From the Trains.com web site:

Tentative farewell trip for Frisco 1522

Frisco 4-8-2 No. 1522 may get one last chance to put on a show – and on home rails, no less – before heading off to retirement.

The St. Louis Chapter, NRHS, is planning to run a pair of round-trip excursions September 28 and 29 between St. Louis and Newburg, Mo., over Burlington Northern Santa FeÂ’s former Frisco main line. The route includes the 1.2% grade of Rolla Hill.

The trip still requires approval from BNSF, said Jim Schwinkendorf of the St. Louis Steam Train Association, which operates the 1522. The excursion, pending approval, would run as an Amtrak special, which minimizes insurance costs.

High insurance costs, coupled with limited opportunities to run on main lines and upcoming mandated boiler work on the locomotive, prompted the SLSTA to announce last month that this would be the last year it would operate the 1926 Baldwin.

Ticket information for the trips should be available in the next few weeks, the SLSTA Web site said.



ddg14@msn.com

Question: Assumingthisis the final run of the Mountain, and knowing that she is owned by responsible people, will she be stored "serviceable"? Here we have an operable steam locomotive that is being retired due to artificial economic pressures placed upon her operation; given a massive cash injection, say a high budget film, or sensible insurance rates, or some well endowed steam fan says, "it's only money", will it be possible to pull her out, fire her up and return her to service?


glueck@saturn.caps.maine.edu