The Magma Arizona No. 5 is a 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type steam locomotive built at Alco’s Dunkirk, NY, shops in 1922, and started work as Magma Arizona Railroad #5.
The locomotive was used on the Magma Arizona Railroad hauling ore cars from copper mines at Superior, AZ, to the interchange with the Southern Pacific Railroad at Magma Junction, and carrying mine supplies back to Superior.
The locomotive was later renumbered #55 and it hauled its last train on 3 September 1968.
In 1970, it was sold to the Oregon, Pacific & Eastern Railway, where it hauled passenger excursion trains until the line closed in 1987. It was then sold to the Moody Corporation, and has since been reliveried as Center for Transportation and Commerce Engine #555.
The locomotive is now at the Galveston Railroad Museum where it seen on static display.
Trivia[]
- No. 5 has starred in several television commercials and movies, most notably in Emperor of the North, a 1973 movie filmed on the Oregon, Pacific & Eastern right of way in Oregon.
- When it was featured in Emperor of the North it was renumbered as #4, #5, and #27.
- #5 also starred in the 1969 film Young Billy Young
- No. 5 also starred in the 1971 TV movie "Powderkeg" starring Rod Taylor and Dennis Cole.
- This was the only standard gauge locomotive acquired new by the Magma Arizona.
- It once used to ran under steam while it operates at the Galveston Railroad Museum for a brief time in the 1980's. It is also the last steam locomotive to pull a freight train in Arizona.