![]() 20 and will now run every Saturday and Sunday through Dec. The North Pole Express started on Saturday, Nov. Michigan's COVID-19 cases are the highest in the nation, again, and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services issued an advisory to wear a mask while indoors, despite vaccination status. The only exception is when you are actively eating or drinking. Face coverings must be worn by all SRI staff and passengers over the age of 2 while in the SRI Welcome Center and while on the train. Yes, a mask is required on the North Pole Express to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Do you have to wear a mask on the North Pole Express? It's perhaps best known for its role in the 2004 Christmas classic "The Polar Express" as its blueprints and sounds were used as the prototype for the locomotive in the movie. In 1983, it was moved to Owosso and in 1988 restoration work was finally complete. ![]() In 1969, a group of students started restoration on the engine to get it back to operation. On February 28, 2020, the engine and the rest of the display was vandalized, with the locomotive being spray-painted several times and a caboose door kicked in.The locomotive was built in 1941 by the Lima Locomotive Works for the Pere Marquette Railroad but was retired and donated to Michigan State University in 1957 for display as an outdoor artifact. The locomotive was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 7, 2000. That same year, the PM caboose #986 was also purchased and would join the engine on static display. ![]() However, It received a full cosmetic restoration in 1989. Considering the number of years that it has stood out in the elements, it would be an expensive and time-consuming project to restore it to operation. In 1982, the West Michigan Railroad Historical Society acquired the PM steel boxcar #72222 and cosmetically restored it and joined the engine on static display. With the help of the Michigan National Guard as well as Grand Trunk Western and Chessie System railroads, it was moved to Grand Haven in 1981. The city of Grand Haven won the bidding process. In 1980, Michigan state fair officials wanted to expand the grandstands but the locomotive stood in the way. The money for that was provided by the donations collected by school children around the Detroit Area. However, it was repainted and moved in 1960 for display at the state fairgrounds in Detroit. Īfter retirement, the engine was moved to New Buffalo, Michigan, to be scrapped. The locomotive was not paid off at the time and the merger agreement stated that equipment still under trust was to remain in Pere Marquette livery. When Pere Marquette was absorbed by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, the engine assigned number 2657 but never had the new number applied. History īuilt in 1941 by the Lima Locomotive Works for $90,000 ($1.79 million in 2022 dollars), 1223 hauled freight between Toledo and Chicago in the years immediately before and after World War II. 1225, the inspiration for the locomotive in the book and movie versions of The Polar Express, which is in operating condition. She is one of two surviving Pere Marquette 2-8-4 " Berkshire" type locomotives, along with sister engine No. The Pere Marquette 1223 is a steam locomotive on permanent display in Grand Haven, Michigan.
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