The Baldwin Locomotive Works was a major builder of steam locomotives from the 1830s to the 1950s. Locomotives like this with a 2-8-0 wheel arrangement were called Consolidations. They had two pilot wheels on the front axle, eight driving wheels on the main axles, and no trailing wheels. Consolidations became the standard freight locomotive from the 1870s to the 1920s, until they were replaced by newer, larger models.

This one was built for the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1906. It worked all over the southwest from Texas through California for fifty years. When the company replaced its steam locomotives with more efficient diesel locomotives, it donated many of these to cities across the U.S. The City of Chandler, Arizona, received this one in 1956, and placed it under the care of the Arizona Railway Museum in 1985.

This oil-fired steam locomotive was built in 1906 by Baldwin Locomotive Works forerunner Burnham, Williams & Company as a class C-9 Consolidation, construction number 29064, weighing 217,800 lb. Its 57-inch drivers, 22 x 30 inch cylinders, and 210 psi boiler pressure gave it a tractive effort of 45,470 lb. It was re-boilered in 1926 with a replacement from Southern Pacific 2-8-0 No. 2740.

After working all over the Southern Pacific system for many years, it ended up neglected and rusting at the West Oakland roundhouse. To prepare it for donation to the City of Chandler, it was cosmetically restored at the Los Angeles General Shops in 1956, then was towed to Chandler and placed on display near the Chandler depot. In 1969 it had to be moved or scrapped to make way for a new civic center. School district employee Ray Armstrong gathered resources and had the locomotive moved to a vacant strip of land along Delaware Street between Erie Street and Chandler Boulevard. The location was eventually named Armstrong Park in his honor.

Over the next fifteen years, the locomotive was poorly cared for and began deteriorating. In 1984 the city signed a contract with a newly-formed group, the Arizona Railway Museum, giving them the responsibility for the upkeep of the locomotive while the city retained ownership. Improvements began immediately, and the city allowed the museum to display other railroad artifacts there as well.

	9/2/2017 - Locomotive with rebuilt cab doors.
	7/4/2010 - Night photo of locomotive.
	2009 - SP #2562 placed on National Register of Historic Places.
	12/24/2005 - Photo of locomotive at Armstrong Park location.
	Locomotive on display at Armstrong Park.
	1985 - How the locomotive appeared in 1985.  Notice the platform ABOVE the cab.
	1982 - Eagle Scout project to repaint the locomotive.
	1969 - Newspaper article reporting on the move of the locomotive.
	1956 - Home movie of the locomotive's arrival and dedication ceremony.
	Southern Pacific Locomotive 2562 - The Story of a Display Locomotive.

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