A local film prop got some red-carpet treatment by the Durango City Council on Tuesday.

The council agreed to schedule a public hearing Feb. 7 for an ordinance to make the Emma Sweeney, a movie model of an old Western steam engine, into a local landmark. It’s currently on display in Santa Rita Park.

Its possible placement in the Durango Register for Historic Landmarks also will be discussed at today’s Historic Preservation Board meeting.

George Niederauer, president of the Durango Railroad Historical Society, said landmark status would help in getting grants and donations.

He would like to raise as much as $70,000 to make the Emma Sweeney appear as a 1870s-style steam engine. This was how it was portrayed in the 1950 Western, “A Ticket to Tomahawk,” which starred Anne Baxter, Walter Brennan and Marilyn Monroe as a showgirl. Part of the funding will go toward putting up informational signs by the train in Santa Rita Park.

Supporters say the movie and the Emma Sweeney helped launch Durango as a popular setting for many Hollywood movies.

The steam engine, however, never appeared in another movie, but it was a regular in the 1960s TV show, “Petticoat Junction.” Niederauer said its current look is more in the style of the TV show.

To restore the Emma Sweeney’s as the 1870s steam engine in “A Ticket to Tomahawk,” Niederauer would like to replace as many as 70 parts and paint signature graphics of clipper ship masts on its tender, or the holding tank for the coal.

The steam engine was relocated to a pavilion in the Santa Rita Park in November 2011 after the Durango Railroad Historical Society gave a $5,000 donation to its former caretaker, the Amador County Museum in California.

jhaug@durangoherald.com