MONROE — The Port of Monroe is working to bring a celebrated steam engine to the local waterfront in late September to headline a Heritage Days festival commemorating its 90th anniversary.
Pere Marquette 1225, the Berkshire-type locomotive that was the model for the engine in the computer-animated movie The Polar Express, is tentatively scheduled to travel to Monroe for the event for which the port posted a “save the date” message on its Facebook page.
Arrangements to get it there from its home base in Owosso, Mich., and back again still must be ironed out, but Paul LaMarre III, the port’s director, said the plan is solid enough for initial publicity about the Sept. 24-25 event.
The announcement said the historic tugboat America will be present at the port’s Turning Basin Dock along with the steam engine, and World War II-era planes from the Yankee Air Museum will fly over the port during the event. An operating steam shovel, vintage cars and tractors, and a hydroplane also are slated to be on hand.
The event will be “a celebration of the Port of Monroe past, present, and future,” Mr. LaMarre said. “We are marking our 90th anniversary this year, and what better way to celebrate our recent success than to show what got us here?”
Both its geography and its security requirements place the port mostly out of public sight, he said, so the event also will be a way to allow the public to see at least some of what it does.
“It’s an opportunity to give back to the Monroe community and surrounding communities that have supported us,” the port director said. “We want it to be the ultimate exhibit of marine, rail, and air Americana to celebrate the port’s last 90 years. The port’s success has occurred, above all, because of people.”
Pere Marquette 1225 was built at the Lima Locomotive Works in 1941 and operated for the Pere Marquette and Chesapeake & Ohio railroads from then until 1951 when it was retired in favor of diesel locomotives. It was subsequently placed on display at Michigan State University at the behest of Forest Akers, a Dodge Motors executive who also was a university trustee.
The Michigan State University Railroad Club was organized by students in 1969 with the goal of restoring it to operable condition. The Michigan State Trust for Railway Preservation, Inc., moved it to the former Ann Arbor Railroad steam shop in Owosso in 1982, and it was moved under its own power three years later.
Its blueprints were used by The Polar Express’ computer-animated locomotive, albeit with some detail differences, and actual sounds from the 1225 were used for the film.
The 1225 has for many years hauled holiday-themed excursions from its Owosso base, but it also has traveled elsewhere in Michigan.
Yankee Air Museum, which houses its collection of historic aircraft at Willow Run Airport near Ypsilanti, Mich., confirmed it plans to participate in the festival but has yet to sign a contract.
First Published January 29, 2022, 2:30 p.m.
