#1352 Update
We are currently in the process of raising the 95,000 to move 1352 via railroad flat car from Taylorville, IL to her restoration home in Cleveland, Ohio. Currently 7K of the funds has been raised by private donors since we started the beginning of this year. I would encourage people who have not supported us before to take a look at us. She will be the only Frisco locomotive running after the rebuild but we need help from everyone to make this next phase a success. I encourage you to read her story below and help us celebrate the life of the men and women of the Ozark Mountains.

Rebirth of 1352 a Lady of the Ozarks

Frisco Mike 1352 should be more then a recollection of the past but viewed as living breathing machine who roots celebrate the men and women of the Ozarks Mountains. With great force in late 1944 men and machines toiled thousands of hours at the West Springfield, MO shops to forged a living machine from a lowly 2-8-0 to a 2-8-2 Mike. Sadly being birthed in late 1944 1352 was only able to work for the great Ozark fleet for 8 short years until her voice was permanently silenced by the great diesel locomotive movement in 1952.

She then became a symbol of a era gone by stuffed and mounted for all of the people to see in Kansas City Swope Park. One would think it was a good future for 1352 to be used as a teaching aid for the next generation of Americans about our rich railway heritage but it seem fate had a different path for this Lady of the Ozarks. Decades past by but only to become more cruel to this great locomotive of the Ozarks. Weather, vandals, floods were slowly taking a toll on 1352. In the 1970's the city fathers allowed trees, bush and neglect to go on around 1352 location in Swope Park. This soon led city officials to mark her as a eye sore that had to go as soon as possible.

Ejected from her original place of rest in 1985 she was moved to a local railway yard location for safe storage where she sat for a few more years. Plans to bring her back to life was explored while in storage but those plans came and went and so did another decade. Another flood and more vandals took toll some more on 1352 but some how fate had another trick or too for this Springfield built mikado.

Another group appeared in the early 1990's with plans for this lady of the Ozarks but it would require relocation to central Illinois for these plans to happen. In a quiet fanfare she moved quietly through the night, as if to be hidden from view, as if someone was ashamed to see her once again. A few days later she quietly arrived in central Illinois and once again it seem the future was bright for 1352.

The master plan was kicked off in a small but cramped engine house located in central Illinois. It seems 1352 would shine once again and her voice would be heard once again. Weekends whizzed past and the pace quicken on the progress to revive this lady of the Ozarks. But once again, a cruel twist of fate in late 1998 stopped 1352 progress once again. For reasons unknown she became entomb in that little engine house in central Illinois in 1998. Trapped with the doors shut never feeling the warm Illinois sun shining on her again for a very long time. The world seem dark and lonely for 1352 it was as if no one cared any more about this Lady of the Ozarks. The property showed signs as if a bomb had gone off and all of parts were told to scatter and workers were told to drop your tools and run never return again. A sad 1352 sat quietly in the dark in that engine house in central Illinois always spoken about as the lost lady of the Ozarks. The one engine no one ever could find or knew how to locate.

Time had to pass and a new century had to be celebrated before the next opportunity would come for this Lady of Ozarks. On December 23, 2008 while driving through central Illinois we took a tip from the internet that 1352 was located close by. With a dim flashlight to cut through the night and to shine through a brush filled fence to the surprise of me and my co-pilot Frisco 1352 had been located once again. While it was with great joy to locate 1352 we didn't know who the current owner was and the hunt was on again to see if the owner could be located and if 1352 could be purchased.

Spring sprung in 2009 and leads were going cold then on April 12, 2009 a phone call had arrived asking if we were the group interested in 1352. I really thought this was a prank call but I answered yes and here it was the owner Ted. A deal was struck and 1352 was purchased by the American Steam Railroad for scrap value. Little did our group know that calling the railroad the next day on April 13, 2009 to inform them of our intentions that our group had stopped 1352 from seeing the ultimate fate which was being scrap that Friday April 17, 2009. The railroad agreed not to seal 1352's fate but to work with us on making steps for her removal from the site to a better location.

Since that time she has been lovely taken care of and a steady stream of work has been completed to prepare her for the great move to Ohio. In 2012 came the best present of all for 1352 a engine stall in a 1905 B&O roundhouse in Cleveland, Ohio was acquired. Once again the rejected lady of the Ozark is now the star of the next generation of steam locomotive preservationist movement.

Steam locomotive preservation is more then just about the locomotive itself its about the people, places and celebration of this countries rich railroad heritage. It so happens American Steam Railroad is the next generation of care takers of this fine piece of Americana. We hope after 62 years of silence this Lady of the Ozarks will shine once again and demonstrate why she was the pride of the Frisco Springfield Missouri Shops.

Join us as we celebrate and Preserve Americans Railway Heritage by using the link below to make a tax deductible donation. Not only do you revive 1352 but you also celebrate a group of men and women who locomotive craft and pride from the Ozarks makes 1352 what she is today. I invite you to join us as we celebrate the history of the Ozarks by bringing 1352 back to life.

http://www.americansteamrailroad.org/online-donation.aspx

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http://www.facebook.com/americansteam

Best Regards,

Steven Harvey
President
American Steam Railroad
Frisco Mikado #1352