People watch as Number 300 is removed from Geneva Park - Date? Stuart Johnson *1.

Provo Utah - After posing for 40 years as playground equipment, the locomotive at the Geneva Recreation Association park in Provo is on its way back to the tracks.
 
Nearby residents, old and young, stared Monday morning as crews dangled the 78 ton engine over a heavy haul truck.
 
It was carted away to Heber Valley Railroad where it will be placed on the railroad's main line at Vivian Park in Provo Canyon and towed to Heber City for repairs.
 
"It's kind of a bitter pill to swallow," said Laren Robison, a nearby retired resident whose 17 grandchildren often played tag and hide-and-go-seek on the engine.
 
"People ask, where do you live? We live by the park where the train is. Oh yeah. It's our identification."
 
The railroad asked the Geneva Recreation Association for the locomotive seven years ago to help the other two engines carry passengers between Vivian Park and Heber City.
 
But, at that time, the association didn't want to give it up.
 
Since then association members changed their minds when Geneva closed and they could no longer finance the park where the engine sat.
 
"Rather than sell the engine, we decided to donate it where it will still benefit the community," said Jack Thurgood, business manager of the Geneva Recreation Association.
 
Craig Lacey, executive director of the Heber Valley Railroad, said the coal-run engines require frequent maintenance that can take months, so three engines on hand will provide better availability for passengers.
 
Still, it will be a long time before the engine will grace the Heber tracks.
 
With a 40 year buildup of rust, sand, and dirt packed in the bearings and many missing parts, John Rimmasch, Heber Valley Railroad chief mechanical officer, said it will take more than US$200,000 and about three years to transform the playground equipment back to the steel-hauling engine it once was.
 
The Heber Valley Railroad hopes to receive grants to fund the operation and has already talked with the Utah Department of Transportation and other organizations, Lacey said.
 
"We wanted to preserve it and the best way to do that is to keep it moving," he said.
 
"As the engine runs, people will say, I used to climb on that engine."
 
Before it retired to the park, the locomotive transferred pig-iron cars from the Columbia Steel Corporation plant in Ironton to Geneva Steel and it was called steam engine Number 300.
 
Monday, crews transferred the locomotive from the park to Heber Valley Railroad's main line at Vivian Park.
 
There it was to be attached to steam locomotive 618, which will tow it 16 miles to Heber City.
 
Steam engine 618 often hauled 300's cars the rest of the way to Geneva.
 
Last month, the GRA also decided to donate the 45-year-old park to Utah Valley State College.
 
The park was funded by Geneva employees and Geneva vending machines, local businesses and church groups often held parties there.
 
Derek Hall, director of UVSC college relations, said when UVSC owns the property officials plan to sell it to developers and use the profit for scholarships.
 
Julene Thompson.