The 1356: Cosmetic restoration update

2025 has been our first full year of working on restoring 1356, and we’re pretty satisfied with what we’ve gotten done. Our goal was to first attend to immediate needs—to weatherize and preserve the engine, and then to make visible improvements such as restoring the bell, lighting the headlight, sourcing a whistle, things we can all enjoy seeing.

Because of the generosity of people who care about the 1356, and Andrew Skibo and Scott Wolff’s hard work, we’ve accomplished much of that. There is a new cover on the exhaust stack. The number boards and headlight lens have been restored with lexan. The pigeons have been evicted and the cab cleaned out and sealed, the semaphores beautifully painted by Scott Wolff. Andrew sourced and installed a clapper for the bell, which will soon be working. Thanks to a Garnet Ghost Town License Plate grant, electrical work has been done and we’ll be able to light the engine for Christmas, and the tender will be patched and welded this spring. And, importantly, we’ve been able to pay for our insurance, keep the web page up and the lights on.

Also, importantly, Dan Hall of Preserve Historic Missoula has completed the application to have the 1356 put on the National Historic Register, which should happen in January.

Next comes rebuilding the cab. The current plan, and our next fundraising goal, is to do the work off site over the winter. When we get the cab rebuilt and the tender repaired, we’ll be able to start looking at a complete paint job—hopefully next summer, a year ahead of our goal, which is very exciting. Then we can look at designing and install interpretive signage and a kiosk.

For your interest: Displayed Steam Locomotives, Their Care and Maintenance, a document from 1974 that “provides all the information needed to prepare a steam locomotive for static display so that it does not deteriorate. The author provides detailed advice that will be useful to civic groups about how to achieve this at a reasonable price so that what should be a source of community pride does not succumb to vandals and rust.