Mid-Continent's 1385 begins the long journey back to steam

1385 Project Manager Mike Wahl and volunteer Mike Deetz remove the locomotive's sand dome on Dec. 23, 2011. Jim Wrinn photo.

A forktruck moves in to pick off parts from the top of the boiler on C&NW 1385 at Mid-Continent Railway Museum. Jim Wrinn photo.

Volunteer Chris Zahrt uses a cutting torch to remove the petticoat pipe in the smokebox of C&NW 1385. Jim Wrinn photo.

What is it about Mid-Continent Railway Museum’s Chicago & North Western Ten-Wheeler, No. 1385 that makes people light up? Despite its relatively small size and obscurity, it still is part of the lexicon of major operating steam locomotives of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Mention it in the same breath as 844, 4449, 4501, 261, or 765, and nobody blinks.
 
Maybe it’s that the 1907 R-1 looks right at home on Mid-Continent’s short route at North Freedom, Wis.; the line was a C&NW branch that played host to the type back in the day when the railroad rostered 325 of the type in both freight and passenger service across the system.
 
Or perhaps it’s the time it spent prowling C&NW’s main lines, 1982-’87, as a goodwill ambassador for the railroad that found itself in a region overbuilt with railroads in post-industrial America. And then again, it may just be that it’s in the same league as other signature locomotives of our day, like Strasburg 90 or Sierra 3, that immediately speak of their home road.
 
Whatever the reason, this engine has a mystique about it, and it’s about to be renewed after going silent back in summer 1998. Thanks to a $250,000 challenge grant from the Wagner Foundation of Lyons,Wis., and other donors, the R-1 will steam again.
 
As a result of an invitation from my good friend ChrisZahrt, I was on hand (mapping the location of studs, washout plugs, and overfire jets in the firebox before taking a turn needle-scaling the cylinder saddle) last Friday when a crew of Mid-Continent volunteers stripped the top of the boiler. They will ship it to Deltak in Plymouth, Minn., where the old boiler, along with original plans and drawings, will serve as a pattern for a new, welded boiler.
 
Why build new instead of repair the old boiler? “We ran the numbers,” says project manager Mike Wahl. “It comes out better financially to build a new boiler than to repair the old one, and then we’ll have a boiler that will be good for another 100 years instead of always having to repair the old one.”
 
But boiler work is not the only front that Mid-Continent is pushing on to put No. 1385 back into steam. DRM in Lake Delton, Wis., is fabricating a new tendertank. Another contractor carried off the cab for rebuilding while we were stripping the boiler.
 
Behind all of this work is Mid-Continent’s good fortune to have access to the Lake States Railway Historical Society, a non-profit with a large collection of C&NW drawings. “They have been cooperative in making copies for us at a reasonable fee, and the drawings have helped Mike Wahl work with others doing the engineering work on all of these various components,” says Don Meyer, Mid-Continent’s former general manager who is now a fundraising consultant to the museum.
 
During work on the engine last Friday, I met Dick Wagner, who is responsible for the challenge grant that made the work possible. He is not only locating additional donors, but also toured prospective shops, and was helping out with the work himself. Dick is an aviation guy (he restored the Ford Tri-Motor at the Experimental Aircraft  Association in Oshkosh, Wis.) who also likes railroads. He also knows that they’re expensive to restore and maintain. But the result – the experience of a live locomotive – is worth it, he says.
 
Wagner’s gift moved the project off dead center, but more donations from other foundations and individuals will be needed to complete the job. The final price tag isn’t know, but given all the work that’s going on, I can’t see it being any less than $1 million. I hope they can find the money. One day, when the smoke billows from the stack, the pops lift, and the drivers begin to turn, as the tried and true MasterCard commercial says, all of that, after all, is priceless.