EPISODE 717 STEAM ENGINE MODEL PERE MARQUETTE 303 — A HUGE PIECE OF WORKalan skeochJanuary 18, 2023“Mom, tell Dad I got this steam engine for his collection …called Pere Marquette 303…must be one of a kind.”“Too big for our house, Andrew”“Dad will figure something out.”When I came in the front door this tinware and steel engine was on the dining room table…filled thewhole table. Some railroad entuaiaat in CHATHAM took a lot of time creating ir.“But it cannot stay on our dining room tablel, Alan”So I dropped all tools and remodelled my worksop to feature the old 303DOES ANYONE KNOW WHO BUILT THIS MOFEL ? DID IT RUN? IT IS VERY HEAVY…I,E WAS IT MOTORISED?THE Pere Marquette 1225 was built in 1941, RESTORED and still running our ofMixhigan as a tourist locomotive. The model we have is 303 which is listed butI cannot find a picture.“What in tarnation are you going to do with that train?‘Perfect for a World War Two movie…built in 1941…same kind #3030survived the war…””“Get off it, Alan….”“Just for starters there is a moVle being made right now set in 1945 Japan and Korea.”“So what?”“There is a market scene set in 1945 in a train station.”“Why would anyone want a train like yours?”“Just a shot of this old train says 1940’s …the human eye looks for images like this./““Get off it, Alan.”“You might be right but I know two set dressers creating wartime Japan in 1945 andmaybe Kate and Elliott will have imagination. Strolling through the market where everythingis up for sale…poverty.”“And the old model 303 catches the eye…or maybe just background to catch your eye”
WHO WAS ‘PERE MARQUETTE?”
Pere Marquette 1225, the largest and most impressive piece in the Steam Railroading Institute’s collection, is one of the largest operating steam locomotives in Michigan. The 1225 was built in October of 1941 by the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio for the Pere Marquette Railway.
The locomotive was used for 10 years between Detroit, Toledo, Flint, Saginaw, Grand Rapids and Chicago; hauling fast freight for the products of Michigan factories and farms, including war materiel when Detroit was the “Arsenal of Democracy,” producing huge volumes of vehicles, aircraft, and armaments. The locomotive is one of 39 2-8-4, or “Berkshire”, types ordered by the Pere Marquette. The superpower design was developed between 1925 and 1934 and used by over dozen railroads to haul freight at maximum speed and minimal cost.
The Pere Marquette 1225 is 15 feet 8 inches tall, 101 feet long with a combined working engine and tender weight of 401 tons, while producing an impressive 5000 tractive horsepower. It takes about eight hours to generate a full head of steam on the locomotive’s boiler, which operates at 245 pounds per square inch. The tender holds 22 tons of coal and 22,000 gallons of water, consuming one ton of coal for every twelve miles and 150 gallons of water per mile. The locomotive cost $245,000 or roughly $2.5 million by today’s standards.
The Pere Marquette Railway merged with the Chesapeake and Ohio in 1947, but the 1225 continued in service until its retirement in 1951 in favor of diesel locomotives. In 1957, the locomotive was saved with the help of Forest Akers; Dodge Motors’s Vice President and Michigan State University Trustee, who saw it as a real piece of machinery for Engineering students to study.
Displayed as an icon of the steam-era, it sat at MSU until 1969, when a group of students took an interest in the locomotive. The Michigan State University Railroad Club was formed with the ambitious goal of restoring 1225 and using it to power excursion trains that would bring passengers to football games at the university. In 1982, under the newly evolved Michigan State Trust for Railway Preservation Inc, the donated locomotive was moved to the former Ann Arbor Railroad steam backshop in Owosso where the restoration continued until 1985 when it moved under its own power for the first in 34 years.
Today the Pere Marquette 1225 is owned, maintained and operated by the Steam Railroading Institute. It’s part of the National Register of Historic Structures and is renowned for its role in the 2004 Warner Brothers Christmas Classic, THE POLAR EXPRESS™. 1225’s blueprints were used as the prototype for the locomotive image as well as its sounds to bring the train in the animated film to life!