Cheyenne Botanic Garden Founder Says Cheyenne ‘Stealing’ Famous Locomotive

Since 2004, Wyoming’s oldest coal-burning steam locomotive, Ol’ Sadie, has been part of the display on the grounds of the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens, but now there are plans to move it to downtown Cheyenne 

If that happens, the locomotive would become part of the 15^th Street Railroad Experience project, for which construction might begin in 2026.

Former Cheyenne Botanic Gardens Director Shane Smith said that would amount to “stealing” the locomotive from the facility, as well as from all the people who donated time and money to put Ol’ Sadie there.

However, moving the locomotive and refurbishing it for downtown display would give it full appreciation as part of Wyoming’s rich railroad history, said Domenic Bravo, president and CEO of Visit Cheyenne.

Old Workhorse

Ol’ Sadie is the nickname for Engine 1242. The 63-foot-long, 196,000-pound locomotive was built in 1890 in New Jersey. 

It ran the Walcott-Saratoga-Encampment Union Pacific rail line from November 1921-May 1954. 

Smith said that when the botanic garden was offered the opportunity to take the locomotive for display, he jumped at the chance. 

It fit perfectly with the “Western Walkway” landscaping project for the garden and the nearby Old West Museum – planned by one of the nation’s top designers, he said.

It involves three plazas, one themed for the 1700s, one for the 1800s and one for the 1900s, he said. 

The locomotive ties everything together. And it helps draw visitors to a part Cheyenne that might otherwise be overlooked, Smith said.

“I’d see a car pull over, and people come barreling out of the car to go look at the locomotive,” he said.

From there, they are drawn toward the museum and the botanic gardens, he added. 

It took countless volunteer hours and generous donations to complete the Western Walkway. So taking away Ol’ Sadie – its centerpiece and greatest tourist magnet, would be unfair, Smith said.

He retired from the botanic gardens in 2018 and has since moved to the little town of Paonia, Colorado. But he’s retained strong ties to Cheyenne, and said he was taken aback when he heard that Ol’ Sadie might be moved. 

“My point being, Cheyenne is a railroad town. Not just a railroad downtown,” he said.

Give It Full Appreciation

If the proposal goes though, it’s likely that Ol’ Sadie could be moved downtown by truck, Bravo said. 

Planning for the railroad experience have been in the works for several years. 

The idea is to bring together as many pieces of Wyoming’s railroad history together as possible, before they’re lost forever, Bravo said.

That could include vintage sleeping and dining rail cars, and “Ol’ Sadie just came up as part of the discussion,” he said.

If the hulking locomotive is moved, it will likely be placed, along with other rail memorabilia, near the historic rail depot. 

The engine could be spruced up and put on display in a spot where it could be widely admired, Bravo said.

“The idea is to put it in a place where it will be cared for and looked at on a regular basis,” he said.

History Of Ol' Sadie

For Floyd and Al Young, the locomotive is a link to their past.

“My father was a railroad engineer with Union Pacific,” Al told Cowboy State Daily. “He served 44 years with the Union Pacific.”

From 1952-54, Al said his brother and parents lived at the depot in Encampment, and in the mornings the boys would ride with their father to pick up the train for its daily runs.

“I was a young boy in third and fourth grade,” said Al, “and my father would take us in the morning down to the turntable where we picked up the train, and he would bring it up and drop us kids off at the depot for mom to take us to school.”

Floyd also remembers how his father “drove that train from Encampment to Saratoga to Walcott Junction, where it turned around and loaded and came back to Encampment, then when it slowed down we would hop on and go to the round house.”

Engine 1242

Al said the train was originally used for hauling ore out of the mountains near Battle Mountain and above Riverside and Centennial. 

“Eventually, it was used for even carrying honey out of the areas of Saratoga down to the main track, and then from there to different places on the Union Pacific Railroad,” said Al.

In 1954, the decision was made to retire the engine from service altogether. Since his father was its engineer at the time, the responsibility fell on Floyd Sr. to bring the train to Cheyenne. 

“The engine and the coal car were placed in the park,” said Al. “It became a centerpiece for a little playground that was there.”

Over the years, however, the train engine at the small park fell into disrepair. 

“It was abused, and the kids painted on it and broke out the windows, and all sorts of things,” said Al.

It was in the early 2000s that the train was offered a new lease on life.

Cheyenne Botanic Gardens

In 2004, Smith was given the opportunity to make the train part of its outdoor display.

“We were given eight or nine acres of grounds from the city to manage,” Smith said. “It included Wyoming’s oldest steam locomotive.”

With help from the Cheyenne Railroad Club, the train was moved to its current location, painted and refurbished. 

Smith said that during the process, he found out that the family of the train’s last engineer had built a fence in tribute to the railroad and made arrangements to have the fence placed around the train.

A Fence Built To Last

When Floyd Jr. was attending the University of Wyoming, his father had the idea to create a welded metal fence that would pay tribute to his years on the railroad.

“(It was) all the way around our yard in Laramie,” said Al. “It consisted of pieces of railroad memorabilia – everything from little wrenches to all sorts of things that were put into that fence.” 

Al said the items were collected by his parents on trips they would take across Wyoming.

“Basically from Pine Bluffs all the way across the state of Wyoming, they had an old Volkswagen microbus and they would pick up any pieces of metal that were left along the old railroad beds,” he said. “And dad would clean them off and he would put them in a stack. And then later in the 1960s and early ’70s, Floyd Jr. and my father welded the fence together, and then we all painted that fence.”

Floyd said it took about a year to complete the fence.

“Dad would show up, he’d have it all laid out on the floor in the welding room at the University,” he said. “And as soon as I got out of class, I changed into my clothes and then I’d go and weld all the parts together.”

Floyd said the two would put the individual parts of the fence into the Volkswagon microbus and haul it to the family’s property in Laramie, which is where it stayed until it was moved around the train in 2004. 

Contact Mark Heinz at mark@cowboystatedaily.com

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.