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.

Rainy autumn in my neighborhood, No. 2

Friday a week ago, the day that my brother arrived in Portland for his visit, we walked from the bus to the apartment; we'd had a full afternoon out and about in Portland, either on mass transit--MAX, bus, and Portland Streetcar--or on foot. As you can tell from the amount of water trapped at this corner, it had been raining hard earlier. In fact, the two of us got soaked walking from the Oregon Rail Heritage Center to the Portland Streetcar stop. Everywhere we went, we managed to avoid puddles in our path.

As we approached and I noticed this man engaged in a regularly occurring autumn activity here in Portland, I grabbed my camera from inside my raincoat and took a few photos. I didn't realize I had the bicycle in the shot until I had downloaded them to the iMac. Yea!



The bicyclist made it through the puddle, while the man with the rake diligently continued his work. We crossed the street out of view to the left where there was good drainage, avoiding our final puddle of the day.