ATTRACTIONS
The tender of the 253 displays the “Florida East Coast Flagler System” name.
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Engine No. 253, built in 1924, was headed for a Texas scrap
yard when train aficionados Steve Spreckelmeier and Bob
Bates put together a deal to buy the locomotive and transport
her to a new home in Florida. Spreckelmeier is now president
and general manager of Steam Locomotive Association 253
Corp., and Bates is on the board of directors of the wholly volunteer
restoration organization.
For the most part, the project depends on the generosity of
like-minded train lovers. Getting No. 253 to Florida was the
first major expense — almost $50,000. Moving a steam locomotive
is like moving the Titanic, Spreckelmeier says. “You
don’t buy it at Wal-Mart and take it home in a shopping bag.”
The 70-foot-long locomotive weighs well over 100 tons and
can pull a 5,100-ton train at 25 mph. Too heavy to be transported
on highways, No. 253 had to be loaded on a flatcar
and hauled by train.
The locomotive’s early years in Florida were spent in Miami
and Hialeah. By the time she was moved to Fort Pierce in
June of this year, the group’s collection had grown to 14 cars.
It was the impending sale of FEC that forced the association
to find a new home. John Rude, the group’s vice president,
approached Jon Ward, director of the Fort Pierce Redevelopment
Agency.
Ward appreciates the connection between Fort Pierce
and railroads. “We are at a unique point in our history with
trains,” he says. “Fort Pierce was the dividing point between
the northern and southern portions of Flagler’s early FEC
railroad operations. This was as far as you could get from
Jacksonville, coming south, or Key West, going north, without
recoaling and rewatering the old steam engines and changing
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STEAM LOCOMOTIVE ASSOCIATION
Address: 1401 N. 2nd St., Fort Pierce, FL
Hours: Saturdays from 10 until sundown
Web site: www.slafec253.org
Membership information is available on the Web site.
/www.slafec253.org