Engine No. 2542 was built in 1910 by the American Locomotive Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway. In 1929, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway purchased the KCM & O line and assigned the engine to the Newton, Kansas, terminal. It was a 2-8-0 locomotive, with two front wheels, eight driving wheels, and no rear wheels. In 1955, it was moved from Newton to Arkansas City and placed on the siding track at the Standard Oil Bulk Station. The A.C. Andrews Construction Company then moved it six blocks down Birch Street to Wilson Park by laying temporary track and using compressed air to move the engine, which weighed almost 100 tons. The relocated engine was placed on a concrete pad and dedicated during the 24th Annual Arkalalah Celebration that same year. John Landreth, general manager of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, said the locomotive had long been a thing of life and power to railroad men, had hauled goods across the states for countless people who heard its whistle, and was being set aside so future children could share in something that had helped build the nation.