On track for a makeover

PALMER -- The City of Palmer has given its old train engine a spiffy new look.

With the help of a couple of gallons of paint, a few new boards and several summer employees, Palmer ground maintenance man Jerry Rowland has fixed up a train engine that has been on display in downtown Palmer for decades.

The train now glistens black in the sun and sports a shiny silver "No. 5" on its side.

"It really cleaned up nice," Rowland said.

In recent years, vandals had piled on graffiti, especially in the rafters of the pavilion that protects the engine.

"It was looking really nasty," Rowland said, so the City of Palmer decided to invest in the small improvement project. The grounds crew replaced some boards on the interior, painted the pavilion, covered the rafters, painted the engine and did some final touch-up work.

The "No. 5" was a somewhat random choice. Rowland said a model train in the Palmer Depot features an engine with that number, so the grounds crew chose it for the real engine. A tourist passing by while the crew was working on it said he knew something about trains and that it was important that "No." be included instead of just "5."

The old engine seems to be adored by locals and visitors of all ages. It is a favorite climbing toy for children, and those who remember the heyday of trains enjoy reminiscing at its side.

"It's been here for years and years," Rowland said.

The engine has a long and somewhat checkered history. Built for narrow-gauge track and powered by coal, the engine was part of the mining operations in the Buffalo Mine area, Rowland said. When a flood ruined the tracks in the mid-1960s, the state decided not to rebuild.

Palmer resident Earl Paine bid on the scrap metal, including the track and engine.

"He decided it would be a nice thing to have in town there," Rowland said.

In 1988, Eagle Scout Leon Barbachano built the pavilion to house the engine as a Scout project. And so for the past few decades, the engine and its original section of narrow-gauge tracks have served as a centerpiece of downtown Palmer, a quaint reminder of days gone by.

Over the years, it has also attracted some trouble. Rowland said youngsters used to burn trash instead of coal in the train and the smoke would come billowing out its stack.

"It would look like the train was ready to take off," Rowland recalled. "And of course the fire department would get called out."

In hopes of avoiding such trouble, the City of Palmer has sealed up much of the interior workings of the engine. But Rowland said he decided to leave the cab of the engine as untouched as possible, the worn interior a testimony to its long history.