Railhead: Union Pacific No. 535, Laramie Wyoming.

Railhead: Union Pacific No. 535, Laramie Wyoming.:

Union Pacific No. 535, Laramie Wyoming.

Union Pacific No. 535 is a 1903 vintage Baldwin steam engine that's on display in Laramie, next to the Union Pacific's Laramie depot.  People who have long associations with Laramie or who lived in the city prior to February 2011 will recall the engine being in LaBonte Park, where it was part of a nicely maintained display.

In 2011 this engine was moved to its current location at Railroad Heritage Park, the park that surrounds the Union Pacific depot.  At some point following my residence in Laramie during most of the 1980s, this engine fell into a fairly poor looking state and its been vandalized with graffiti.  

535 is a small steam engine that was built as a coal burning engine and then converted in its later years to oil, as many steam engines were.  In its current location its mocked up with a retired Union Pacific wedge snowplow.

Oddly the railroad yard facing side of 535 is in much poorer appearance than the street side.  Hopefully the condition of this display is addressed at some point in the near future.