Geesh!! I am Confused. So Many Questions…

The picture on the front of this post card shows a Mountain type steam locomotive at North

Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. The back of the post card says that it is resting after “making its first revenue run from Chicago on the new Wisconsin Central Railroad.” I can see that it is connected to a tank car, so I am concluding that it hauled a line of tank cars to this sight. That would be a revenue run. Here is a list of what confuses me: 1) What is the Frisco locomotive doing on a Wisconsin Central Line? 2) How is it that a steam locomotive is making revenue run in 1988? 3) After reading the story below about locomotive number 1522’s life after retirement from the Frisco Line, what is it doing pulling tank cars, not passengers? Below, there are a few stories related to the front of this post card. The first one is brought to us via this website: https://www.american-rails.com/wisconsin.html The events which led to the creation of the "new" Wisconsin Central Railway began in the 1980s. With deregulation afoot after 1980 and railroads merging, the Soo realized in 1984 that to stay competitive it needed to expand as well. In February, 1985 it bid out the Grand Trunk Western and Chicago & North Western to buy the greatly slimmed down Milwaukee Road, by then a Midwestern Class I. The Milwaukee acquisition gave the Soo new markets in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois. However, it also gained a heavy debt load and the expected income never materialized as planned from the takeover. To streamline operations the Soo Line formed the Lake States Transportation Division (LSTD) that would cover some 2,300 miles of track, mostly in Wisconsin but also reaching into northern Illinois and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Sault Ste. Marie. It was this network that formed the new Wisconsin Central. After a year of mediocre results with LSTD, Soo announced that it was selling the entire network to help pay off its debt from the takeover. After finding a group of buyers, the old name was brought back, including its famed shield logo; Wisconsin Central Ltd (WC). The new WC and its parent Wisconsin Corporation were both formed in April, 1987. The WC thrived, although the first few years proved very rocky as the new, upstart Class II regional found its footing. When the WC began, its 2,068-mile system was so large that it dwarfed all other Class IIs of its day. As of 1990, it was also larger than some Class Is at the time. Major connections for the railroad included Chicago, Duluth, the Twin Cities, Green Bay, and Milwaukee. During its early years it was paper that allowed the WC to prosper during the 1990s as it served 25 of Wisconsin's 52 such plants and the traffic always derived a significant amount of its earnings. However, it was also diversified in other freight such as food products, sand/aggregates, coal, chemicals, electric transformers, and other general merchandise. As profits soared the WC expanded; in 1993 it picked up the historic Green Bay & Western from the Itel Corporation. Wikipedia adds this tidbit to the history of the Wisconsin Central: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Central_Ltd. In 2001, the Wisconsin Central was purchased by Canadian National. Along with the former Illinois Central Railroad, the former Wisconsin Central became part of Canadian National's United States holdings and its property integrated into the CN system. At the time of its sale to Canadian National, Wisconsin Central operated over 2,850 miles (4,590 km) of track in the Great Lakes region. The railroad extended from Chicago into and through Wisconsin to Minneapolis-Saint Paul and Duluth, Minnesota, to Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, and north (through the Algoma Central Railway) to Hearst, Ontario. About the locomotive pictured on the post card, we find a website that has much to offer. All of the following information is from this website: http://www.stlouisnrhs.org/Frisco-1522/Frisco-1522_index.htm Frisco 1522 is a 4-8-2 'Mountain Type' Steam Locomotive built in 1926 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia for service on the St. Louis - San Francisco (FRISCO) Railway. Retired by the Frisco in the early 1950s, she was donated to the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis for display. In 1988, the all-volunteer St. Louis Steam Train Association completed a 3 year restoration of the 1522, beginning her second career as an excursion engine throughout the Midwest and South. Rising insurance costs and limited access to the mainline, coinciding with an expensive, required boiler inspection forced the 1522 out of excursion service and back into retirement as of the end of 2002. The St. Louis Steam Train Association was also dissolved at the end of 2002. A small group of former crewmen did attempt to put together a plan in the mid 2000's to get the 1522 back under steam but was unable to make much progress. With the locomotive owned by St. Louis County, the crew cars transferred to the Transportation Museum Association and our former tools and supplies locked up at the Museum, getting all the pieces back into place proved too much. Another big factor is the age of the crew - we had all aged 20 years since the original restoration was started and many of the original crew were retirees at the beginning. As expected, after leaving a 10 year waiting period for anyone to restart operations, the Transportation Museum Association sold off the Firefly, Black Gold, Bluebonnet and the 1522-A water car - a move effectively ending any chance of running 1522 again. At least we former crew have the satisfaction of knowing our hard work on those cars is now benefiting the Milwaukee Road 261 operation and the Ohio Central. The St. Louis Chapter of the NRHS has been kind enough to host a republication of the former Frisco 1522 website. As former SLSTA webmaster, I am honored to be called back to maintain it. Since there is no real news to report, this website will be more of an historical look back at the SLSTA and the operations of the 1522 and her support train. It will be a work in progress with lots of photographs, a listing of 1522's travels in her second life, and some recollections from the webmaster and hopefully other members of the crew.

The picture on the post card was taken by Thomas A. Wilson and is part of the John Bartley Collection. They gave Audio Visual Designs the rights to publish the picture on this post card. I have over 300 post cards from Audio Visual Designs in my train post card collection. I hope you enjoy this one. That is the logo of the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway (reporting mark SLSF), also known as the "Frisco".