North Shore Scenic Railroad Brings Locomotive Back to Life

The North Shore Scenic Railroad had an exciting week, they fired up an historic locomotive for the first time this century.

The Northern Pacific locomotive #3617 was built in 1967 and spent many years hauling freight for Northern Pacific and Burlington Northern after the two railroads merged. The locomotive was renumbered several times and repainted while in operation before its retirement in March 1987.

Around the that same time Wisconsin Central Ltd. was forming and needed a locomotive, so they bought the 3617 and used it in operation and eventually for parts before donating it to the North Shore Scenic Railroad in 2001.

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Between 2007 and 2015 the historic locomotive was restored and repainted back to its original Northern Pacific colors and recently the work began to get the locomotive running again, but as you can see in the video below, it wasn't an easy task as many parts had been removed and some specially electronics were installed on the train making finding replacement parts nearly impossible.

But with some hard work and finding some creative uses for kerosene, the restoration crew at the North Shore Scenic Railroad finally got the locomotive started and even got her to move.

There is still more work that needs to be done on the locomotive before its working pulling visitors up and down the main line of the North Shore Scenic Railroad, but someday soon this classic train will be back to doing what it does best.