(NOTE: This website is NOT affiliated
with Train Festival or SP #4449; visit
trainfestival2009.com &
sp4449.com for current info)
An new railroading event in Owosso, Michigan is
Train Festival,
July 23-26, 2009
at the Steam Railroading Institute, which features several
operating steam locomotives. One of these locomotives is former Southern
Pacific "Daylight" GS-4 4-8-4 #4449 from Portland, Oregon. #4449's trip
to Michigan was made possible with the help of the
American Association of
Private Railroad Car Owners and the
Friends of the 261,
who will use #4449 to power their annual fall excursions in Minnesota
while their steam locomotive, Milwaukee Road 4-8-4 #261, while is
undergoes its required 15-year overhaul. #4449's schedule is as follows:
Eastbound: July 03: Portland, OR to
Spokane, WA July 04: Spokane, WA to
Whitefish, MT July 05: Whitefish, MT to
Havre, MT July 06: Layover in
Havre, MT July 07: Havre, MT to
Minot, ND July 08: Minot, ND to
Fargo, ND July 09: Fargo, ND to
Minneapolis, MN July 10-17: Stored with
261 in Minneapolis, MN July 18: Friends of 261
trip: Minneapolis, MN to Chicago, IL July 19: Friends of 261
trip: Chicago, IL to Durand, MI July 20-22: Stored at
Owosso, MI July 23-24: Train
Festival Excursions July 25-30: Stored at
Owosso, MI
Westbound: July 31: Friends of 261
trip: Durand, MI to Chicago, IL Aug 01: On Display in
Chicago, IL Aug 02: Friends of 261
trip: Chicago, IL to Milwaukee, WI Aug 03: Friends of 261
trip: Milwaukee, WI to Minneapolis, MN Aug 04 - Oct 09: Stored
with 261 in Minneapolis, MN Oct 10: Friends of 261
trip: Minneapolis, to Winona/La Crescent, MN Oct 11: Friends of 261
trip: Winona, MN to Minneapolis, MN Oct 12: Layover in
Minneapolis, MN Oct 13: Minneapolis, MN
to Fargo, ND Oct 14: Fargo, ND to
Minot, ND Oct 15: Layover in Minot,
ND Oct 16: Minot, ND to
Havre, MT Oct 17: Havre, MT to
Whitefish, MT Oct 18: Layover in
Whitefish, MT Oct 19: Whitefish, MT to
Spokane, WA Oct 20: Spokane, WA to
Portland, OR
As the July 3rd departure date from Portland
approached, the private passenger cars for the excursion began arriving
in Portland on Amtrak trains and gathered at Union Station.
June 29:Minnesota River, Super Dome
#53 & MKT #403 on the WB Empire Builder.
June 30:Chapel Hill arrived in
Portland on the WB Empire Builder.
June 30: New York Central #3 arrived on the NB
Coast Starlight.
July 1:Caritas arrived on the WB
Empire Builder.
July 1:Colonial Crafts, Silver
Lariat, Silver Rapids & Silver Solarium arrived on the
NB Coast Starlight.
Minnesota River, Super Dome #53 and New York
Central #3 will be part of the excursion train at Train Festival and the
return trip to Portland. Caritas, Colonial Crafts,
Silver Lariat, Silver Rapids & Silver Solarium will
also be part of the return trip to Portland.
#4449 moved to Portland's Union Station on July 2nd.
The video below shows #4449 passing through Skamania,
Washington on June 3 after the passage of the day's westbound Empire
Builder, and #4449's departure from Wishram, Washington later in the
day.
Here is a look as the consist of the excursion train.
Southern Pacific #4449
A member of the fourth type of Southern Pacific's
"General Service" or "Golden State" 4-8-4 locomotives (the GS-4 Class),
#4449 was built in 1941 by the Lima Locomotive Works to pull Southern Pacific's
premier Daylight streamlined passenger trains in Southern
California. It was replaced by diesels and retired on
October 2, 1957 and donated to the
City of Portland, Oregon on April 24,
1958 and
placed on display at
Oaks Amusement Park with SP&S #700 and Union Pacific #3203. It would be the
only Daylight steam locomotive to survive (though
similar Southern Pacific non-streamlined GS-6 Class 4-8-4 #4460 also
survives and is on display at the
National Museum of Transport in Kirkwood, Missouri, it
never wore
Daylight colors). While in the park, a railroad employee named
Jack Holst voluntarily kept the moving parts of the three locomotives
oiled until his death in 1972. This would set the stage for #4449's
resurrection.
