The Railroad Museum of Oklahoma invites you to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the debut of the Frisco 1519 4-8-2 Mountain steam locomotive.
The purpose of the event is two-fold. First, to celebrate the 100th birthday of our Frisco 1519 4-8-2 steam engine. The locomotive was built by Baldwin Locomotive in Pennsylvania in 1925 as one of 30 such engines, designed to pull both passenger and freight trains across vast stretches of the U.S. southwest and south-central area, including Oklahoma. Before her retirement in the early 1950’s, it’s conservatively estimated the 1519 traveled at least 1,700,000 miles in revenue service. Retired in 1954 and moved to the park north of St. Mary’s Hospital, the 1519 languished as a tourist attraction for the next 43 years, often neglected, at least once up to her drivers in flood waters, and fortunately never the scene of a serious accident from those who loved to climb all over her.
Finally, in 1997, the museum acquired the locomotive and was able to move it by truck from the park site to the current museum location. Because of Enid’s harsh summer and winter weather, the 1519 is now in need of a total cosmetic restoration. And that’s the second reason for the October celebration. The event will be the official kick-off for the fundraising effort to clean and re-paint the locomotive back into the paint scheme you see in the photo. Thanks to the generous and beautiful work by one of our talented museum volunteers, we will be offering 13″ x 19″, framed versions of the picture you see below for $35.00. All profits from the sale of the prints will go into a special fund to raise money for the re-painting, a task that will be accomplished next spring. We will solicit other sources of funds from grants, corporate and individual donations, and the sale of additional items related to the 1519. The museum currently has a stock of the prints available in our gift shop, and they can be purchased during our regular hours of operation which are Wednesday – Friday and Sunday from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Come visit us, tour the museum, see the 1519 up close, and buy a print to help fund this needed restoration effort. The museum deeply appreciates the support given to it by the citizens of Enid, northwest Oklahoma, and many other places during its 36 years of operation. Thank you and we look forward to seeing you soon!
P.S. – The photo of the print doesn’t come close to doing it justice. You really need to see it in person to truly appreciate how beautiful it is.
