Mill Valley to install train engine at City Hall

Nov 24, 2023

Mill Valley is moving forward with plans to place a historic steam engine locomotive at City Hall.

The City Council voted unanimously at its meeting on Monday to authorize the city manager to finalize an agreement with Friends of No. 9, the owners of the historic engine. The agreement will include details on an encroachment license, maintenance and removal of the engine, known as Engine No. 9.

The proposed agreement calls for the installation of the engine at City Hall for five years, with the option to renew for another five-year period.

City Manager Todd Cusimano said it would take about six months to finalize the agreement. The city must acquire an arborist report to determine the location of the engine because of a large tree at the site, he said.

The approximate location for the 36-ton steam engine – which is 30 feet long, 9 feet wide and 11 feet tall – is in front of City Hall in a driveway near the former police station building. Installation is estimated to be completed by the end of 2024.

Staff time, legal review and the arborist report are expected to cost approximately $5,000 this fiscal year and $5,000 to $10,000 next fiscal year, a staff report said.

The proposal was developed by Mayor Jim Wickham, Vice Mayor Urban Carmel, members of Friends of No. 9 and the Mill Valley Historical Society.

Advocates for the restoration of the locomotive have sought a permanent location since it was purchased in 2018. Plans to place it in an expanded section of the Depot Plaza spurred opposition, with more than half of the 1,800 respondents in an online survey objecting to the idea.

"It became really divisive and we struggled with it," Cusimano said.

City officials hoped the plan would generate excitement as opposed to controversy.

"We want this to be a point of celebration," Carmel said.

Friends of No. 9 are responsible for the planning, design, installation and maintenance of the engine. The agreement — which indemnifies the city — also calls on the group to pay a security deposit, obtain insurance and remove the engine at the end of the term.

"It would highlight that area around City Hall," Wickham said. "It pretty well allows us to dictate the future of Engine 9."

Eric Macris, a former president of the Mill Valley Historical Society and board member of Friends of No. 9, said the City Hall location is emblematic of the city's locomotive history as a stop between Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods.

"There's been this upswell of support for this," he told the council. "You should feel good about this."

The plan did encounter some opposition, with David Rand, a former planning commissioner, arguing there was not enough public messaging about the City Hall proposal, including a lack of renderings or story poles.

"We don't know how much it's going to block City Hall from various angles," he said. "I submit that's not good enough."

Others, such as former mayor John McCauley, signaled their support for the project after opposing the Depot Plaza site. McCauley said he was opposed to a canopy covering the train — an idea mentioned by several commenters.

Wickham said a canopy was "not in the cards."

"Get the train there first," he said.

The locomotive is the only surviving piece of rolling steam rail stock that pushed gravity cars and passenger cars to the top of Mount Tamalpais from 1896 to 1929. The train carried more than 1 million visitors during its tenure.

It ran between Mill Valley, Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods on the Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railroad until it was sold to the logging industry. In 1953, it was put on display at the Scotia Museum in Humboldt County. It was acquired at auction in 2018.

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