A fluorescent green notice is posted on a locomotive sitting at Ione Station. Photo by: Roger Phelps

The 120-ton diesel-burning locomotive sitting at Ione Station isn't going to power up by itself for a move out of Ione, as station owner Union Pacific Railroad now demands.

But if it must move, who will move it, and to where?

The old Amador Central Railroad engine is a familiar sight for students walking to nearby Ione Junior High School. Ione is in negotiations with UP to take possession of the historic rail yard, with hopes of refurbishing it as a tourist destination walking distance from Main Street.

"This locomotive is the last engine to work in service on the historic Amador Central Railroad," said Larry Bowler of the local club Recreational Railroad Coalition, Inc.

However, on Feb. 4, a Union Pacific Police Department officer visited the Ione yard and stuck fluorescent green notices on the still-gleaming black hull of the train engine. They are notices of the owners being in violation of the California Vehicle Code by abandoning a vehicle on private property.

"This is not a traffic citation," the notice reads. "Continued violation may result in a citation."

The last time the old locomotive moved was June 6, 2008, from Martell to Ione, when the boys at Lynch's Automotive of Martell provided start-up power - a rig of batteries in series. The idea of current owner Doug Morgan was to preserve Old No. 10 from the hands of scrap-metal dealers. The engine made the 10-mile run to Ione down the old Amador Central Railroad track, past the boundary of track owned by Sierra Pacific Industries, which wanted out of the railroad business.

Nobody in Ione said much - the old rail yard where the engine now rests is Union Pacific property.

Members of the Amador County Historic Railroad Foundation are interested in keeping the locomotive in Amador County and maintaining it, and have placed a pair of buckets, which they empty regularly, to catch leaking gear lubricant, said founder Colin Frost.

"We're trying to get information from UP on what the options are on what can be done," Frost said.

Current engine owner Morgan said Monday he didn't have time to comment, and his phone did not take calls later in the week.

Bowler said he believed Morgan, a resident of Portola in eastern Plumas County, has been sent a certified letter by UP informing him of the notice of violation.

UP western region spokesman Aaron Hunt said the company has given Morgan 30 days to move the locomotive and that he has indicated he will attempt to comply.