Portland Train Day 2016, at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center, with Leland, on Saturday, May 14, 2016

At the bottom of these photos that I took yesterday, I have put a few previous photos that show several of these locomotives at other fun events. I love 'em all!


Oregon Railroad & Navigation 197 Built: 1905 Manufacturer: Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, PA Length: 79’ Weight: 200 tons Drive Wheel: 77” Tractive Effort: 30,000 lbs. Boiler Pressure: 200 psi Fuel: Oil Donated to PDX: 1958 Volunteer Organization: Friends of the OR&N 197

Built in 1905 by Baldwin Locomotive Works as a 4-6-2 “Pacific” type locomotive for the E. H. Harriman rail empire that later merged into the Union Pacific, she’s 79′ long and, with 200 psi boiler pressure and 76″ diameter drivers, is capable of sustained speeds of 80 mph.

This treasure of the early 20th Century era of steam locomotives arrived in Portland just in time for the 1905 Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition, just 17 months before the Wright Brothers first flew at 9.8 mph, when Teddy Roosevelt was President and 3 years before Henry Ford rolled out his first Model T. She then went on to serve Portland commerce for over 50 years before retirement in the 1950s. Residing as only a display piece in Oaks Park like her sisters since 1958, in 1996 she was moved to the Brooklyn Roundhouse where she is undergoing restoration today by the all-volunteer Friends of the OR&N 197.

Actually, once the Brooklyn Roundhouse became no longer available, the Oregon Rail Heritage Center was built and now houses the ORN 197 as well as other brilliant steam locomotives, a diesel locomotive, and all sorts of equipment and parts for the ever ongoing process of keeping these beauties at their best. Thanks, y'all!



ORN 197.



ORN 197.



ORN 197.



Leland taking photos of the ORN 197. It's huge!



ORN 197.



ORN 197.



ORN 197.



ORN 197.



ORN 197.



ORN 197.



SP 4449.

Southern Pacific 4449 Built: 1941 Manufacturer: Lima Locomotive Works, Lima, OH Length: 110’ Weight: 433 tons Drive Wheel: 80” Horsepower: 6,500 Boiler Pressure: 300 psi Fuel: Oil Donated to PDX: 1958 Volunteer Organization: Friends of the SP 4449

Built in 1941 as a 4-8-4 GS-4 locomotive, she is 110′ long, 10′ wide and 16′ tall. With locomotive and tender weighing 433 tons and a boiler pressure of 300 psi, her eight 80″ diameter drivers and unique firebox truck booster can apply 5,500 horsepower to the rails and exceed 100 mph. The only remaining operable “streamlined” steam locomotive of the Art Deco era, this grand Lady of the High Iron pulled Southern Pacific “Daylight” coaches from Los Angeles to San Francisco over the scenic Coast Route and then on to Portland until 1955.

Retired to Oaks Park in 1958 for display only, many thought 4449 would never run again. In 1974 she was completely restored specifically to pull the 1976 Bicentennial Freedom Train throughout the United States to the delight of over 30 million people. SP 4449 has also operated numerous excursions since. She is arguably one of the most beautiful locomotives ever built and kept that way by the all-volunteer Friends of SP 4449.



SP 4449.



Leland standing beside the SP 4449. Not long after I took this photo, the steam whistle blew!



SP 4449.



Not a very good photo, but it shows the interior of the SP 4449 cab. One other time when I was at the ORHC, I got to sit inside for a moment or two in the seat closest to the window where I stand. What a treat!



SP&S 700.

Spokane Portland & Seattle 700 Built: 1938 Manufacturer: Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, PA Length: 111’ Weight 440 tons Drive Wheel: 77” Horsepower: 5,000 Boiler Pressure: 260 psi Fuel: Oil Donated to PDX: 1958 Volunteer Organization: Pacific Railroad Preservation Association

Built in 1938 as a 4-8-4 Northern Pacific Class A design, she is close to 111′ long, 10′ wide and almost 17′ tall. With locomotive and tender weighing almost 440 tons and a boiler pressure of 260 psi, her 77″ diameter drivers can apply 5,000 horsepower to the rails and exceed 80 mph. It’s oil fired, and features design specified roller bearings throughout which was quite advanced for the era.

This beautiful example of the latter years of steam locomotive development pulled the famous Empire Builder until that train was dieselized in 1947. She continued to faithfully provide passenger service from Portland up the Columbia River Gorge to Spokane until 1956, and in 1958 the 700 was ultimately placed on permanent display at Oaks Park in SE Portland. Returned to operation in 1990, she is lovingly operated and maintained by the all-volunteer Pacific Railroad Preservation Association.

