GLADSTONE, Mich. (WZMQ) – Gladstone Soo Line Steam Engine #730 is once again lit up for the holiday season. On Wednesday, it was also filled with fun and laughter.
“Welcome to the first annual Santa Visits the Gladstone Christmas Train!” said John Pickard, President of the Gladstone Soo Line Steam Engine #730 Authority. “We have hot chocolate and goodie bags and candy canes for all the kids. Hopefully, everybody will really enjoy themselves.”
Kids and parents got to experience the engine up close and even go inside. Then, they hopped into a Gladstone Area Schools bus, where Santa Claus was waiting to meet them.
“We’re having a lot of fun,” Santa said. “They’re telling me what they want for Christmas.”
According to Pickard, the event was the Steam Engine Authority’s Christmas present to the community, which has helped to restore this piece of history to its original glory.
“When we first came upon the train, it had sat here for a long time,” he said. “All the lights were burned out on it and there were birds in here. We put a bird net around it and got the lights all lit up—and all donated by the community. The electricity is donated by John Larkin from the Escanaba Lake Superior Railroad. Canadian National’s been so welcoming to us down here.”
Pickard says the railroad was instrumental in making Gladstone what it is today.
“In 1887, the Soo Line Railroad out of Minneapolis Minnesota wanted to ship their grain through a deep-water port, and they found it here in Gladstone,” he explained. “It was an empty community at that time. They talked to the folks that owned the land, and they donated 650 acres of land to build a town and for the railroad yard here. We had an iron ore dock, a grain elevator, a coal dock, a 12-station engine. The Chicago of the North, that’s what they envisioned it to be.”
The steam engine, which is on display along M-35 in Gladstone, was built in 1911.
“It was strictly a passenger train,” said Pickard. “It actually ran from Minneapolis out to North Dakota, and it would run into Wisconsin as well. The only incident it ever had was in a snowstorm in Frederic, Wisconsin, in 1921. It went off the track and went into a snowbank, and they left it there until the spring. When the snow melted, they put it on the track. “
To preserve those and other stories that make up the engine’s history, the nonprofit Authority collects donations through the Community Foundation for Delta County.
“We have a fund that is used for the maintenance and support,” said Community Foundation Board Chair Charlie Becker. “It’s a neat historic cause, and when folks like this group wanted to get involved in it, we thought it was a great project to really show the history of the community and the U.P.”
While the Steam Engine Authority is looking forward to another year of community, for now, it is happy to celebrate the holidays with some of Delta County’s youngest train enthusiasts.
“It’s the meaning of Christmas,” Santa Claus said. “It’s the beauty of Christmas. Kids is what Christmas is all about, and that’s what I do it for.”
To make a tax-exempt donation to the Gladstone Soo Line Steam Engine #730, mail a check to the Community Foundation for Delta County at 2420 1st Avenue South in Escanaba, in care of Soo Line Steam Engine #730. For more information, call 906-786-6654 or email office@cfup.org.
