The Best of Everything: The Little Charmer, the Steam Queen, and the Big Top
As the North Western’s “goodwill ambassador,” Ten-Wheeler 1385 thrilled thousands in the 1980s
As the North Western’s “goodwill ambassador,” Ten-Wheeler 1385 thrilled thousands in the 1980s
During the late 1970s and early ’80s, when I was manager of Chicago & North Western’s Wisconsin Division, there wasn’t much left in most railroads’ tills for public relations and advertising. In our neck of the woods, when most folks thought about railroads, what came to mind was the Milwaukee Road bankruptcy. Our railroad had made a lot of progress since becoming employeeowned in 1972, and many North Western people, including me, felt we had a positive story to tell — but we also understood the financial realities. Having grown up during the tail end of the steam era, and having begun my rail career when roads like the Burlington, Reading, and Union Pacific had steam programs of one kind or another, I understood the fascination and could see the benefits.
Back in 1967, as a C&NW trainmaster at Madison, Wis., I became familiar with the Mid-Continent Railroad Museum at nearby North Freedom and its former C&NW R-1 Ten-Wheeler, No. 1385. Mid-Continent at the time was considered to be one of the premier steam-railroad preservation sites in the country, and the idea of bringing the 1385 back to the main line as a public-relations tool to show what all we’d accomplished began rattling around in my brain. Also, I thought our employees’ morale would benefit from the public’s seeing what they did and had accomplished.
Fast forward to 1981, when a couple of seemingly unrelated events set things in motion. The first was one of my periodic meetings with FRA inspector Jack Schweger. As we were breaking up he told me he’d heard I’d like to “do something” with the 1385 and would do what he could if I ever came up with a plan.
Not long thereafter I was in Vice President, Operations, Jim Zito’s office to pitch a safety program we wanted to initiate on the division. In the process I noticed a framed photo behind his desk of a group of railroaders posed in front of a C&NW steam locomotive and asked about the details. He told me his father had been a Chicago Division engineer and the photo was of his engineer class’s promotion. Our conversation turned to steam, giving me the opportunity to propose my idea.
Zito was aware of the Union Pacific’s
involvement with volunteers restoring Challenger 3985. He told me to explore what could be done on our railroad, with the understanding that any restoration would have to be done by volunteers. He also said he thought one or more of the North Western’s 4-8-4s had gone to Mexico and might still be there. I didn’t think that was the case, and despite visions of roaming around Mexico on expenses, I knew where to find what I thought would be the ideal locomotive in the 1385. She was big enough to impress, small enough to go anywhere, and simple enough to minimize the chance of problems as well as maintenance. Plus, she was representative of the railroad’s largest single class of steam locomotive.
PITCH TO THE PRESIDENT
In October 1981 I made my recommendation to use the 1385, also mentioning my feeling, based upon preliminary discussions, that the museum would be agreeable. Zito agreed, and the two of us approached President Jim Wolfe with the idea. Wolfe saw the benefits, but didn’t feel the railroad could support a fullblown program — though he did leave the door open for more limited activity. This made me think of a promotional train on the Wisconsin Division during the May 1982 National Transportation Week pulled by the 1385 and consisting of a new diesel locomotive and freight cars that we had recently bought or rebuilt, along with a business car or two to entertain customers and other guests. The message would be, “Sure there’s a recession and things are tough, but we’ve invested in new locomotives and equipment and upgraded our track to be ready when things pick up. Here’s a look at the past and the future; check us out, meet our employees, and prepare to be impressed.”
As an additional benefit, the first
weekend of Transportation Week would coincide with the C&NW Historical Society’s annual meeting in Green Bay, a logical place to begin the tour. I thought we’d call it the Prosperity Special, in a nod to a 1922 train of the same name consisting of 20 new Southern Pacific locomotives being shipped from Baldwin. Zito liked it, and Wolfe said OK. So did the FRA, whose subsequent inspection of the 1385 revealed few problems. When the leader of the FRA inspection team, upon first seeing the locomotive, said, “She’s a little charmer, isn’t she?” I was pretty sure we’d get their approval.
Mid-Continent leaders saw the benefits of partnering with us, so agreement wasn’t hard to reach. Two museum volunteers were to accompany the 1385 and be responsible for firing and maintaining it, with lodging and meals to be paid by the railroad along with the costs to prepare the engine. Another provision was that there would be an annual trip on our line through North Freedom to benefit the museum.
Some of the FRA-mandated work to prepare for the Prosperity Special required a drop pit and couldn’t be done at the museum, so in mid-April the 1385 ran from North Freedom to Green Bay, where a group of 15 or so employees led by motive power foreman Al Kawalek had volunteered to be involved.
