Engine No. 9
Calling all art-loving kiddos: The Mill Valley Historical Society is inviting children and their families to come to the Mill Valley Lumber Yard (129 Miller Ave.) on a trio of upcoming Saturdays – Sept. 18, Sept. 25, and Oct. 2, from 11am to 2pm – to help paint a full-size model of historic Engine No. 9, a 100-year-old steam engine that is the only surviving piece of the once world-famous Mt. Tamalpais and Muir Woods Railway.
Friends of No. 9, the organization formed by the Mill Valley Historical Society, Friends of Mt. Tam, Marin History Museum and others, recently purchased the actual Engine No. 9 at auction and are now working to restore it. In the meantime, to highlight Mill Valley’s railroad history and to help find a future home for Engine No. 9, the life-size model will be displayed at locations around Mill Valley.
Just more than 100 years ago, the Mt. Tamalpais and Muir Woods Scenic Railway took delivery of a brand-new Heisler steam engine — the ninth engine since the railway’s inception in 1896. Engine No. 9 turned out to be the last locomotive the company would purchase before the railway’s demise and dismantling in 1930, and today Engine No. 9 is the last remaining piece of the railway.