In the early 1970s, as America's Bicentennial
approached, Ross Rowland, Jr., with help from actor John Wayne, began
planning a steam-powered museum train of American artifacts called the
American
Freedom Train that would travel the United States in
celebration of the Bicentennial in 1976. By 1973, the project was
underway, but a locomotive still had to be chosen. A number of
locomotives were considered, including Union Pacific #8444, but in the
end, Southern Pacific #4449 was selected to be the American Freedom
Train's primary locomotive. On December 14, 1974, #4449 was removed from
Oaks Park and moved to Burlington Northern's Hoyt Street Roundhouse near
Union Station for restoration.
Though #4449 would actually be one of
three steam locomotives that pulled the Freedom Train, it would become
the most famous, at it pulled the train throughout the American Midwest
and West. Former Reading Railroad #2101 (as AFT #1) was used in the east
and former Texas & Pacific #610 was used in Texas. The Freedom Train
opened in Wilmington, Delaware on April 1, 1975. As it was in the east,
it began its tour with the AFT #1. Meanwhile, newly restored #4449's
boiler is put to steam on April 18 for the first time since 1957. She
moved under her own power on April 21, and was christened on May 16. She
left Portland on June 20 to take over the Freedom Train in Chicago on
August 4, after display stops in Sacramento and Ogden (and an
unfortunate encounter with a dump truck in Nebraska). #4449 will pull
the Freedom Train for the rest of its tour until it ends in Miami on
December 31, 1976, except for a brief period in the fall of 1975 when
the Freedom Train was pulled by diesels while #4449 was undergoing
repairs, about a month in February-March 1976 when Texas & Pacific #610
pulls the Freedom Train in Texas, and four months in the summer when it
is pulled on the East Coast again by AFT #1. After the Freedom Train
tour, #4449 returned to Portland by pulling a series of
Amtrak excursions across the South and West in April, 1977, still in
its Freedom Train paint but with the "Amtrak" name added to the tender.
This was known as the "Amtrak Transcontinental Steam Excursion." #4449
arrived in Portland on May 1, having visited over 30 states (many
more than once) during its Freedom Train and Amtrak Excursion travels,
and was placed in storage, although this time it would be stored
indoors, protected from the elements
In 1981, #4449 emerged, restored to the post-WWII
version of its Daylight paint (with "SOUTHERN
PACIFIC " in large lettering in the orange band) to travel to
Railfair at the newly-opened
California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. It would retain this
paint scheme for nearly 20 years (far longer than it had worn it while
in regular service & even longer than the locomotive had even been IN
regular service), as its travels included a trip to New Orleans to
promote the 1984 World's Fair, a trip to Hollywood to be featured in the
1986 motion picture
Tough Guys, a trip to Los Angeles to be a guest at the 50th
Anniversary of the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal in 1989,
additional trips to Sacramento for the 1991 and 1999 Railfairs, and
numerous excursions in the Pacific Northwest
In 2000, #4449 had the opportunity to pull
Burlington Northern Santa Fe's Employee Appreciation Special. As
BNSF didn't want to have a locomotive painted for one of the
predecessors of its competition, #4449 had to be painted black with
white pinstripes and BNSF heralds for the trip. After the BNSF trip, the
black scheme was modified to recall the all-black paint applied during
World War II as a cost saving measure and to make locomotives less
visible in the event of an aerial attack by the enemy. In 2002, rather
than retuning to Daylight paint, #4449 returned to its American
Freedom Train paint in remembrance of the September 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks. In 2004, #4449 was repainted back into Daylight
colors, this time the original, as-delivered version, with "SOUTHERN
PACIFIC LINES " spelled out in smaller letters in the upper red
band. This is the paint scheme she wears today. When not in service, it
is stored at the historic roundhouse at Union Pacific's Brooklyn Yard in
Portland, Oregon and maintained by the
Friends of SP #4449.
Amtrak #23
Amtrak
#23 is a common General Electric P42DC built in 1996, perhaps providing
a little help for #4449 but probably just there for its dynamic braking
and head-end power capabilities.
