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Open house set to see restoration of C&NW No. 1385
Very interesting - will be great to see 1385 back in service. Remember it heading-up the Milwaukee Circus Train for years. The open house is same weekend as the Mad City Model Railroad Show, hopefully, they’ll put some directional information at he Alliant Energy Center so folks can find it!
As a teenager in the late 1940s I often watched a pair of its sister engines at the head of the short tri-weekly local into Lander, Wyoming, the end of a C&NW branch. (The steep grade into town required double-heading.) Four decades later my wife made a donation to Mid-Continent in return for which I got to operate 1385 for an hour early one Sunday morning, before the start of regular “revenue” service, under the watchful eye of a Mid-Continent regular engineer. I look forward to seeing 1385 back in service.
That was the first steam locomotive I rode behind off a tourist railroad on the mainline when CNW ran an excursion years ago with it, a F7A, and gallery cars.
My wife and I rode this in the early 1990s. Neat operation. Can’t wait to visit and ride it again.
Realize from one who knows…when such artifices from the past are rare, they tend to get support and an occasional shot at the high iron. When they are relatively common, much of the ardor disipates.