There are no more steam trips planned for 2006. To receive an email notification of future trips, please sign up for our email "mailing" list by sending an email to info@northwestrailmuseum.com with subject heading "subscribe" or sending us a note from the comments page.
The Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation is operating the second annual "Holiday Express" the weekends of December 8-10 and December 15-17. The Express will be pulled by former Spokane Portland and Seattle Railway steam engine #700 the first weekend while Southern Pacific Daylight engine #4449 will do the honor the second weekend. The Oregon Pacific Railroad will host the trains. The 40-minute trips all leave from Oaks Park in Southeast Portland and follow the Springwater Trail north to the Ross Island Bridge. En route, passengers will be visited by Santa and his elves.
All proceeds go towards the construction of a permanent home for the City of Portland's three steam engines, including SP #4449. Details for this year and photos from last year's trips can be found at www.ORHF.org.
The "Deschutes Steam Special" on September 16-17 was a great success! The volunteers at the Northwest Rail Museum are very pleased to have been able to host the "Deschutes Steam Special," a two-day rail excursion between Portland and Bend using Portland's famous steam locomotive #4449. This scenic trip is one of the top rail excursions in the Pacific Northwest and traveling behind a large steam engine definitely adds to the excitement. Due to changing business and economic conditions, this has also become a rare opportunity, and may be the only public excursion behind #4449 in 2006 and one of the few mainline steam excursions in the west this year.
The train traveled up the Columbia River to Wishram, Washington, crossed the Columbia River and then headed south following the Deschutes River to an overnight stay in Bend. Passengers enjoyed spectacular views of the Columbia River Gorge and the rugged Deschutes River Canyon. The canyon walls tower over 2,000 feet above the tracks and provide a travel experience not accessible by automobile.
To view comments received from passengers on the "Deschutes Steam Special" and prior trips hosted by the rail museum, click here.
The Northwest Rail Museum is a nonprofit organization incorporated in the State of Oregon in 1986. We are dedicated to the preservation of the excitement and history of steam engines and rail travel, with a focus on the Pacific Northwest. We are located in Portland, Oregon, although we have no permanent location at this time. Our ultimate goal is to establish a museum site where the SP 4449 engine and other important artifacts can be stored and displayed. The rolling stock and smaller display items are currently either in storage or on loan.
The museum has no paid staff and all money that is donated to or earned by the museum goes directly toward the maintenance and restoration of equipment and the pursuit of a permanent site. The excursions operated by the museum are designed to commemorate rail history events and educate the public about rail travel. Passengers on each excursion are provided with a trip guide showcasing historic and geographic features along the route.
Some of you may have heard that several historic train cars belonging to the Northwest Rail Museum were recently vandalized. An estimated $8,000 worth of specially-made copper and brass pipes and fixtures that were part of the heating system were stolen. Authorities believe that methamphetamine addicts may be responsible for the vandalism, hoping to sell the metal to get money to support their drug habits. The theft of the fixtures is especially sad because, due to the age of the rail cars, the parts are most likely unavailable for sale and will need to be individually manufactured before they can be replaced. If anyone would like to make a donation to help fund the replacement of the fixtures please send you check to Northwest Rail Museum, P.O. Box 19342, Portland, Oregon, 97280. We are happy to mail a receipt for your tax deductible donation.
To be among the first to know of any future excursions, please sign up on our email "mailing list" by sending your email address to us at info@northwestrailmuseum.com. Remember, we don't send out emails unless there is information we think you'll want to know, so you may not hear from us for a while - but we do email you every time we post new trip information, so be sure to keep your email address updated with us if you'd like to stay informed. You can also check back soon for updated information posted on our website!
(Please note: we cannot release information until the schedule is finalized. At that time, the information will be posted immediately to our website and emailed to those who are signed up for our email list. Please do not email us requesting information on upcoming trips unless you see that a trip is announced on this site - all those emails just mean that it will take us longer to get things ready to make any plans available to the public. Thank you!)
We always get tons of emails from passengers after a trip letting us know what a great time they had, and we thought we'd share some of their comments with you! Please click here to view feedback from some of our passengers:
