'Cadillac of steam' to ride the rails again
The Santa Fe 3751, bought for $1 by train fans in 1986, will rumble to life again this weekend, hauling passengers from L.A. to San Diego.
About 25 years ago, a group of Southern California train enthusiasts made either the best or the worst investment of their lives, depending on how you look at it.
For the grand sum of $1, they bought the Santa Fe 3751, a 430-ton locomotive that had once played a seminal role in introducing high-capacity, high-speed passenger rail service to the West. Then they set out to get the thing working again, which wound up taking five years, $1.3 million, including cash outlay and in-kind contributions, and the work of nearly 400 volunteers.
