BNSF 193, a GP-60 Electro-Motive Diesel built in
1989 by General Motors that regularly makes the
Centralia to Tacoma run, stopped at a rail
signal in front of Centennial Station March 28,
2024.. It’s sporting a fresh pumpkin paint pose..
-
The Actual "Polar Express" -
The Pierre Marquette Berkshire
This locomotive was the prototype and
sound for the "Polar Express" movie and the model for the
original children's book by Chris Van Allsburg. Apty and
originally numbered 1225, it was destined to celebrate
Christmas with the Tom Hanks film. Pere Marquette's 2-8-4
Lima locomotive operated between Chicago and Detroit and
still runs on excursions today. It was owned and displayed
for years by Michigan State University in East Lansing. It is a 400-ton, 5,000-horse
Berkshire-type loco built in 1941. The movie's "Know-It-All" kid identified it as a 1931
Baldwin. The entire wheels and running gear was removed in
2022,
taken to a shop to be restored, and put back together with a
crane August, 2023 in Owosso, Michigan. Larry took this picture at the Owosso turntable near
Durand for the beginning of the rebuild of the 2-8-4 1225 in
May 2010.
Union Pacific "Big Boy" in Cheyenne,
Wyoming
This is the world’s largest steam engine, the Union Pacific “Big Boy”
4-8-8-4 Alco on static display at Holliday Park in Cheyenne. Built in 1941, retired in 1958. Weight: 1.2 million pounds. Length: 132+ feet. Holds 28 tons of oil fuel and 25,000 gallons of water. Built for service between Cheyenne and Ogden, Utah. Cheyenne is also home to an operating Big Boy, 4014, stored in a UP steam shop.
Southern Pacific
Daylight 4449 Left, the mighty 4449 rumbles
into Vancouver, WA, Amtrak Station on May 22, 2007.
Right, it chugs by Olympia's Centennial Station. The
1941 Lima 4-8-4 engine is owned by the City of Portland and
displayed at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center. It was one of
the "Freedom Train" engines for the U.S. Bicentennial in
1976.
The Amtrak Empire Builder
Larry
and Robin rode the Empire Builder from Chicago to White
Fish, Montana, to Seattle during the summer of 2019. Right,
is the view from the Empire Builders end sleeper car (for
Portland, Ore.-bound passengers.)
The Henry Ford, Dearborn, Michigan
Larry and Robin visited the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn,
MI, during 2019. Left is the Edison steam engine operating
on the grounds followed by a photo and video of the huge
Chessy engine.
The Coast Starlight Parlour Car
Larry and Robin visited the historic Coast Starlight Pacific
Parlour car at
The Steam Railroading Institute of Owosso, Michigan.Built in
1956, the Institute offers rides on two former Pacific
Parlour Cars during the Christmas season as part of its
North Pole Express Train 2019. These cars,
discontinued by Amtrak in 2018 on the Coast Starlight route
including Olympia-Lacey,
offered an additional level of comfort and services for
passengers. This car was built with a movie theater.
Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad
Larry took
this photo of a 1929 Alco Saddle Tank Engine (2-8-2T)
pulling into the Mount Rainier Scenic Railway station in
Elbe, WA. The engine was formerly owned by the Hammond
Lumber Co. in California. It currently pulls excursion
trains over a 7-mile track to Mineral, WA, that was
originally built by The Milwaukee Road to serve the lumber
industry in the Cascade Mountains. Right,
our photo of a former U.S.
Army SW-1 diesel switch engine from Fort Lewis that is now
owned and operated by Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad in Elbe, WA.
It was built in 1942 by Alco. Photo was taken in May, 2017.
Amtrak
Cascades and Sounder Amtrak 468 F59PHI in Northwest colors
pulls into Olympia (Larry's O-Gauge is Amtrak 469.). Next,
the modern Siemens Charger locomotive at Centennial Station. Larry took this photo of
a Sounder commuter train pulling into Lakewood Station
between Tacoma and Olympia, WA.
The photo was taken Jan. 19, 2014 as the Sounder FP59PHI 904 (the
same as Larry's model train) prepared
for a special run between Lakewood and King Street Station
in Seattle that took football fans to the NFC Championship
Game pitting the San Francisco 49ers against the Seattle
Seahawks.
"Mater"
and Amtrak Cascades "Talgo 8" Trainset The control car on an Amtrak
Cascades Talgo 8 trainset is sometimes referred to as
"Mater" because of its pickup-truck front likened to the
Pixar tow truck cartoon character voiced by "Larry The Cable
Guy." It was named after tomato or "Tow-Mater." Photo of "Mater" was taken
by Larry along Route 66 in Galena, Kansas. This is one of just two "pendular"
aluminum Talgo trainsets remaining on the Amtrak Cascades circuit.
