FO9 - Tamalpais Engine No. 9 -- Restoration Update LETTERING + PUBLIC DEBUT
- Friends of No. 9
- May 13, 2025
- 2 min read
The final coats of paint are dry. Hand lettering is underway. We’re not done yet but No. 9 will be "ready for its closeup" when it goes to its old home of Mill Valley for the first time in 101 years on Memorial Day Weekend.
We built a 2-level containment structure around No. 9 to keep dust and dirt from sticking to the new paint. Workers from Delta Sandblasting spent a week sanding every surface on the locomotive to make sure the final coats stuck. Painting took 2 days with workers flying around inside the vented structure to make sure the paint flowed everywhere evenly.
Veteran sign painter Warren Purcell began lettering two days after the paint set. Draftsman Joe Breeze used the 1921 builder’s photo to draw plans for the gold and red lettering.
Public Debut - Mt. Tamalpais & Muir Woods Engine No. 9 will make its public debut in Mill Valley on Memorial Day weekend. It arrives Friday afternoon at Mill Valley’s Depot Plaza, the same spot it first began work in April 1921. No. 9 will be at the Depot Saturday and Sunday and in Mill Valley's Memorial Day parade Monday, May 26, at 11AM. Please come see us.
We couldn’t do any of this without your help. Your donations make all this work possible. No. 9 will go to the California State Railroad Museum in July to become its featured display later this summer.
Thank you,
Fred Runner
President
Friends of No. 9, Inc.
A Nonprofit Corporation
A "containment” built on two levels of scaffolding and wrapped in large white plastic sheets encased No. 9 for its final coats of paint keeping dust, dirt and rain from marring the paint while it dries.
As veteran sign painter Warren Percell began work on lettering No. 9 he said, "It's a good thing this thing has rivets. It makes it easier to place the letters.”
Final paint is done. Lettering and re-installing brass jewlery are underway. Pilot (“cowcatcher") will be mounted this week, two weeks before No. 9's public debut in Mill Valley's Memorial Day Parade.
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