Mike is pictured standing on Engine #2912, one of only six remaining Santa Fe Northerns of this class. The Pueblo Railway Museum is currently engaged in fundraising to cosmetically restore the locomotive and tender for permanent display behind the Pueblo Union Depot.

R. Michael "Mike" Walker mikensigi@comcast.net Phone: (719) 339-2794 Mike is a retired professional engineer with over thirty years of service in the aerospace research and development industry. Assignments during his career took him to El Paso, TX, Tucson, AZ, Los Angeles, CA, Huntsville, AL, and the Washington, DC, area. Oversees assignments took him to The Hague (NL) for two years and to Stuttgart (GR) for a short time. Mike took a break from aerospace and served as Director of Facilities for Texas Tech Medical Center in El Paso, TX, where he oversaw a major addition to the clinical research building. His return to aerospace in 1998 took him to Colorado Springs, where he retired in 2008. He retired as a consultant in 2010. Mike earned bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from New Mexico State University. While a doctoral student, he taught basic and advanced engineering courses. He conducted post-doctoral research in the design of very high performance wind tunnels. In late 1988, Mike joined the R&LHS and the Southwest Chapter in El Paso because of his interest in ex-Southern Pacific Locomotive 3420. Shortly thereafter, then President Bill Howes appointed him Assistant R&LHS Secretary to coordinate with John Goodwin, then the R&LHS Secretary. When Charles Zlatkovich became R&LHS president, he asked that Mike take over the treasurer's duties. He has been R&LHS treasurer since that time. Mike has had a lifelong interest in trains. His grandfather built a small layout for him when he was quite young. He rode inside the cab of a locomotive his mother's cousin, a Santa Fe engineer, operated when he was in grade school. Mike's collection of "train things" runs from model railroads in most gauges, a 1" scale live steamer built by railroad artist Gil Reid, and an ex-Canadian National speeder painted in Santa Fe war bonnet scheme. Both the "Gil Reid" and speeder can be seen at the Pueblo Railway Museum. Mike is a supporter of a number of railroad-related organizations, including the NMRA, TCA, SPH&TS, North Alabama Railroad Museum, Pueblo Railway Museum, Colorado Railroad Museum, Galloping Goose Historical Society, Rocky Mountain Railroad Club, Colorado Midland Quarterly, NARCOA, Denver Garden Railroad Society, and the Lexington Group.