The train – specifically Engine 1531 – won’t be leaving Barrie any time soon.

Councillors are jumping aboard a plan to move the 1908 steam engine to the Southshore Centre area, where foundations of an old roundhouse can still be seen.

Many rejected a plan to relocate the engine, donated to the city in 1960 by the Canadian National Railroad; a donation of a caboose followed in 1995.

 “It will have to be moved because of changes to the sewer line and changes to Lakeshore Drive. Staff are recommending sending it out to the Simcoe County Museum,” said Ward 1 Coun. Mike Ramsay.

“However, I feel not just as a history teacher but as a citizen we are losing so much of our history. We have lost and are losing a number of historical buildings; so many people say why did they tear those buildings down. (Past councils) were thinking short-term; to tear down a building … was the easy way out. To send the locomotive to Midhurst is the easy way out.

“The community would rally round restoring the engine and implementing an education program right on land adjacent to the roundhouse, which would be restored. It would be near the Allandale Station. It would remind future and current citizens of Barrie what really developed the city was the railway.”

Ward 4 Coun. Barry Ward, however, argued the museum can restore the train, and provide security and supervision to allow children to explore it, rather than forcing them to only look from behind a fence.

“Children will be able to touch it, perhaps get on it. I wish we had a facility to move it into today,” he said. “The roundhouse project doesn’t seem to be going ahead. I’ll reluctantly support sending it to the museum where people can get up close and touch it.”

Ward 7 Coun. John Brassard noted the train could be integrated as part of a railway exhibit, which also includes a model of the Allandale Station. “I see the opportunity to move it, for it to be restored and coupled with the Allandale Station re-creation and to give the steam engine its proper place of honour,” he said.

“I’m not sure if I want to see (relocating) it to some parkland and surround it by a chain-link fence so kids couldn’t go up and put their hands on it.”

City staff noted the proposed $4-million roundhouse restoration plan stalled, as Barrie continues to work on a park master plan for the area.

Moving the locomotive isn’t straightforward, as the engine’s boiler jacket and some piping insulation contain asbestos; removing the material is expected to cost $75,000, while the cost to move the engine is estimated at $89,000.