Pretty much all moves into St. Louis Union Station was by the tailhose, except for the MP commuter train, which pulled into the station.
I had ridden with my Dad a couple of times backing into the station on passenger runs and the Conductor knew his stuff.

Bet she get some movie roles

Talked to Tom Schneider head of the IRM steam department. He said that the extra cars really would not cause it to break any differently. When the train break applies the independent is bailed. The is nothing unusual about the application of the breaks. If I remember correctly there is 6LT breaks on the engine. There is nothing modern about them that causes it to act differently. Tom didn't know why extra cars would cause it to break differently. The one thing he did mention was that since there were more cars there would be more breaks in use.

The other added benefit would be that the engine would have more draft. Which is an added benefit. 1630 has a large fire box, a larger draft really helps the engine.

When 1630 was in Oklahoma on the Frisco she was in oil burner form. When she ran on other parts of the line she was in coal burner. I want to say she was in Nebraska for part of her life as coal. It all depended on where Frisco sent her.


1630 was up and running this weekend she was running the RPO train. There are some videos of the RPO grab on YouTube if you look. Saturday at IRM was also the UP family pick nick. 1630 got to show her self off in front of some professional railroaders. The consist was also changed the Rock Island coach was removed and a Bessemer combine was added.