The two-day trip was uneventful, and gave us a taste of things to come. Despite there being no advance publicity, there were people smiling and waving all along the route. The same was true of the breakin run on the Green Bay–Oconto Falls wayfreight a couple of weeks later, during which we got the idea for outreach to schools. While we prepared to depart Oconto on the return trip, four busloads of school kids arrived to check us out and get impromptu lessons in history and safety. We were waiting at Oconto for the arrival of VP-Transportation Ed Burkhardt’s inspection train, which eventually arrived with the customary two F units, but, as a surprise for Burkhardt, departed behind the 1385, with him at the throttle.
The Prosperity Special — 1385, an auxiliary water car, a nearly new GP50, a boxcar for supplies and tools, a covered hopper, a coal hopper, a gondola, TOFC and auto-rack cars, plus a waycar and two business cars — left Green Bay for Milwaukee on May 16 on the first leg of its week-long tour. On the itinerary were two Milwaukee-area trips, one of which was for the media, and trips from Milwaukee to Janesville via Deval and the Northwest commuter line, Janesville to Madison, and finally Madison to North Freedom.
Each day’s trip was broken into segments of an hour or two, each with a new group of guests and a photo runby en route. Someone had suggested that I should be at the throttle for the first segment, and of course, I was only too happy to oblige. After leaving the Green Bay depot, the railroad ran south through an industrial area before turning east to cross the Fox River on a long bridge before beginning an uphill climb. A we neared the end of the bridge, I widened on the 1385, which had been equipped to control trailing diesels, and dialed in a notch or two on the GP50, only to find our speed decreasing as we bit into the hill. The more I increased power the slower we went until finally, on the verge of stalling, I shut off and set the brake until we could figure out what was up. We had tested just about everything on the break-in trip but never thought of the remote-control box. It didn’t take long to figure out the problem: the box was wired to go in reverse when the control was set to “forward!”
In previous years, and still ongoing in 1982, the North Western had a badly needed and very aggressive line-abandon
ment program, with Wisconsin being among the states most affected. Not surprisingly, this strained relations with state and local officials. We invited some of them, along with customers and their families, to ride in the business cars, which I think made new acquaintances, fostered understanding, and made later dealings easier. The women in these groups couldn’t get over the size of the businesscar kitchens and all that the chefs were able to produce from those tiny facilities. One Milwaukee newspaper devoted an entire section to them, and there was a lot of resulting press coverage of the special, the C&NW, and the railroad industry in general.
My secretary, Sue Gensler, had once worked for a public-relations firm and handled the p.r. aspect of the operation, arranging for media coverage and a host of other details. I later learned that her work on the projects had earned her the nickname “The Steam Queen.”
I still have a box full of complimentary letters from various folks who had ridden or seen the train. Sue made a brochure out of a bunch of them, which we sent to President Wolfe and others in Chicago. I think that helped in the subsequent decision to extend the program. Another factor was the invitation of C&NW vice presidents and other officers and their families to be our guests on the Milwaukee–Janesville segment. Many had been skeptical, but were impressed by the crowds along the way, with several expressing surprise that we were on time.
The North Western’s Iowa Division was headquartered in Boone, which celebrated its railroad heritage with an annual “Pufferbilly Days” event in September. When Division Manager George Maybee learned of the Prosperity Special’s success, he asked if it was possible to get the 1385 out there and offer public rides from Boone over the nearby Kate Shelley Bridge. This required an extension of the FRA approval, which had been only for the previously planned Prosperity Special, as well as arrangements with Chicago commuter agency Metra for the use of some bi-level commuter cars to carry passengers, approval from Mid-Continent, and a host of other things. It all fell into place for the September 1982 operation, which became the model for our subsequent “Goodwill Ambassador” program.
BUILDING ON SUCCESS
With the success of the Prosperity Special and Pufferbilly Days, the main question about an ongoing program was the cost and location of boiler work on the locomotive to satisfy the FRA, which had provided a short list of items for the Prosperity Special as well as a longer and more expensive one should we decide to extend the program. The answer turned out to be the Milwaukee Boiler Co., whose owner had contacted me with an offer to
perform the work at a very reasonable price. So upon its return from Iowa, the 1385 went back to Green Bay to be stripped of external piping and jacketing and then moved to Milwaukee.
Upon completion of the boiler work the engine was moved back to Green Bay to be reassembled. In late May 1983 it ran to our big Milwaukee-area yard at Butler to begin its Goodwill Ambassador career on “Butler 400” trips in connection with Butler Railroad Days, an event similar to Pufferbilly Days organized by Chamber of Commerce President Jerry Hilton, who was also active in the local NRHS chapter.