BNSF #52 Glorieta Pass
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Baggage/Power Car #52 Glorieta Pass was built
by Pullman in 1962 as Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe mail baggage #77, one
of 17 numbered 57-79.
It eventually became BNSF #77 and was only recently named and renumbered.
Minnesota River
Former
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Sleeping Car #31 Minnesota River
was built by Pullman-Standard in 1954
for service on the Milwaukee Road's Pioneer Limited and Olympian Hiawatha.
The car featured 8 Duplex
Roomettes, 4 Double
Bedrooms
and 6 Roomettes. It was retained by Milwaukee Road
for company service until 1978 when it was sold to a private owner. It
was used in Amtrak charter service from
1984-1990. The Friends of
the 261 acquired it in 2001 and upgraded it in
2004. It retains its
original
configuration of sleeping accommodations except that one roomette was
converted into a shower room.
Super Dome #53
Former
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Super Dome #53 was one of 10 such
cars built by Pullman-Standard in 1952.
It was sold to Canadian
National in 1965, becoming #2401, Athabasca, and was later
transferred to VIA Rail,
remaining in service in
Canada until 1982 as #2701. After going through
a series of owners, it was purchased by the Chicago & North Western in 1985,
numbered #421 and given the name Powder River.
Union Pacific
acquired the car when it absorbed the C&NW in 1995 and used it
on
at least one excursion tour before selling it to the
North Carolina
Department of Transportation in 1996. The
Friends of the 261
purchased the car from NCDOT in 2005. Nine of the Super Domes survive
today, but #53 is the only one operating in Milwaukee paint.
Missouri-Kansas-Texas #403
Missouri-Kansas-Texas
#403 was built in 1913 as a coach. From 1946 to 1948, MKT rebuilt the
car as business car Queen of Scotts for the vice president of the Katy
Shops Hy Warden. The rebuilt car featured mahogany interiors, 3
bedrooms, an observation room, a
dining room, and a stainless steel
kitchen. Later the name was changed to Lewa.
Union Pacific acquired the
car in the merger with the MKT in 1988, and it was sold that same year.
The car was purchased and restored by Dr. John Marshall as MKT #403. Over
the years, the car has hosted US Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn and US
Presidents Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and was part of the
latter's 1996 "21st Century Express" campaign train.
New York Central #3 Portland
New
York Central #3 was built in 1928 as the private car of New York Central
director Harold Sterling Vanderbilt, great-grandson of NYC founder
Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt and the last member of the Vanderbilt
family to control to railroad. The car was one of four nearly identical
cars commissioned by the NYC
in 1927, but was the most luxurious of the
group, originally including even a brick fireplace in the dining room.
After Vanderbilt lost control of the railroad in 1954, the car continued
an service for the railroad. Adlai Stevenson used the car in his 1956
campaign for president against Dwight Eisenhower. When the New York
Central merged with the
Pennsylvania Railroad in 1968 to become Penn Central, the car became
Penn Central #4, and after Penn Central gave way to Conrail in 1976, the
car became Conrail #1. The car was sold to a private owner around 1978
and was restored and upgraded to Amtrak qualifications in the
early
1990s. In 1992, the car was purchased by its present owner Lovett R.
Smith III, the son of a former Southern Pacific executive from Oregon
who donated #4449 to the City of Portland, and restored to its 1930s
appearance. In honor of the car's participation in this trip and it's
owner's family's history, the car was named
Portland after the Southern
Pacific business car used by Smith's father and the home of #4449.
Caritas
Caritas was built in 1948 by Pullman as a 4-Bedroom, 14-Roomette
Sleeping Car for the St. Louis-Southwestern Railroad named Pierre LaClede after the founder of St. Louis. The car was sold to the Canadian
National in 1964 and named Churchill Falls.
High Iron Travel bought the
car in 1983 and rebuilt it to its current configuration, with 3 double
bedrooms and a master room, dining area, galley, wine cellar and lounge.
