This locomotive was built by Baldwin in 1911 as #25 for the Arizona Lumber & Timber Co., in Flagstaff, AZ. It was then leased to the Saginaw & Manistee Lumber Co., in 1941 along with the the rest of the business when the S&MLC relocated from Williams, AZ.
In 1951, the S&MLC changed the locomotive's number to #2. Southwest Lumber Mills then bought it in 1953 (in 1959, the company changed its name to Southwest Forest Industries). It was later used as backup for the BLH S-12 #758, the first demonstrator model #1200 (you can see #1200 on the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum Yard page of this website). After SWFI closed in 1966, #2 went on display at the unused mill.
The plaque in front of #25 says it lost the “5” because the engineer hung his canvas water bag on the side of the cab and wore it off. At some point, the original front plate had a large sheet metal “2” put over the “25”. When SWFI put it on display, they removed the #2 to return it to #25. Two rail fans later bought #25 and moved it to its current location alongside the ex-AT&SF Flagstaff depot. In 1995, it was bought by the City of Flagstaff.
Above, this slope back tender was never used by #25 in service. Instead, it operated with a rectangular tender like the one behind Southwest Lumber #12 (you can see photos of it on the Southwest Lumber #12 page of this website). The slope back may have come from Saginaw & Manistee #4, another 2-6-6-2 converted from a tank locomotive.
A Consolidation (2-8-0) type, #25 weighs 112,500 lbs, 109,000 lbs on its 44” drivers. An oil burner with 18” x 22” cylinders, it operated at 180 psi delivering 24,800 lbs tractive effort.
