Just in time for Snow Train visitors, two new displays about the C&NW 1385 have been put up in the depot. One new display breaks out all the parts of the locomotive and describes the restoration status for each element. The second display discusses the importance of the 1385 to the museum as its “Ambassador of Steam,” traveling around the Upper Midwest in years past providing a chance for thousands of people to experience steam railroading in their own cities and towns.

Additional displays on the 1385 (and other equipment) are planned for the 2014 season as well. Special thanks goes to volunteer Randy Long (Long & Associates Creative Services) for doing the lion’s share of work on getting these together!

Speaking of the Ambassador of Steam, a new 1385-exclusive special edition of the Mid-Continent Railway Gazette is at the print shop and is expected to be going in the mail to Mid-Continent Railway Historical Society members sometime next week. At 52 pages, it is the largest Gazette ever and covers the locomotive’s 1983 travels over the Chicago & North Western system to events at Butler, WI, West Chicago, IL, Boone, IA, Marshalltown, IA, Marathon, IA, Duluth, MN and many other points along the way that year. Once it arrives from the print shop, the issue will also be made available for sale to non-members by calling the Mid-Continent office.

Cover of Mid-Continent Railway Gazette No. 46, No. 4. The issue recounts the C&NW 1385’s travels around the Upper Midwest in 1983. Cover photo by Brian Allen shown is the 1385 leaving the Wisconsin State Capitol behind on Sept. 6, 1983.