Here is a good story about a company and its employees who used the federal stay-open money to benefit their community by doing some preservation work on the town’s steam locomotive. This took place in Rolla, Missouri.

Something good from COVID-19: Restoration of Schuman Park train

https://www.phelpscountyfocus.com/artic ... bbe47.html

Good article except for the part about the locomotive "tinder".

It is nice to see the wood/steel passenger car getting respect with a good roof. I suppose it could be a circa 1900 car that has been fully sheathed in steel. I wonder if it was "backdated" with the steel fabricated oil lamp fixture?
More photos here:
http://www.rgusrail.com/moslsf1501.html

That is a great story. Local business taking advantage of the PPP and donating the labor to make a positive difference in their community. A good deed and good "advertising" for the company.

Six out of thirty Frisco Mountains survived to preservation. That's 1/5th the roster, which is very good, certainly better than NKP Berkshires (6 of 80 and none older than an S-2), or LNER A4 Pacifics (6 of 35). Granted not as good as UP Big Boys (8 of 25, or nearly 1/3rd the roster, but considering there are absolutely NO Erie steam locomotives in existence, or NYC Hudsons, very good. Just shows the near totally random nature of preservation.

Paul -

Concerning Frisco Mountains, it IS true that SLSF preserved 6 of the 1500 class 4-8-2's out of the 30 built (numbers 1500-1529). However, the railroad also built two different classes of 4-8-2's in the own shops at Springfield, Missouri. Numbers 4300-4310 (11 engines) and 4400-4422 (23 engines), and none of those 34 homebuilt Mountains (which were all built from 2-10-2's), were saved. It skew's your percentage a little bit. Sorry about that! Over all however, the Frisco did an extremely good job of preserving steam.

Les

Concerning Frisco Mountains, it IS true that SLSF preserved 6 of the 1500 class 4-8-2's out of the 30 built (numbers 1500-1529). However, the railroad also built two different classes of 4-8-2's in the own shops at Springfield, Missouri. Numbers 4300-4310 (11 engines) and 4400-4422 (23 engines), and none of those 34 homebuilt Mountains (which were all built from 2-10-2's), were saved. It skew's your percentage a little bit. Sorry about that! Over all however, the Frisco did an extremely good job of preserving steam.

Les[/quote]

Like you, I would have liked to see a 4300 and 4400 and one of their semi-streamstyled 4-6-4s saved, but they did save a lot of engines for a road their size. Plus, with the exception of one engine, those they cosmetically restored had all the lagging removed. They put rings around the boiler to stand off the thickness of the lagging and then put the jacketing over that. Lot of time it was galvanized.

Frisco1522 -

SLSF saved the engine (2-8-2 # 4018) that made its last regularly scheduled operation behind steam. Not many railroads did that. It also saved the last engine purchased new by the railroad (4-8-4 #4524). Not a lot of railroads did that. It saved the next-to-last engine put into service (2-8-2 #1355; rebuilt from a 2-8-0). In addition to the six previously mentioned 1500 class 4-8-2's, they donated four Northern's and five Mikes. As you pointed out, its regimen of preparing locomotives for preservation was probably the best in the industry. In addition to the above engines, a number of other Frisco steamers were saved due to their being sold to short lines or industrial companies. These included five "Russian Decapod's", two 0-6-0's, two Consolidations and a 2-6-0. Yes, there were some omissions, but overall, they left a wonderful steam legacy.

Les

And, let’s not forget that the Frisco removed the asbestos lagging from most of its donated locomotives as well.

This truly was a railroad that wanted dearly to preserve its history in the best possible way.

I just saw pictures. In spite of all the paint/letter/stripe instructions they asked for and I gave in detail, they're painting whitewalls on it. Frisco never ran with whitewalls. Aaaaaack!

Are you going to argue with free?

I'm not arguing with free. Their Parks department has been in touch with me for over a year about correct colors, lettering, striping and being correct with restoring her. The subject of wheels came up several times and I made it plain that Frisco didn't paint whitewalls.
The 4-8-4 in Springfield, MO is the same way. They've repainted it several times over the years and have painted the tires AND the counterbalances white. They knew better and one old guy said that's how the Frisco painted them. No sense in arguing with them, they know it all. I give up!

Yep, it's like painting the cab handrails white, or even bright yellow. Not done in the day for most railroads, but it's a modern-day safety practice, and the Painters "Know what should be done!"
Sigh. . . .

Are you 100% sure? A quick search on google did give me a picture of 4501’s builder photo, which the locomotive did have whitewalls in. I also found an earlier picture of 4503 (the first freight schemed 4-8-4) where that one had white walls on it as well.

I mean, I’ll take your word for it, because you’re the expert. But I did find two in service photos that disprove that the Frisco never had whitewalls. Maybe they never painted them on themselves, but it might be incorrect to say no Frisco locomotive ever ran with white walls.

The whitewalls were for the builder's photos. For some reason when Frisco refurbished the display engines, some of them wound up with whitewalls. Somebody's idea of "neat stuff" I guess. I shouldn't be such an ass about it. Take a look at what some goobers did to 1527 on display in Mobile, AL. RED wheels.
There's no more effort involved in doing it right than using artistic "license".