There are just a couple days left to ride the last coal-fired steam locomotive at the Milwaukee County Zoo—one of the days being this coming Saturday, Sept. 14.
Partly for environmental reasons, the Zoo has been selling off its two coal-burning iron horses and replacing them with two more diesel-powered ones this year.
A sound that has been heard at the Milwaukee County Zoo for about six decades is the steam whistle from two coal-fired locomotives that have been clickety-clacking on the mile-and-a-quarter loop at the Zoo, at about nine miles per hour on the roughly eight-minute trip.
Losing that sound soon is bittersweet for Calvin Schickel: “Personally, I grew up in Wauwatosa, and I could hear the steam whistle from my house. So, that, in the back of my mind, is a little nostalgic for me. It’s like, yeah, you won’t be able to hear it from far away anymore," Schickel says.
Instead, what zoo-goers and nearby neighborhoods might hear more often is the different-sounding horn and rumble of diesel-powered locomotives at the Zoo. Two more new diesel train engines will be arriving in the next several months after the remaining steam locomotive joins one sold earlier this year to a living history rail museum in Wisconsin Dells.
Schickel is the Zoo’s lead worker for rides and attractions and oversees the train—moving up to a supervisory role as part of a Zoo career that includes two years of driving the train.
At the shops' area at the closed-to-the-public southeast corner of the zoo property, he’s very comfortable sitting in the engineer’s cab and showing how to take a hand shovel and put coal in the firebox of the engine.
But burning coal is dirty. Lots of carbon dioxide is released into the air. Schickel says newer, more efficient diesel locomotives will be much cleaner.
“Steam has been fun in the time we’ve had it. We are always looking here at the zoo to reduce our environmental footprint as much as we can. We’re able to kind of give back to what we’re trying to do at the zoo, which is be a conservation park, but still be able to offer the same ride we’ve been doing. Which is a big part, right?" Schickel says.
In this case, being greener also makes more financial sense for the zoo. Rides on the train are very popular but not included in the admission price. Schickel says going all-diesel means being able to pull more passenger cars and carry more people for more months of the year.
“We want to be open; we want to be running. We want to have those smiling faces around us, right? Diesel’s a lot easier to operate in a lot of ways. It’s easier to maintain. It’s easier to work on, in ways like that. It’s more efficient in the way it pulls. In some ways, it uses a lot less fuel," Schickel explains.
There are electric locomotives —that either require overhead power lines or a so-called third rail, or new rechargeable battery units. Schickel says the Zoo would like to see on-board energy storage work at some point, but the facility "isn’t there yet."
The upcoming retirement of the steam locomotive doesn’t seem to bother some zoo-goers. A woman who gives her name as Patty says a new train means other improvements.
“They’re going to have an accessible car that my husband can ride in because he’s in a wheelchair. So, we’re excited about that," Patty says.
Another train rider, Ursula, says a greener train will be a good thing.
“Environment is always important. So, if this is a good change, it’s good for me. Yeah, and good for the environment, yeah," Ursula says.
But the Milwaukee County Zoo says it expects a lot of fans of coal-burning steam locomotives will want to say goodbye. So, besides running the older engine this Saturday, Sept. 14, officials just added Oct. 6 as the last day at the zoo for the locomotive known as the 1924.
