Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe #2926 - Superpower on New Mexico's Mainline

On the weekend of September 26th and 27th, 2026, New Mexico Heritage Rail, owners and operators of Santa Fe #2926, the largest operating 4-8-4 in the world, hosted their now annual New Mexico Railroad Days in Albuquerque. As per usual, the star of the show was the Baldwin 4-8-4, which still attracts crowds from all over. Also in attendance was a New Mexico Railrunner commuter train for attendees to tour, and some steam tractors from a private individual in Albuquerque. The farthest traveler was former AT&SF SD45-2 #5704, recently restored in its original 1976 Bicentennial paint scheme. #5704 was on its way home to California after participating in the large 250th locomotive event in Spencer, and it was decided to have #5704 attend the event. Also traveling a distance was SPTX #2602, a rebuilt GP26 locomotive originally built for the GM&O as a GP30. #2602 has been leased by NMHR for mainline moves with #2926, of which was the main interest of this event. Though not initially announced to the public, some people were informed that #2926 would be performing test runs on the recently approved 40-mile zone it was permitted to operate on by the state about a year ago now. Now it was finally time to really show what she was made of. Originally scheduled to depart at 11:40 PM, #2926 set North in the early morning hours of September 27th to Bernalillo and back, with the crew having it tied down around 4:30 in the morning. Much later on the same day, the train and its crew ventured South towards Los Lunas before returning to their restoration site in Albuquerque. This was quite a fantastic event for many who have been following the locomotive and especially those who have been working and operating the locomotive, some of which who have been around since day one in 2000. We'd like to once again wish our best wishes to the crews of this fantastic locomotive and we look forward to what more this massive machine can do in the near future. Please enjoy our coverage of Santa Fe #2926 returning once again to the mainline for the first time since 1953! Chapters: 0:00 - Introduction 0:25 - Part One: AT&SF #5704 and SPTX #2602 depart Belen, NM 1:27 - Sunport Railrunner Station 2:06 - Switching with #5704 and #2602 3:34 - Part Two: AT&SF #2926 departs the restoration site 4:45 - Downtown Albuquerque 5:27 - Part Three: New Mexico Railroad Days 5:59 - AT&SF #5704 6:18 - SPTX #2602 6:34 - Smaller steam engines 6:57 - Part Four: #2926 heads North 7:06 - Montano Railrunner Station 7:51 - Sandia Pueblo Railrunner Station 8:24 - Sandia Reservation 9:30 - Bernalillo, NM 10:25 - Sandia 10:56 - Journal Center 11:32 - Part Five: #2926 goes South 12:14 - Heading North out of Isleta 13:14 - Isleta Pueblo Railrunner Station 14:10 - Desert Road 14:38 - Rio Bravo Boulevard 15:13 - 2nd Street 15:23 - Woodward Street 16:01 - Credits Check out my friends who were there! ‪@CameraManRailFan‬ ‪@GlorietaSubProductions‬ ‪@some_train_guy‬ ‪@southwestlimited‬ ‪@Big_Diehl‬ ‪@railfanjordan8141‬ Any sort of reproduction or reuse of my content without permission will have to bring consequences for those who decide not to abide by this request. I take a lot of time, money, and effort into these, and I would appreciate it if you respect what I request. ©Jack Fellure, 2026.