak,” Roman said. “We knew what we were getting ourselves into this time and what equipment we needed.”

Friends of the Kingsburg Depot Preserves the Importance of Rail to the Central Valley

Once at the depot, it will sit on 350 feet of brand-new track where the engine will eventually get a new coat of paint, Roman said. They also plan to get a train car and caboose to go behind the train at the museum. The move is being livestreamed at this link.

“We’re going to completely refurbish it as well. All the pieces that have been missing are going to be on it, so we’re gonna try to completely bring it back to its glory,” Roman said.

The train itself has a Kingsburg connection as well. The last conductor on the engine was from Kingsburg, and several people from the town also worked on it.

Fresno and other Central Valley towns got their start as train stops, expanding outward from those stations and growing through the decades. For farmers, those trains took their produce to markets across the country.

It’s that history that Friends of the Historic Kingsburg Depot tries to preserve. At the museum, staff dress up in 1920s garb and relive the past for future generations.

“We teach them everything you do with your phone, you would do here, whether it was texting, you have our telegram. You wanted to send packages? Here you go, you’d come down here,” Roman said. “Everything was done right here at your depot. It’s fun to teach them all about it.”