St Louis & San Francisco Railroad # 1630 leaving the engine terminal. The Illinois Railway Museum. Union Illinois USA. May 1985.

I took this photo on a May 1985 visit to the Illinois Railway Museum. St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad aka the "Frisco" Railroad steam locomotive # 1630, was built in 1918 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia Pennsylvania USA, for export to Russia.

With the breakout of the Communist "Bolshevik" revolution, the shipment was defered to several United States railroads instead. This locomotive , a 2 -10-0 type locomotive used in freight train service, worked on the Frisco untill the early 1950's. It was then sold 2nd hand to the Eagle Pitcher Mining Company in the state of Oklahoma, where its last usefull days were spent on an industrial railroad. The locomotive eventually wound up at the Illinois Railway Museum, and returned to mechanical operation in 1975. The locomotives builders plates are in both English, and Russian "Cerelic" language.

The locomotive is seen leaving the museum's engine servicing terminal, and passing the long gone Central Avenue streetcar station and concession stand . The locomotive is begining it's demonstration workday for the visiting museum public on the museum mainline.