(The following story by John Foyston appeared on the Oregonian website on October 20.)
PORTLAND, Ore. — Locomotive No. 4449 emerged from swirling fog and its own billowing steam as if from a time warp, moving as majestically as the Graf Zeppelin must have done on some long-ago fall morning.
But not so silently. Engineer Doyle McCormack sounded the steam whistle in long, sighing, modulated moans, as if he were playing a sad saxophone solo ’round midnight, not signaling early morning Southeast Portland commuters that No. 4449 was steaming again, headed for Montana with a couple hundred rail fans aboard.
You may know the 1941 Northern-class locomotive as the Freedom Train, the role it played during the nation’s Bicentennial. But on the first Thursday in October, it gleamed like a new-minted, 435-ton penny in its original Southern Pacific livery: the wind-sculpted red, orange and black speed lines of the Coast Daylight passenger run.
It pulled just two tenders, a shop car and two old Pullman crew cars. The passengers mostly had grease under their fingernails: They were some of the volunteers who keep this complex machine in fine fettle. They had been working hard since last March to get ready for this two-week trip.
When the engine left Spokane three days later, it pulled 21 restored rail cars and dome liners carrying a sold-out crowd of rail fans who paid as much as $5,000 for accommodations in one of two private cars, or as little as $969, for a four-day excursion to Billings or the return trip to Spokane.
The crew quarters were not quite as luxurious. Guys such as long-time volunteer Pat Tracy — he sat in the fireman’s seat, on the left, as No. 4449 left town — tossed sleeping bags in tiny Pullman staterooms. The closet-sized compartments are compact marvels of efficiency and, even painted Navy gray, beautiful examples of Art Deco design, with fold-down sinks and berths and instructive placards on every operable surface.
But tiny, you understand. Not that there was much lounging time for the crew: No. 4449 requires hours of maintenance for every hour of steaming, at least to keep it in the condition that McCormack demands. He’s been the locomotive’s chief engineer since it was rolled out of Oaks Park in December 1974 and restored for Freedom Train duty. Uncounted thousands of hours of work by McCormack and the volunteers have made the Portland-owned engine a star among vintage trains, and perhaps the most photographed locomotive in the world.
It’s even more beautiful now, with new steel skirts — the long, streamlined side panels that make the train so swoopy — new boxes that display the 4449 number on the engine, new cab doors and floor, and that fresh Coast Daylight paint scheme, a job that required scraping, sanding, filling and spraying a couple of acres of locomotive and tender.
“Originally we were just going to replace the walkways along the boiler and the support irons,” Tracy said, “but the new supports wouldn’t mate up with the original skirts, which had gotten dented and wrinkled over the years, so they decided to make new skirts. The job kind of got bigger than planned, which happens a lot.”
But the old girl’s makeover didn’t go unnoticed, at least among Portland’s commuters. They hastily parked their cars along Southeast 17th Avenue, on the sidewalk and near crossings Thursday morning as the train chuffed out of the Brooklyn Railyard.
Stuart Adams, 9, was one of the spectators, an enthusiastic boy in an Old Navy cap and Harry Potter glasses. “I just love the way the smoke billows up and trails off,” he said, “and I love the whistle.”
Was it his first sight of the old engine? No way. “I’ve been following No. 4449 and No. 700 for years,” he said. (The equally huge Seattle Portland and Spokane locomotive, also owned by the city.) “Whenever they leave, my mom and I chase them.”
“He’s the one who got us into it,” said his dad, Rodger Adams of Lake Oswego. “He’s got model trains, but he likes the big ones best.”
But the interview was over: Stuart started pulling on Carol Adams’ arm and said, “C’mon, Mom, let’s drive a bit further and see if we can catch it again.”