Since March 3, 2016, the SP&S 700 has been undergoing a 1472-day boiler rebuild and inspection. In 2014 at National Train Day at downtown Portland's Union Station, I won a raffle to ride behind the SP&S 700 to Pasco, Washington, to spend the night and go over the bridge into Pendleton, Oregon, for the Pendleton, Rodeo. Unfortunately, not enough tickets sold to make the excursion a sure thing. Needless to say, I was sorely disappointed. Then, due to those hidden Facebook messages, I missed the chance to ride in the cab during the 2014 Holiday Express. When I happened on that hidden message, I felt sick to my stomach. So, I contacted Steve at Pacific Railroad Preservation Association and let him know what had happened. He offered me a ride in the cab during the 2015 Holiday Express, but the cancer kept me in such a fix that I had to decline. Now I'm hoping to get a ride in the SP 4449 cab during this year's Holiday Express. Wow!



SP&S 700.



Leland took a great photo of me and the SP&S 700, including the entire bell! Do my eyes deceive me, or is that bell's clapper red like on my shoes? Wow! How cool is that!



And here we are in a photo taken by a kind volunteer. Cut off the bell, but it's still a great photo!



Nickel Plate Road 190.

History of Nickel Plate Road #190

NKP #190 was built in March 1948 for the New York Chicago & St Louis Railroad, also known as the Nickel Plate Road. Doyle McCormack's father worked for this railroad, and it was in this locomotive that Doyle had his first diesel cab ride. A Nickel Plate Berkshire steam locomotive, the #743, was Doyle's first cab ride in a steam locomotive.

The #190 ran on trains that operated between Chicago, IL and Buffalo, NY, as well as between Cleveland, OH and Saint Louis, MO. The NKP PAs were based and maintained in Conneaut, OH, Doyle's home town. Unfortunately, none of the NKP PA locomotives survived the scrapper's torch.

Nickel Plate Road #190 is a Morrison-Knudsen PA4 diesel locomotive rebuilt from an ALCO PA in 1975. Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway #62L was a PA1, sold to the Delaware and Hudson Railway (D&H) in December 1967. It is one of only two ALCO PA locomotives remaining in the United States.

The D&H renumbered it 18 and sent it to Morrison-Knudsen for rebuilding in 1975.

In 1978, this locomotive was sold to the Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México. Doyle McCormack obtained the wreck-damaged unit and brought it back the United States in 2000. Restoration began in 2002. McCormack has chosen to restore the locomotive as a Nickel Plate Road PA.

In 2012, the locomotive was moved to the new Oregon Rail Heritage Center, in Portland, Oregon.



Nickel Plate 190.



The SP&S 700 the day that I won the raffle!



ORN 197 in early stages of work that I saw at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center. SP&S 700 to the left of her.



ORN 197 awaiting reattachment at the appropriate time.



This photo gives you an idea of the size of these locomotives!



SP 4449 under steam with Union Station in the background, downtown Portland.



SP 4449 decorated one year for Holiday Express.

How I found the SP 4449 now and in the recent past. I adore this locomotive! I love the Oregon Rail Heritage Center!

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February 16, 2013, inside the Oregon Rail Heritage Center and from atop a set of stairs beside the Spokane, Portland & Seattle 700 steam locomotive, I took this photo looking across at the 16-foot tall SP 4449. You see two men and a youngster intimately involved with the steam locomotive in an all-encompassing, all-important process, explained thusly at the SP 4449 Web site:

Steam locomotives still in operation in the United States must undergo a federally-mandated inspection every 15 years. SP 4449's certification expires this year, which means there are no excursions planned while volunteers take apart and inspect the locomotive. . . . With the rebuild underway and expected to last 1-2 years, we'll also be fine-tuning and polishing up the locomotive for another 15 years of operation!

Also found on the Web site:

SP 4449 was built in 1941 as a GS-4 "Northern" type locomotive. A 4-8-4 wheel arrangement, she is 110' long, 10' wide and 16' tall. The locomotive and tender weighs 433 tons, and it operates with a boiler pressure of 300 psi. Her eight 80" diameter drivers and unique booster truck can apply 5,500 horsepower to the rails and exceed 100 mph. The only remaining operable "streamlined" steam locomotive of the Art Deco era, this grand Lady of the High Iron pulled Southern Pacific "Daylight" coaches from Los Angeles to San Francisco over the scenic Coast Route and then on to Portland until 1955. Retired to static display at Oaks Park in 1958, most thought SP 4449 would never run again. In 1974, she was selected to pull the American Freedom Train throughout the United States, and was subsequently rebuilt. SP 4449 ran for three years to the delight of over 30 million people. She is arguably one of the most beautiful locomotives ever built -- and kept that way by the all-volunteer Friends of SP 4449!
     

