NORTH FREEDOM, Wis. — The long wait for Chicago & North Western steam locomotive No. 1385 to return to the Mid-Continent Railway Museum is over.
The Alco 4-6-0 returned home Saturday, July 12, after 12 years at Spec Machine LLC in Middleton, Wis., and a multi-day move from Middleton, sparking a homecoming celebration at the museum in North Freedom.
The last step in that journey came shortly after 4:30 p.m., when the museum’s Alco S1 diesel, No. 7, slowly shoved the flatcar carrying the nearly-restored engine, built in 1907, across a bridge over the Baraboo River to the museum’s depot, where a waiting crowd lined the platform and west end of the yard. Cheers erupted as No. 1385’s pilot beam, minus the cowcatcher, broke through a banner reading “WELCOME BACK CHICAGO AND NORTH WESTERN #1385.” The locomotive’s restored tender was placed behind the flatcar, which then became a stage for speakers involved in the project.
Speakers included Andy Spinelli, museum president; Mike Wahl, project manager; Pete Deets, task force member; Colin and Macklin O’Brien, sons of the late Tom O’Brien Jr., who was instrumental in No. 1385’s mainline runs over the C&NW in the 1980s-90s; and Bobbie Wagner. She and her late husband, Richard “Dick” Wagner, founded the Wagner Foundation that provided the initial financial boost for the locomotive’s restoration in 2011.
The move that concluded Saturday saw the locomotive hauled by truck from Spec to a nearby facility along the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad, where it was loaded onto a flat car and moved on the short line’s Reedsburg Subdivision to the interchange with Mid-Continent in North Freedom. While the engine was away, the tender remained at Mid-Continent, where it was restored by 2013.
The project to return the locomotive to operation for the first time since 1998 is now in its home stretch. On Monday, July 14, beginning at 9 a.m., the engine will be unloaded onto the museum tracks by a crane and reconnected to its tender. It will then head into the engine house to resume work with the goal of preparing No. 1385 to operate in 2026. That work, Wahl said, will include:
- Hydrostatic test for the Federal Railroad Administration
- Boil-out for the newly constructed boiler
- Static steam test
- Installation of the pistons, rings, and remaining valve gear work
- Boiler jacketing
- Remaining pipe work
- Additional minor work and adjustments
- Test runs and final certification by the FRA
An additional $300,000 of material and labor will be needed over the winter to reach the end zone in a project Wahl said is now at the 5-yard line. Information on how to contribute can be found at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum website.
Super cool.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün