Frisco 4-8-2 1522's Last Run in 2002: The Ozark Flyer!!!

        The train was called the Ozark Flyer. I then spoke with my father to see if this historic last run could be attended by, you guessed it, me and dad! He immediatly said yes! We only got to see it on the 28th however, I had to be home Sunday the 29th. We took off for St. Louie September 27, a Friday night right after school. Film, batteries, camera, recorder, and camcorder. We stayed at Motel 6 in Caseyville, IL overnight and awoke bright and early to go see the locomotive as it departed. It was scheduled to depart at 7:30 a.m. We arrived at about 6:45. It was parked at the Amtrak depot in st. Louis. We proceded to go down towards the front of the train, the train was beautiful looking but the locomotive was the best part, and my, my did it look splendid, in its new, glossy black paint with the gold stripes, it was a sight to behold for a young railfan!

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Lookin' good in the morning sun.

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There were a few people on the bridge getting a bird's eye view of the departure.

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Steam escapes from under the engine and condenses in the cool morning air.

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Here's a nice panoramic shot of the locomotive.

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Here the crew discusses the day's business in a little "huddle".

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Here's the autorack's bath.

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They open the cylinder cocks.

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Look out for that steam, it's a little...warm.

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You can see a little exhaust coming from the stack here.

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Here you can really tell we're moving.

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Boy, was that loud, I could hear it through my earplugs!

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There's the BNSF police officer parked over there, turning on the siren for a second when people went out on the track for that "shot".

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Cylinder cocks still open it passes our location.

        We watched as the train rounded the curve by the old un-used interlocking tower leading into Union Station. The train looked splendid, the crew and tool cars painted in the Frisco Firefly scheme, the PRR cars, the UP's, any kind of road name, including the other Frisco Firefly car Chouteau Club, a private charter diner/lounge, on the rear an L&N observation brought up the rear, well sort of...the train was perhaps ruined when we saw what was behind the observation...an Amtrak P42 Genesis locomotive number 205 was coupled to the rear of the train as backup power and HEP. Hard to believe that something so nice could lead the train, and a worthless piece of steel could be drug around on the back, I bet the crew on the Amtrak unit thought, "Oh boy, now we get to ride backwards for 14 hours!" As the sun rose on that fine Saturday it turned warm and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The trees in the Missouri Ozark countryside had just started to turn vibrant fall colors.

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The old interlocking tower and the crowd stands by as it dramatically leaves the Amtrak Station.

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Here we see the huge smoke plume.

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Here's the Chouteau Club.

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Here's the whole train, with the P42 on the back.

        We chased the train out to an industrial park near Maplewood along I-44. About now it was doing maybe 10 miles per hour. I was recording sounds and takin' pix the whole time, charishing the sound of the loud exhaust echoing off the nearby buildings.

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Here it came around the curve, whistle blowing.

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I got a toot of the whistle and a friendly wave from the engineer.

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Here's a nice panoramic shot of the engine and tender.

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Here's the engine, tender and 1522A: the auxiliary water tender.