Help Save a Legend!
Missoula’s Northern Pacific Engine 1356
We’ll be at Missoula Farmer’s Market on most Saturdays this summer, from 8:00 to 12:30, which is of course where you can visit the 1356. Starting Saturday May 20th and through June 28 we’re holding a Train Lovers Raffle. Support the effort to restore the engine with a chance to win a Pacific Fast Mail HO scale model of the 1356, a Brio set for kids, vintage photographs and art and other prizes. You can also get your tickets from us online. Details here!
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Northern Pacific 1356, an icon of Missoula’s railroad history.
Here she is in 1955, being placed on permanent display 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. Friends of The 1356 have organized to cosmetically restore the engine to remain a proud symbol of Missoula’s railroad past. Photo courtesy Museum of the Rockies, RVN19992
Restoration update: Memorial Day
It’s Memorial Day weekend, which means June is just around the corner. In June, we're getting the pigeons out of the cab, finally.
This may not sound like much of an accomplishment, but, while I’m sure pigeons are admirable organisms in their own right, these ones have been a long time pain in our collective backside. Pigeon poop is acidic: it can corrode and erode metal, brick, and stone. These pigeons have been working on their personal compost pile for years while we struggled to find a solution: but hallelujah, one has been found.
If you will, please thank Andrew Skibo, who is taking on this execrable (utterly detestable; abominable; abhorrent) job for the love of Engine 1356 and on behalf of her public, and deserves maybe a cake or a steak or at least your thoughts and prayers when he ventures boldly where no other man has gone, into the land of pigeon poop. And this is vintage pigeon. This is archaeological pigeon. Note how close "execrable" is to "excretion”— but they are not the same word. Execrable comes from a Latin word meaning expressing or involving a curse. We all know what excrete means. But Andrew will be power washing them right out of there.
Immediately after pigeon eviction (at which point we will need to at least buy him a beer, or several), Andrew will commence to seal off the cab so the pigeons can't move back in.
The semaphores will also be painted in June.
After this will come the cab front door frames, getting the bell polished and ready to ring in Farmers Market, work on getting that whistle. Lighting the engine is also a work in progress.
The immediate projects require lexan, chicken wire, tarp, a few gallons of paint. We're running a small raffle, starting May 24th at Farmer's Market, to cover supplies and sundries, please see more here! Support the 1356, and win yourself an HO brass 1356 model or a Brio set for kids, and other fun things.
We hope to have Phase 2 done by the end of summer. For more about that, visit the restoration page.
The headlight ring for the 1356 was stored in the roundhouse, and when the roundhouse was torn down, it was stored in a garage, for 40 years! It has been returned to us and repaired, and the glass replaced with lexan. Also here’s a shot of one her new number boards. The last 6 has been put in place since this photo was taken.
Help us give the 1356 her voice back!
A YouTube video with 4-6-0 whistle sounds
Listen to a Rizzoli whistle
If you’d like to support the 1356 by donating to our general fund, which includes support for the engine’s long term maintenance, you can become a Friend of the 1356 here.
The 1356’s whistle would be reserved for occasions and events, and as the engine doesn’t have steam we’d probably have to use an air compressor… But wouldn’t it be great to be able to hear it?!
We’re looking at a reproduction whistle from Rizzoli Locomotive Works. This is a high end item, $2500. We’d talked about making a wooden whistle just for looks, but that would deteriorate and continue to need to be replaced. The whistle from RLW would last for many years, and on a sweet summer evening in Missoula you’d sometimes be able to hear the 1356, just like she was coming into the station over 70 years ago.
Contribute to a whistle for the 1356!
What the 1356 means to Missoula: Your stories
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
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.
… 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
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.
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
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.
NP X1356E, with NP 1356, Class S-4 locomotive moving freight between Missoula and Bonner, MT, June 23, 1942.
Ron V. Nixon photo, Museum of the Rockies RVN11827
Show your support for the 1356 with a T-shirt or hoodie!
Proceeds benefit the 1356 restoration
