This 0-4-0 steam locomotive was purpose built by Baldwin for the Comal Power Company to move one coal car at a time into its electricity generating plant by the river in New Braunfels. It was they who gave it its number, which can be clearly seen on the factory photographs below. Due to extremely limited space, the tracks had tight curves. This little steam engine had an oversized steam compressor to provide enough power to tip and empty the coal cars into the plant's fuel hopper. Its working life was remarkably brief; the plant was converted to oil power in 1927. Instead of being sold or scrapped it was mothballed until it was "rediscovered" by San Antonio rail enthusiasts in the the early 1960s. In fact the Texas Transportation Museum was formed in order for them to be able to acquire it. After a short return to service on the tracks at the Pearl Brewery in San Antonio, it was moved to the then new permanent museum location on Wetmore Road. It was returned to service briefly in the early 1980s but has not been operated since then, despite numerous efforts towards this end. As will be explained below, the museum hopes to put it on static display following the latest unsuccessful attempt to restore it back to working condition.

Presented here are just two of the many original Baldwin Locomotive Company documents the museum acquired along with the locomotives in 1964. #1 is appropriately named for TTM, as it is the museum's first acquisition. It was taken to the Pearl Brewery in San Antonio which operated the very short but grandly named "Texas Transportation Company" to connect with the nearby Southern Pacific mainline. The museum took its name from these tracks. Firing up #6 at the brewery in 1965 turned out to have an unexpected consequence. Regulations and statutory oversight was a lot more relaxed in those days. The volunteers simply filled the boiler with water, its fuel tank with oil, and waited to see what would happen. The locomotive had not been used since the late 1920's and belched out such an amount of smoke and soot that the museum volunteers were obliged to wash cars and windows for blocks all around the scene of the "crime".

From the beginning the saddle tank switcher, with builder plate number 58555,was destined always to be #1. The purchase order indicates it was be to be 'lettered and numbered' as: COMAL POWER COMPANY, NO 1. It has 2 pairs of 30" diameter coupled wheels. It's boiler is 32 inches in diameter, and it has 73 1 3/4 inch tubes that are 9 feet 2 1/4 inches long. It has two 11 inch diameter cylinders with a 16 inch stroke, and operates at 180 lbs of pressure. With an operating weight of 47,000 lbs, it has a tractive effort of 9,870 lbs. It holds 700 gallons of water and 120 gallons of fuel. It has always been an oil burner.

Locomotive #1 is a 0-4-0T switcher. It was also built by Baldwin, in 1925. It served in the railroad yard of the Comal power plant in New Braunfels, TX. It came to TTM in 1964. It weighs 60 tons and is 33 feet long. The small engine only had a very brief service life. A couple of years after being acquired, it was "retired," and put on display. Every year, for almost forty years, it would get another coat of shiny silver paint. This had a "cocooning" effect and kept the engine very well preserved. Within a year of being acquired by the museum it was back in service. It was operated there without incident for several years, providing rides to the public until the museum relocated to its current location on Wetmore Road in 1968.

It sat idle for several more years until it moved to the museum's current location. Once again the small locomotive went back to semi-retirement. TTM had acquired an ex Air Force diesel-electric plus were massively involved in converting its forty acres green field site into the museum you see today. This included laying every inch of track. #6 would not be fired up again until 1981, when new volunteers decided to get it running again. It was a red letter day when it was able to be used again. But, once again, its period of active duty was very short. Operating and maintaining a steam locomotive is a very labor intensive task and #1 failed to re-emerge when it was dismantled for a scheduled boiler inspection and service. Subsequent attempts to get it running has come, unfortunately, to naught. It is currently in pieces and is not on exhibit to the public.

In December of 2004, steam was raised in this locomotive and, for the first time since the early 1980s, it moved under its own power once again. It was a low key affair, and we are lucky that these pictures were taken to record the event. It was run again in January 2005. A major problem emerged with what is known as the dry pipe. A leak developed that has proven to impossible to resolve without completely dismantling the entire locomotive. The costs in money, time and effort to fix the leak, which is actually a gap of hair's breadth dimension, are astronomical and, with great sadness, beyond the museum's resources.

Even making this steam locomotive a static display is taking much longer than anyone would like. With about 95% of the restoration work completed, We ran into a major technical difficult with the newly installed boiler flues. Just finding the correct tools to flare, bead and seal the tubes, which are very small by modern standards, required a nationwide search. There is light at the end of the tunnel and we look forward to reporting good progress soon. It will be prominently displayed near the depot.