SP 4449 in Albany, Ore., for repairs NEWSWIRE

ALBANY, Ore. – Former Southern Pacific 4-8-4 No. 4449 arrived in Albany on April 4 for wheel repairs at the Portland & Western’s Albany shop. Bruce Carswell, P&W president and general manager, told the Albany Democrat Herald it would be in Albany for about a week. “There’s a problem with the main driving bearing,” he said. “The reason it’s here is we have one of the only drop tables in the state that is big enough to handle such a large locomotive.” The Portland & Western is offering the City of Portland, which owns the engine, free use of the facilities and will provide some of the labor. While in Albany the engine cannot be viewed by the public. The P&W said it would release information to the public when the engine will be returning to Portland so they can see the 4449 in action.

Repairs must be completed so the engine will be ready to doublehead with Union Pacific 4-8-4 No. 844 in May when the UP engine visits the Pacific Northwest (see Trains News Wire, April 2, 2007). The two will pull a public trip from Tacoma to Everett, Wash., which will use BNSF tracks north of Seattle. It will be operated as a fundraiser for the Berriger Library in Washington State and the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation, which is raising funds for a new home for the three steam locomotives owned by the city of Portland.

The 4449, which once pulled SP’s famous “Daylight” streamliners in California, was put on display in Portland’s Oaks Park in 1958 along with SP&S 4-8-4 No. 700 (which has also been restored to service) and Oregon Railroad & Navigation 4-6-2 No. 197. In 1974 it was tapped to pull the western leg of the American Freedom Train around the United States for America’s Bicentennial. Restored in just a few months in 1974-75, the locomotive has seen occasional excursion duty ever since. All the engines from Oaks Park are now in the ex-SP Brooklyn roundhouse in Portland, but the future of the roundhouse is uncertain. The Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation is hoping to build a new home for them. For more information go to www.orhf.org.