Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- The recession has derailed a Jeff Koons sculpture involving a replica of a 1944 Baldwin locomotive with an estimated cost of $25 million, making it one of the most expensive public art projects ever undertaken.

Scheduled to arrive at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2011-2012, the “Train” project got pushed to 2014-2015 when the stock market plunged last year, erasing 23 percent of Lacma’s endowment and forcing it to rethink budget priorities, the museum said. It could be canceled altogether if the museum doesn’t come up with necessary funding.

“We wouldn’t do it unless someone funds it; someone has to write us a check,” said Barbara Pflaumer, Lacma’s associate vice president for communications and marketing. “This is a very tough economy. Everyone has revised timetables.”

The proposed sculpture would consist of a 70-foot locomotive suspended from a 161-foot-tall crane. Three times a day -- at noon, 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. -- the train will blow its whistle, puff steam and move its wheels, first accelerating and then slowing down.

“It’s very visceral,” Koons said in a 2008 Bloomberg Television interview. “It gives us a sense of this kind of power and energy and the preciousness of this moment of life.”

In addition to fundraising, the museum has to consider numerous engineering and logistical issues, from ensuring that the work can withstand an earthquake to figuring out how to change a wheel or a light bulb.

The project is still in the exploratory stage, assisted by a $2 million grant from the Los Angeles-based Annenberg Foundation. The museum will need to raise many times that amount to commission the sculpture, which would tower outside its BP Pavilion. Lacma will try to have the work endowed in perpetuity to ensure it’s always self-sustaining, Pflaumer said.

The Real Thing

During the summer, Lacma digitally scanned the parts of a real 121-foot Baldwin locomotive to prepare “a construction blueprint for the Koons locomotive,” according to Mary Ballantyne of the artist’s studio. Koons will also build a power plant to go inside and provide energy for the train’s perfomances, Pflaumer said.

The original train is being restored by the New Mexico Steam Locomotive and Railroad Historical Society in Albuquerque. The 65-year-old locomotive used to run on the Santa Fe railroad, which is now part of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. agreed earlier this month to pay $100 a share, or $26 billion, for the 77.4 percent of Fort Worth, Texas-based Burlington it didn’t already own and assume $10 billion in net debt.

‘Two Years to Go’

The restoration group has raised almost $600,000 during the past 10 years to enable the old train to run again.

“We have about two years to go,” said Albert Leffler, a member of the group and a founder of Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc.

After a year of cutbacks, Lacma is focusing on completing the construction of the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion in the fall of 2010, as scheduled.

“The train is something on our to-do list,” Pflaumer added. “There’s no question we’d like it to happen. It’s a question of whether we can make it happen.”

To contact the reporter of this story: Katya Kazakina in New York at kkazakina@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 23, 2009 00:01 EST