Why did the Army move a train to a city park

Notice the soldier on the far right is smoking a cig, in his hand, in uniform, on the job, in public. 1956, and the Army was still supplying cigarettes? Huh, I wonder if any cancer victims ever sued the govt for supplying cigs during WW2 or Korea?

The engine was installed by Company C of the 84th Army Engineers from Fort Ord since the locomotive weighed 155,000 lbs and its tender 50,000 lbs. The task was not easy and the engineers used a 300-horsepower tank retriever to move the train after carefully surveying the streets between the track and the installation site.

"Old 1285" contributed by Southern Pacific and moved to its resting place by the Army at Dennis the Menace Park, the playground created as part of the El Estero Park complex in 1956. It was established with the help of Hank Ketcham, creator of the Dennis the Menace comic strip, who was a resident of nearby Carmel

For decades, children were allowed to climb all over the steam engine, but in recent years the city has become concerned about liability issues (Karens) and the engine has now been fenced off.

Lima Locomotive Works S-14 class 0-6-0 switcher locomotive build in 1924 for the Southern Pacific Railroad. It was classified by Southern Pacific as an oil-fired yard switcher, which means it remained at a freight yard to move rolling stock around to make it easier for the larger, long-distance trains to pick up stock on its way through a station. During its years as an active locomotive, SP1285 operated at the San Francisco freight yard.

For fifty years, children were able to climb on, over, and under the locomotive with virtually no restrictions in place, but new mandatory safety standards for playground safety force the city to fence the locomotive and tender and deny the public access in 2012. It was the last playground locomotive in the state to close access. Since then, the city council of Monterey has created a subcommittee to find a way to reopen the train to public access, although a solution has yet to be reached. The locomotive and tender are maintained by the City of Monterey. A community action group is currently rallying to restore the engine to playground use, which can be found at https://www.facebook.com/SaveTheTrain

Imagine if the cast of "Parks and Recreation" were to show up to some city meeting like this with the motivation to make something happen.  They would probably have more years playing the characters than the local city officials

http://heraldphotos.blogspot.com/2009/04/dennis-menace-train-jan-26-1956.html
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/dennis-the-menace-playground
https://www.kidtastico.com/dennis-the-menace-park-slides-climbing-wall-full-size-train-paddle-boats/
https://www.santacruztrains.com/2017/09/