Locomotive could return to Oshkosh, council to decide Tuesday

We read in this morning’s online version of the Oshkosh Northwestern that The National Railroad Museum in Green Bay has offered to donate a 1963 GP-30 Diesel Locomotive to the city for the purpose of displaying in Oshkosh. The locomotive once ran on the Soo Line Railroad, which passed through the city up until the 1960s, the article notes. Kudos to Mayor Paul Esslinger for expressing interest in getting the locomotive back here, after the museum tried – though unsuccessfully – to sell it. I agree it would be nice to have a piece of our history back home. The Oshkosh Common Council will vote on whether to accept the gift this Tuesday night; let’s hope council members approve it.

Where to put the locomotive then would be one of the next obvious questions. The City of Fond du Lac has had a similar Soo Line display near one of the entrances to Lakeside Park for as long as I can remember and the city’s miniature train runs past it several times a day in the summer months (see photo). We would not necessarily have to follow suit, though. At the entrance to the city might be a possibility, as could the planned park in the Michigan Street area where the train used to run (as Esslinger has suggested), or even somewhere along the riverfront. Before it can be displayed, though, they’ll have to figure out where to temporarily store it and who might repaint it to remove the current Wisconsin Central Railroad logo on it and make it resemble the old Soo Line railroad. Ordinarily I would say to have some of these questions answered before accepting something. (The city also has yet to establish a gift acceptance policy, and I wonder if it ever will.) But in this case the railroad museum would likely destroy the locomotive if there is no place for it to go. It would be a shame to see part of our history destroyed; I think we’ve already had enough of that.