December 1, 2012, inside the Oregon Rail Heritage Center and from the top of a set of stairs that took me up beside the cab of the , I found the SP 4449 ready to leave the building and soon take part in the Holiday Express.

Seen outside the Oregon Rail Heritage Center

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Saturday, February 16, I enjoyed visiting the Oregon Rail Heritage Center, going in through the front door, a regular-sized-people-use-door, through the building with gigantic steam locomotives on each side of me (more photos soon), and out the back doors which are huge because the locomotives use them! 

Out back I finally got a photo that I've been wanting to take since last September. Here's the Portland Streetcar crossing over the whole area on the bridge built especially for it. That streetcar was made at United Streetcar which is in Clackamas, Oregon, southeast of downtown. United Streetcar is a subsidiary of Oregon Iron Works. On the tracks in front of me, the Nickel Plate Road 324 switcher, not operating at this moment, so I'm completely safe. To the left, those ramps are part of the Marquam Bridge, I-5 north and south. The buildings in the distance are in downtown Portland.

Seen from the Portland Streetcar

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I'm in the streetcar on a bridge that goes over the railroad tracks, taking this photo through the huge window. The slanted-roof white building is the Oregon Rail Heritage Center. The orange vintage rail cars are part of its collection. Inside that building stand three gorgeous, huge, unbelievable, vintage steam locomotives--seems like there are other vintage railroad pieces in there, too, not as large but still impressive, but I can't remember exactly what they are or how many. Anyway, it's a great place to visit for anyone who loves trains and/or steam locomotives. Only thing was, on this particular day, I got there 45 minutes early and couldn't wait around--cold, brisk wind and no nearby public bathroom. Anyway, I'm ahead of myself in relating those two facts--more about what I did when I first got off the streetcar in an upcoming post or two.

I really like this photo, all of the lines and angles, the slightly curved bridge known as the MLK (Martin Luther King, Jr.) Viaduct. I love how the oranges and reds on the vintage rail cars match the oranges and reds on the triangle flag barrier strung on a fence parallel with the vintage rail cars--it also has yellow triangle flags on it. Both the rail cars and the flag barrier match the word BETTER printed on a billboard there on the right edge of the photo. When I looked the image in its largest original size, I could see that those yellow letters spell BETTER BUTTER, so that means the ad is for a product I assume to be known as Better Butter Better--the yellow letters look like their top layer was the same red-orange as the last word, and that top layer has been peeled off those two words, all except for the bottom bit of the right leg of the R. 

Taking photos and then checking them out thoroughly is so much fun! I altered this one at BeFunky with the enhance, sharpen, fill light, and HDR effects and at PicMonkey with the contrast and highlight effects.

A shared mass transit stop on SE MLK

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January 26 after the lecture at the Architectural Heritage Center, I decided to ride the Portland Streetcar down to the Oregon Rail Heritage Center to visit the steam locomotives. As you can see from this photo, the streetcar and the TriMet bus share this stop. That's the Morrison Bridge westbound approach you see there above the streetcar.





I waited while this lady boarded the bus. I think it's fantastic how that little ramp automatically folds out of the bus floor once the driver activates it. Once the bus drove off, the streetcar moved into place beside the yellow strip of ADA truncated domes which serve as a detectable safety zone, a system of textured ground surface indicators which assist blind and vision impaired pedestrians. Personally, I find them helpful, too, especially when it's been raining. I feel like they're less slick than a wet sidewalk. Anyway, the doors on the streetcar slid open and I walked on, took a seat and looked out the huge windows as we continued southward are MLK, going underneath the eastbound exit ramp of the Morrison Bridge. I love mass transit!

Framed for Christmas, No. 5

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Christmas lights, attached to the SP 4449 while she's still at home at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center, waiting her turn to take part in the 2012 Holiday Express which ends today. I'm not riding this year, but I count myself blessed to have been able to visit her at the museum, to walk along her length and think about the intricate and impressive workings of this steam locomotive and the skills of those who care for her.

Framed for Christmas, No. 4

For my birthday on December 12, 2008, Mama and I had tickets for the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation's Holiday Express. Turned out that Mama had a head cold, it was raining and cold for Portland, so Leland went with me on a ride in a vintage railcar pulled by this magnificent steam locomotive, SP 4449. He took this photo for me because I was too short to get the entire locomotive in the shot, given the distance we were allowed to walk beyond the SP 4449.

If you're familiar with my blog, you realize that I adore this gigantic piece of machinery, so it should come as no surprise to you that one more image follows this one.

 



Massive strength and beauty, decorated for Christmas. I took this photo on December 1, 2012, at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center.

 If it fits your beliefs, join me in prayer for those impacted by the horrific tragedy in Connecticut.