Our look back covers her career from her restoration to service to the final day she had steam pressure in her boiler. We see the highs and lows over the years including appearances at three National Railway Historical Society conventions, deadhead runs on freight trains, excursions and days where mechanical problems wreaked havoc. Through it all the volunteers of the St. Louis Steam Train Association worked to keep Frisco 1522 in top shape for the mainline, until rising costs and declining opportunities to run resulted in her retirement in 2002.

This program looks at steam on the Burlington Route between 1958 and 1966. We see the very end of mainline steam on the CB&Q, leased Burlington Mikes on the Bevier & Southern, the last steam on the Colorado & Southern branch to Climax, and excursions with 4-8-4 #5632 and 2-8-2 #4960.

In June of 1993, former St. Louis & San Francisco 4-8-2 #1522 pulled a pair of trips from St. Louis to Centralia, Illinois, as a part of Norfolk Southern’s popular steam program. Lacking facilities to turn the locomotive in Centralia, Burlington Northern took the train on a pair of side trips from Centralia to Sesser, Illinois, where the train was turned on a wye. On the B.N., the train operated as an employee special.

The first segment covers a pair of break-in runs in October, 1991. The locomotive suffered a mechanical failure in 1990 when the axle bearings on the pilot truck overheated. Attempts to repair the problem were unsuccessful, and the St. Louis Steam Train Association decided to rebuild the truck and convert it to roller bearings. The following May, the 1522 was invited to appear at Railroad Days in the former Frisco shop town of Springfield, Missouri.

This program features St. Louis & San Francisco 4-8-2 #1522 in some of her first excursions after her return to service in 1988 and 1989, hauling excursions over the former Wabash from St. Louis to Decatur, Illinois, and Moberly, Missouri.

1905 built Louisville & Nashville 4-6-2 #152 was returned to steam in 1985. The next spring, the bugs had been worked out and the we follow the engine out on the mainline between the Kentucky Railroad Museum's site at Anchorage and Lexington, Kentucky.

In October, 1985, restored Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 #765 made her first appearance on the famed New River Train operated out of Huntington, West Virginia, by the Collis P. Huntington Chapter of the National Railway historical Society. We climb aboard for a ride behind steam on the mainline, as the 1944 Lima puts on quite a show as we ride the train from Huntington to Hinton, West Virginia.

In June, 1994, the annual convention of the National Railway Historical Society was held in Atlanta, Georgia. The convention featured two mainline locomotives: Norfolk Southern’s former Norfolk & Western Class J 4-8-4 #611, and restored St. Louis & San Francisco 4-8-2 #1522.

Travel back in time to one of the highlights of the golden era of mainline steam excursions; the 1990 convention of the National Railway Historical Society that featured four active mainline steam locomotives. The convention featured four large locomotives: Norfolk & Western 2-6-6-4 #1218, Union Pacific 4-8-4 #844, St. Louis & San Francisco 4-8-2 #1522 and St. Louis Southwestern 4-8-4 #819. All four locomotives are shown.