SP 4449 Rides Again
It’s turning into a Lima reunion.
Ex-Southern Pacific 4-8-8 no. 4449 will depart Portland, OR, July 3 on a 2500-mile cross-country trek to Train Festival in July, where it will join ex-NKP 765 and ex-PM 1225 in Owosso, MI.
In cooperation with Amtrak, BNSF Railway, and Friends of the 261, no. 4449 will operate via the “Empire Builder” route, hauling a train of private cars to Minneapolis, MN. Then it’s on to Chicago and Durand, MI, where the Daylight will enter the Great Lakes Central tracks to Owosso.
Once at Train Festival, no. 4449 will power an excursion to Alma, Michigan, on Friday, July 24, and be on display Saturday and Sunday.
After Train Festival, no. 4449 will return to Minneapolis, where it will lay over until until fall, when the Friends of the 261 will feature it on their usual public excursions. No. 4449 will then return to Portand to fulfill its duty on “Holiday Express” trips.
It’s been 35 years since a young Doyle McCormack took on the task of rehabilitating a display locomotive for service on the American Freedom Train. No. 4449′s current boiler certification will expire in June, 2013, so this may be the Daylight’s last cross-country trip for a very long time indeed. So don’t miss this one.
Pere Marquette no. 1225 out and about
(Photo by Michael Allen.)
The Steam Railroading Institute’s Pere Marquette 2-8-4 no. 1225 was out and about this week at the request of RailAmerica. Departing Owosso at dawn on June 17, it picked up a a 15-car freight train in Durand before being turned (which required a trip onto CN’s ex-GTW main and around the landmark Durand Union Station) and heading up RailAmerica’s ex-GTW Huron & Eastern to Bay City.
On June 18, 1225 hauled a dinner train for guests of RailAmerica. Once its duties were completed, 1225 made a night-time trip back from Bay City to Owosso, arriving about 3:00am on June 19th. See more photos of the action on railpictures.net here and here.
Here’s hoping that TJ Gaffney, Greg Udolph, and the entire crew (including RailAmerica’s Charlie Kricher) get caught up on their sleep this weekend.
1225′s next outing will be a July 26 round trip to Alma, MI – see the Schedules page for details.
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