Meanwhile, our program had taken shape so that we would make the engine and train available to on-line groups such as Chambers of Commerce, Rotary Clubs, and the like, with a charge based upon our out-of-pocket costs and for them to raise funds by selling train-ride tickets. We’d gather the requests and put an itinerary together that made operational sense and accommodated as many as of them possible. En route to and from these locations we’d make stops for schools, with other displays at layover and other locations to get as much benefit as we could from being there. Employees at a number of locations arranged “open house” displays and activities as well. The North Western donated a surplus business car and a lightweight baggage car to the museum, the business car to be a dormitory for accompanying volunteers and the baggage car to house a workshop/storage area, a gift shop, and an exhibit area. These tours and trips continued through 1985; a planned 1986 schedule had to be curtailed to eliminate passenger trips due to the cost of insurance.
1385 JOINS THE CIRCUS
A train to move equipment from the Circus World Museum (CWM) at Baraboo via C&NW lines to Milwaukee for a parade had been an annual event in the 1960s. After a hiatus, it was resumed in 1985 — with the 1385. The train consisted of antique circus wagons on restored circus flatcars as well as three or four CWM-owned passenger cars for the museum’s guests and a North Western business car for ours. It was unloaded near Milwaukee’s lakefront, where there was an oldfashioned “big top” circus and displays, which included the 1385. Portable steps enabled the public to inspect the 4-6-0’s cab, and the lines for this were often as long as for the circus itself. The Ten-Wheeler also headed the train in 1986 and again in ’87.
The train would return to Baraboo behind diesels, while the 1385 was usually routed elsewhere via Chicago, where it would be on display in North Western Station for several days, visible to thousands of commuters each morning and afternoon. It would then be serviced and washed prior to resuming its schedule at our M-19A enginehouse, whose two remaining coal docks made for interesting photos. The 1987 display included a “photo op” for the media and a speech from the business car in the depot as part of Chicago’s sesquicentennial celebration.
In the 1980s there were still employees who had worked on steam in the ’50s. One of them was Wisconsin Division traveling engineer Gary Selk, whose father had been
We found the problem: The diesel-control box was wired to go in reverse when the control knob was set to “forward!”
a roundhouse foreman and passed along some of his steam knowledge. Gary became the de facto project manager and coordinator of the work on and operation of the 1385, as well as doing most of the running on our division. He was one of the keys to our success. Others without whom I wouldn’t have dared to attempt the project were Mid-Continent’s Skip Lichter, Carl Ulrich, Tom O’Brien, and Rick Peters, who had kept the engine percolating at the museum. Artist Gil Reid was part of the team too, contributing pen-and-ink pieces for us to use.
CROWD-PLEASER
Given my division manager “day job,” I didn’t travel as much with the 1385 as I might have liked, but one of the most enjoyable and rewarding parts of doing so was talking with people along the way. They ran the gamut from kids who had never seen a steam locomotive to retired railroaders and their families. One of the common things that we heard from the latter was that a family member had worked on the 1385. We knew, given where it had been assigned, that this was unlikely, but finally it dawned on us that if you were a C&NW operating employee in the steam era, chances are you’d worked with an R-1 at some point.
The 1385 did a lot of good in its ambassador role with trips in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Michigan during 1983, ’84, and ’85, and opened the door for trips with other excursion engines on both the North Western and other Midwestern roads. But as its novelty wore off, so did its effectiveness as a p.r. tool. And it became a heavier burden for operating personnel as divisions were consolidated and local management was reduced, especially given our new “executive” passenger fleet and F7s and the in
creasing number of moves they generated.
A 1988 survey by Jim Zito revealed support, but also a feeling that it was time to dial things back somewhat. By this time, insurance issues had already made that happen, but the final word came from President Robert Schmiege, who said that use of the 1385 “reinforces the already generally held image of railroads as low-tech antiques” and recommended that we discontinue its use. After that, the 1385’s only moves on the North Western were ferry trips to and from activities on other railroads in Wisconsin.
In 1985 the Wisconsin Division was consolidated into the newly created Northern Division in St. Paul, where I became division manager. The next year I became vice president of investor relations in Chicago, followed by a succession of other jobs. I felt good about the steam program, as well as the unique and rewarding experiences and opportunities it provided. I’m not sure any other railroad would have made them possible for a division superintendent.
CHRIS BURGER, retired since 1998 from a career with NYC, New Haven, C&NW, Central Vermont, and Central of Indiana, lives with his wife Rita in Indiana. This is the 16th entry in his “Best of Everything” series.