SPS 700 Locomotive group wins ‘State Historic Property’ grant

INCLUDED VIDEO EXPLAINS IT ALL | Learn how volunteers are continuing to restore this mighty locomotive to working order, and how this grant is helping …

Inside the Oregon Rail Heritage Center, a new grant just received will help repair the equipment that is necessary for the Spokane, Portland & Seattle #700 locomotive to run again.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton

Over the years, we’ve been privileged to report on the Oregon Rail Heritage Center (ORHC), as it went from a concept into a reality. The Center houses three of the historic locomotives donated to the City of Portland which, back in 1958, were “put out to pasture” for decades, near Oaks Amusement Park.

Serving passengers on rail lines for many years, starting in 1938, was this Spokane, Portland & Seattle #700 locomotive.

One of the locomotives, the Spokane, Portland & Seattle 700 – moved from temporary quarters in Southern Pacific’s Brooklyn Yard Roundhouse to the ORHC, after it opened – and continues to be cared for volunteers with the Pacific Railroad Preservation Association (PRPA).

On June 28, Oregon Heritage, a division of Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, awarded 18 grants – and one of them, in the “Preservation of Historic Properties” classification, went to the PRPA.

Watch this video the shows and explains the special part being restored by this grant, and why it’s so important to this locomotive:

The “700” is indeed historic, now being the oldest and only surviving example of a locomotive of its class.

ORHC volunteer JJ Thompson points out the air compressors to be replaced on the locomotive.

The PRPA’s most recent funding is a one-to-one matching grant for $12,750. “It is for the repair of one of the two air pumps on the locomotive,” the organization’s Roger Woehl informed East Portland News. “The other pump has already been repaired; the remaining air pump has been shipped to a shop in Colorado to do the machining.”

At the ORHC, Project Manager Jim Vanderbeck said that he’s been working on the “700” since 1985, having helped keeping it oiled and lubed while it was still behind a faence at Oaks Park: “I’m, by far, the most senior of the volunteers!”

Vanderbeck explained that the air pumps are necessarily large compressors, which provide the air pressure that operates the brakes on all the cars and the locomotive.

PRPA Manager Jim Vanderbeck stands alongside the one of the of the two massive air compressor pumps for the “700” that’s already been refurbished, and is ready to install.

“This is part of the 15-year boiler rebuild, as required by the Federal Railroad Administration – which was an extensive project – and we’re slowly getting the locomotive back together,” Vanderbeck said. “The reasons the project has taken several years to bring it to this point is that we’ve had to raise the funding – and we’re all volunteers.”

As for the reason volunteers have donated so many hours and years to the project, Vanderbeck mused, “I think it’s the fascination of restoring history, and an interest in steam locomotives like this one. This locomotive started in service in 1938.

Alongside the 700 is the parts supply and tools crib volunteers frequent while working on the locomotive.

“When these engines operate, they’re magic, actually,” said Thompson. “People stand there and look at them in amazement – and I’m the same way.”

They hope to have the mighty locomotive up and operating again this year, or perhaps in 2024.

For more information see the 700’s official website CLICK HERE.

Comments are closed.