A long neglected steam engine goes on the move this weekend

She has sat on the tracks without the steam to go around that bend for most of 20 years.<br/>Old 4500 was a steamer on the Frisco line built during World War 2.<br/><br/>Now there's a new effort to

Friday, October 8th 2004, 10:50 am

By: News On 6

She has sat on the tracks without the steam to go around that bend for most of 20 years.
Old 4500 was a steamer on the Frisco line built during World War 2.

Now there's a new effort to save it.

David Yowell, Save the Old Frisco Engine: "This is something we really need to do, as a momento of the steam age and the role that railroads played in our westward expansion."

The engine last moved in 1985, when it left Mohawk Park. A group tried to restore it but ran out of money and left it on a siding in Owasso.

This new effort has more steam behind it - and they make their first move this weekend. They'll move it 11 miles from Owasso to a warehouse near downtown Tulsa.

Two suggested viewing spots along the way are both in Mohawk Park - the main entrance and the service entrance just west of Sheridan on Port Road. When the 4500 moves Saturday, it will be for about the last time. It's too expensive to get it running again, so it will be spruced up for display at a location that's not yet been determined. One idea was to put in on the West bank of the river.

David Yowell, Save the Old Frisco Engine: If it weren't for the Frisco, who knows, but certainly, they were the reason in 1882 that Tulsa started as a village.

Yowell says when the Frisco railroad moved through Oklahoma it marked off Tulsa's main street.

This train came through much later, but it's a symbol of a common past that now stands a chance of being saved.