Oregon Rail Heritage Center

Our Mission: To provide for the preservation and public enjoyment of Portland's historic locomotives, railroad equipment, and artifacts, and to educate the public about Oregon's rich and diverse railroad history. The new facility is the hub of rail activity: the Oregon Pacific (shortline) and Union Pacific (mainline) railroads, and the Eastside Streetcar and (soon to be completed) Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail stations. When the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail line is completed, the Oregon Rail Heritage Center will be surrounded by over a hundred years of rail activity on all sides.

Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation

Not more than a mile away in a triangular piece of land snuggled in between the UP main line and the Oregon Pacific short line, a new 20,000-square-foot, $5.8 million shop is under construction. Eighty feet wide, and more than 250 feet long, it will house the 4449, 700, and 197, with space for another piece of rolling stock. The drop pit is huge, and the building will house offices and an upstairs interpretive gallery, something vitally needed. The turntable from Brooklyn will come along, so it will keep turning its charges for years to come.

The location of the new shop is excellent. It's adjacent to the popular Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Bicyclists and runners flood the neighborhood, and it's on both a light rail line and a new streetcar route. A nearby bridge provides an ample sidewalk and should provide spectacular views of the turntable. Portland's own locomotives will no longer be hidden from public view. They need an audience, and they need people to come to wonder about them and come to know and love them as we do so that they keep going in steam.

It's been a long road to a new home. Fund raising has brought in $4.9 million of the $5.8 million project. The Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation, formed as the umbrella group for the projects, is leading the way. Outside of Jerry Joe Jacobsen's roundhouse construction in Ohio, this must be the largest railway preservation project taking place in the nation.

Some are worried that the new building will lack the character of Brooklyn -- that it may be too sterile. It may be at the start, but it will grow and age and gather a flavor of its own soon enough. Best of all, it is a good roof, sound enough to house what are truly national treasures. Everyone, and every locomotive, needs a safe place to call home.

Jim Wrinn - Trains - May 2012

Built in 1941 as a 4-8-4 GS-4 locomotive, she is 110 feet long, 10 feet wide and 16 feet 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.

Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation

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.

Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation

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 is 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.

Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation

Mention the Daylight and you immediately think of Doyle McCormack, the Norfolk & Western engineer who left his job to go to work at the American Freedom Train in 1975 and tied himself to the SP steam locomotive that is famous worldwide. Long-time Trains readers have known Doyle, and they will be glad to know that he recently had a pacemaker installed to regulate an electrical problem with his heart. The surgery, which had to be done twice to correct an initial problem, has done little to slow him down. He can’t lift his left arm over his shoulders right away, so he won’t be running Santa Fe 4-8-4 No. 3751 on an excursion in California and Arizona later this month. But otherwise, he’s fine. Last Sunday, he was at Brooklyn roundhouse working on a door for his Alco PA restoration, leading a tour of the Daylight’s new home, and dining on a club sandwich with chips and salsa at nearby Beez’s Restaurant. McCormack says he’d love to do another long trip like the one that took him, his engine, and crew to Michigan in 2009. Coming from a Nickel Plate Road family, he’s pleased with Norfolk Southern’s NKP heritage unit (“those strips fit just right on that carbody”). And, he’s eager to see the new home for Portland’s steam engines completed soon. So for Big Mack, it’s full steam ahead!

Jim Wrinn - Trains - May 2012

Built by Pullman Standard in 1947 for the Northern Pacific Railway, the Coach/Lounge was rebuilt to a Lewis & Clark-themed Buffet Lounge car in 1955. Designed by Raymond Loewy as part of his project to upgrade NP's premier train, the North Coast Limited, the car was numbered #498 and known as the Traveller's Rest. When Amtrak took over most of the nations passenger train service, it operated as Amtrak #8354, and was later retired and sold to private parties who then operated it in charter service as Sonoma Valley. The car was donated to the Friends of 4449 in 2010, and volunteers have gone to work to bring the car up to Amtrak standards. Leases of this car help raise funds for the maintenance and operation of this car by the all-volunteer Friends of 4449.

Friends of 4449