FL9

In the summer of 2001 we were blessed in Texas when the BNSF chose the ex-SLSF 1926 Baldwin 4-8-2 “Mountain” #1522 to pull its Employee Appreciation Special.  The engine was operated by the St. Louis Steam Train Association (SLSTA), and pulled BNSF’s special across Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas.  Due to the large number of employees working at corporate headquarters in Fort Worth, the train made multiple round trips between the auto unloading facility at Haslet and the KCS wye at Metro.  This gave us plenty of opportunities to catch him with different light at multiple locations.  Here is one of him on a sunny afternoon southbound between Krum and Ponder alongside highway 156.

I made a new Photo Gallery folder called “Frisco 1522 in Texas,” and I will add more shots of the train as I’m able to get the slides scanned.  Here is one more shot for now of 1522 accelerating northbound out of Metro as he left Texas headed back to St. Louis.  This telephoto shot where I used the curve to mask the trailing diesel from view graced the box cover of Railway Production’s video documenting the trip.

I feel very privileged to have seen this beautifully restored and maintained engine run, as the next year the SLSTA was forced to retire her for display at the St. Louis Museum of Transportation due to risiing insurance costs, needed boiler work, and increasingly limited main line access.