It is named "The Mount Bachelor." The Talgo 8 was built in Wisconsin and purchased by the state of Oregon. It is seen
May 1, 2024 on the Amtrak 506 run between Portland and Seattle pulled by a Washington-state owned Siemens locomotive
#1401. Talgo, a Spanish company that built some trainsets in Seattle, donated the platform clock at the 1993 opening of Centennial Station. The remaining Talgo trainset, "The Mount Jefferson" stopped
late May 1 as Amtrak 508.
UP's FEF Northern 844 The Union Pacific 4-8-4 FEF-3 Alco was the last steam engine
built for the Union Pacific in 1944 and led passenger
service like the Portland Rose until 1960. It is shown here
in Vancouver, WA
Alaskan Oil Train Larry photographed this Alaskan
Railroad oil train in Anchorage, Alaska. (April, 2016)
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Larry took this photo of
a BNSF freighter headed east on the north bank of the
Columbia River at East Maryhill in Klickitat County.
The photo was taken in early August, 2013 near Maryhill
State Park. The park is the perfect camping spot to
watch trains with the BNSF on the Washington State side and
a view of the Union Pacific on the Oregon side. Right BNSF
locomotives at Olympia-Lacey Centennial Station.
Great Northern Electro-Motive
Diesel F-7 and NP F-9 Here is Larry with an EMD F-7
Great Northern, one of his favorites with the bulldog nose,
that is operating as a dinner train in Garibaldi, Ore., just
north of Tillamook. Taken November, Right,A Northern Pacific General Motors
Eletro-Motive Diesel F-9 engine at Mt. Rainier Scenic
Railway in 2013.
Two
Baldwin locos: Astoria 1925 2-8-2 and 1928 Santa Fe Northern
Steam Engines Right,
Martin Adams is secretary of the Astoria Railroad Preservation
Association that painstakingly is restoring this 1925
Baldwin 2-8-2 locomotive at a quonset shop near the Columbia
River waterfront in Astoria, Ore. They are working on the
former Santa Maria Valley Engine No. 21. They intend to
paint it up in a historic Astoria roadname and operate it on
about 30 miles of track. He gave Larry a tour. The Kingman
engine was on the Santa Fe's passenger route betweeen Los
Angeles and Kansas City, making the final steam run in
between LA and Barstow in 1953. It has been a monument in
Kingman, Ariz. since 1957.
Hawaiian Training and Olympia
Underpass Left, Larry
inspects a General Electric diesel engine at a former sugar plantation near Lihue on the Hawaiian isalnd of Kauai.
The engine purchased from an Arizona owner is displayed and
operated for tourists. It is a locmotive that was similar to
those used in the peak of sugar production. Larry visited the
island in September, 2009, just as C&H Sugar was closing down
sugar cane production forever. Right, a Cascades passenger train
and a BNSF freighter move on parallel tracks near Centennial
Station. \
Shay Engines Above and center is "Tollie," the Simpson
Lumber Co. Shay locomotive in Shelton, WA.; Larry has a model of
Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. No. 5 which Robin gave him for Christmas, 2006. Far
right, drivers of a Willamette-class engine (similar drivers
to a shay) at Mount Hood Railway, 2017. More information on
shay by clicking Larry's New Engines.
Modern Union Pacific
Larry is pictured with a Union Pacific
AC44CW General Electric engine No. 6388 in Northern
Idaho. Right, UP crew change at Olympia-Lacey on an EMD
SD70ACE locomotive No. 8419.
Port of Kalama Steam Display
Great to see the 105-year-old Alco 2-8-2 Northern Pacific Mikado No. 1762 on static display inside the interpretive transportation center building at the Port of Kalama
in 2022. Renumbered 539 and converted to oil burning in 1944, it operated as an SP&S locomotive on the Fallbridge and Oregon Trunk tracks until 1957. Once slated for restoration as an operating Grand Canyon tourist engine, she will now be a silent icon for Kalama, the birthplace of rail service in 1870 to major Puget Sound locations especially Tacoma. Kalama was the northern terminus for a Northern Pacific railroad ferry across the Columbia from Goble, Ore., adopting the slogan "Rail Meets Sail."
Right,"Fallbridge" or "Celilo Bridge" is in the backgound on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe 229-mile "Fallbridge Subdivision" between Vancouver, WA and Portland. The Columbia River bridge, originally built in 1912 near what is now Wishram, crossed Celilo Falls (and the early steamboat canal around the falls) before John Day Dam flooded the historic Columbia Gorge natives' fishing grounds in 1971. The bridge originally handled rail traffic for the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway and connected its Oregon Trunk Line to Bend. Today, the Celilo, Ore.-Bend route is jointly operated by BNSF and Union Pacific. Wishram was called "Fallbridge" but was renamed in 1926 to honor
Wishram and Wasco Chinook tribes of the Yakama Nation and Warm Springs.