Chesapeake & Ohio #3 Chapel Hill
Chapel
Hill was built in 1922 in St. Charles, Missouri by American Car &
Foundry as the private car Hussar for
Post Cereals heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post and her husband, stock broker and banker
Edward Francis Hutton, who used the car to travel from their main home
in New York City to their winter estate in Palm Beach and their summer
home in the
Adirondacks of upstate New York. They divorced in 1935 and
Post kept the car. She promptly married Joseph E. Davies, a Washington
D.C. attorney who was appointed US ambassador to the Soviet Union in
1937, and when they moved to the Soviet Union they sold the car to
the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway. C&O installed an air conditioning system
and the car became Office Car #2 and
was renumbered several times before
Office Car #3 became final. The car was modernized in 1957. In 1971 DeWitt Chapple,
Jr. bought the car and named it Chapel Hill after his alma mater, the
University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill. Chapple was a founder of the
American Association of
Private Railroad Car Owners. In 2005, Jeffrey & Tracy McClorey became part owners of the
Chapel Hill with Chapple.
Colonial Crafts
Colonial
Crafts is the only survivor of eight Colonial-series 3-Bedroom,
1-Drawing Room, Buffet Lounge cars built by Pullman-Standard for the
Pennsylvania Railroad as part of a 95-car order. Colonial Crafts entered
service in Chicago on June 4, 1949 and was originally assigned #8412. In
May
1964,
Colonial Crafts was reclassified as a parlor car; the bedrooms were closed
and the car was renumbered #7149. In 1970 the car was retired to a
museum in western Pennsylvania. The cars current owners, Rod & Ellen Fishburn bought the car in 1985 and restored it to its original
appearance and
operating condition.
Silver Lariat
Silver
Lariat is a Dome Coach built by the Budd Company for the Chicago,
Burlington & Quincy Railroad in 1948 for use on the Chicago-Oakland
California Zephyr, which was jointly operated by the CB&Q, the
Denver & Rio Grande Western and the Western Pacific. The car was assigned #4718.
In California Zephyr
service, Silver
Lariat was originally designated for unescorted women and mothers with
young children and was the first dome car in the train, right behind the
baggage car. When CB&Q was merged into Burlington Northern in 1970,
Silver Lariat was to become BN #4682 but was not relettered before
being
sold to Amtrak in 1971, where it served as #9452 until its retirement in
July 1984. Current owners Al Bishop and Burt Hermey purchased the car
from Amtrak in 1985 and spent 5 years restoring it. Silver Lariat still
contains an original California Zephyr mural by Mary Louise Lawser
called Pony Express.
Silver Lariat is currently operated by
California
Zephyr Railcar Charters with two other former California Zephyr cars: Silver
Rapids and Silver Solarium.
Silver Rapids
Silver
Rapids is a California Zephyr 10-6 Sleeper built by the Budd
Company for the
Pennsylvania Railroad in 1948 for through service between New York City
and Oakland, California. This was the only car of this design owned by
the Pennsylvania. The name Silver Rapids was selected for this car
because all
California Zephyr cars had names that started with
Silver,
and all of the Pennsylvania's other 10-6 sleepers had named ending with
Rapids. The car was assigned #8449. The California Zephyr's through
service to New York City ended in 1957, and Silver Rapids served as just
another 10-6 sleeper on the
Pennsylvania Railroad and its successor Penn
Central. In 1971 the car was sold to Amtrak and it remained in service
until 1980, when it was retired. David Goodheart purchased the car from
Amtrak in 1985 and rebuilt it to then-current Amtrak standards.
California
Zephyr Railcar Charters began leasing Silver Rapids from Goodheart in 2000, and purchased the car from his estate in 2005.
Originally featuring 10 roomettes and 6 bedrooms, two of Silver
Rapids' roomettes have been converted into a galley and a shower
room.
Silver Solarium
Silver
Solarium is a California Zephyr Dome Lounge-Observation built by
the Budd Company
for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad in 1948 and was assigned
#377. When CB&Q was merged into Burlington Northern in 1970, Silver
Solarium was to
become BN #377 but was not relettered before being sold
to Amtrak in 1971, where it served as #9252 until its retirement in
April 1978. It was sold to Nav Fosse's Cedar Rail Enterprises as CREX
#377 in November, 1985 and used in charter service. Its
current owner,
Roy Wullich's
Rail Journeys
West, purchased it in August, 2002 and
leased it to the American Orient Express. It was upgraded in 2003 and is
now operated in charter service by
California
Zephyr Railcar Charters.
Silver
Solarium even features a fully-operational California Zephyr
neon drumhead.
