Help Save a Legend!

Come visit us December 6 at Holidays on Higgins, when we light Engine 1356!

The 1356 on display in front of the historic Northern Pacific depot in Missoula, MT, with her semaphores newly painted, thanks to Scott Wolff of Iron Horse Towing. Check out our restoration update for work accomplished and in progress.

1356 History

1356 stories

Restoration update

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Northern Pacific Engine 1356 in Missoula, Montana, at Market Square in front of the old NP depot, getting ready for the holidays! That’s Andrew Skibo putting up lights. The engine was placed on permanent display in 1955, after being donated to the city by the Northern Pacific Railroad. The 1356 represents over 100 years of community and story, including being a rescue engine in the 1910 fire, but she hasn’t received any maintenance in 20 years. Friends of The 1356 have organized to cosmetically restore the engine to remain a proud symbol of Missoula’s railroad past.

Northern Pacific 1356, an icon of Missoula’s railroad history.

We’re lighting Engine 1356 for the holidays!

Engine 1356 is getting a wreath and garland and Christmas lights this year—and her headlight and number boards will shine for the first time in 70 years. Missoula’s Downtown Association’s Holidays on Higgins event is December 6 at Market Square in Missoula, from 4-7 p.m. When the Downtown Association lights their Christmas treeat 6 p.m., we’ll be lighting the 1356. We’ve gotten a lot done this year and we feel it’s time for a celebration! Be sure to stop by and see us, we’ll have a booth on Higgins with a conductor, brakeman and engineer, and drawings for free prizes.

Thanks to Garnet Ghost Town and the Garnet Preservation Association’s License Plate Grant, which funded our electrical work

We’ll also be at the Winter Market at Southgate Mall, December 27, January 3 and 10

Help us keep working on NP 1356

Next up: Rebuilding the cab. Repairs to the tender are planned for spring

We envision the 1356 in her future as a newly painted, well maintained attraction with lights, bell and whistle, an informational kiosk, an educational opportunity for kids to peek inside the cab (and adults too), and with community events surrounding her, but we need your support.

Our next goal is rebuilding the cab, which we plan to do off site this winter. We have woodworking space and tools managed and we’re researching materials. We’re applying for a grant of up to $5,000 in matching funds; your donations will help us do this. Tender repair has been funded by our grant from Garnet Preservation Association and will begin this spring. Click here to donate on line or for our mailing address.

You can also help with a membership or sponsorship. Annual memberships will keep the effort to restore the engine alive and maintain it in perpetuity. Memberships start at $25 up to $200, and they all get our 2026 calendar, A Railroad Town Then and Now. The calendar features Ron V. Nixon photos, some from the private family collection and previously unpublished, great “now” photos from Mitch Dahl, and other historic photos, as well profiles and memories of people from the railroading community. You can preorder just a calendar if you like, that helps too! Calendars and memberships are available in our online store.

From top left, clockwise: Missoula’s Northern Pacific roundhouse, 1883. Depot and turntable from Waterworks Hill, and Railroad Street looking north, Mitch Dahl photos. Railroad Street looking north in 1918, Robert Graham photograph, and then Missoula roundhouse, 1975, by Mitch Dahl.

Sponsorships start at $500 and will include your information in our social media and on this website, as well as the sponsor’s name on a banner on the engine’s tender. You can contact us to find out more about becoming a sponsor or go to our donation page to contribute directly.

What the 1356 means to Missoula: Your stories

Philip Dahl worked on the 1356 as a fireman, including its last trip as a helper engine for the North Coast Limited to push the passenger train over Evaro Hill in 1954. Photo by son Mitchell Dahl, on the event of his dad’s retirement. Read about Phil Dahl, and see some of his son Mitch’s photographs, here.

Stories of the brakemen, the firemen, the engineers and their families, and the people of Missoula for whom the railroad was part of the fabric of life. The history of passengers she carried and businesses that depended on her. These are why the 1356 matters to Missoula. If you have a story or photos to share, perhaps a childhood or family memory, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us through the form below, or email stories@missoula1356.org

… and passing the stories on

Trains are magical for adults and children alike, and the 1356 still has plenty of magic, though its fires are out. The 1356, keeper of story and history, community and magic, needs to be preserved for our children.

- Mayor John Engen, May 9, 2009, Missoula 1356 Day

The 1356: A Brave Engine, is a children’s book about the history of the engine, a boy who loves her, and its role in the 1910 fire. Copies are available through our online store. Profits from books sold through the website go to Friends of the 1356.

The 1356: A history

The 1356 when she was a year old, posed in front of the coal dock in Spokane, Washington, in 1903.

Melberg photo, Museum of the Rockies RVN06916

Northern Pacific 1356 was built in 1902. First she pulled the NP’s North Coast Limited passenger service between Missoula, Montana, and Spokane, Washington. Later she was reassigned to branch line freight, mixed and passenger service, largely in the Missoula area and between Missoula and Wallace, Idaho.

The engine’s most famous story is her role in 1910 as a rescue engine, when fires raged across the northwest. In the Big Blowup, the 1356 pulled families from Idaho to safety in Missoula, driving through fires on both sides of the track. She worked through floods, through snow slides, and finally a wreck on the Bitterroot River in 1943.

Thirty-six of the 40 S-4 10-wheelers that were built were turned into scrap iron half a century later. The 1356 was saved by photographer Ron Nixon and William McLeod of Missoula when they convinced the NP to refurbish her and donate her to the city of Missoula as a static display.

Here is her history, with photographs, from the Summer 2006 Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association’s Mainstreeter.

Speak up for Missoula’s 1356!

Community response is an important part of grants, fundings and permissions. Please let us know by checking “yes” in the box below if you’d like to see this historic engine maintained. We’d also love to hear your questions, suggestions, and welcome your expertise. You can sign up for our mailing list here too. Please know that we’re working on volunteer opportunities. We’re especially in need of licensed contractors.