The Three Ladies Peek Out of the Roundhouse on a Misty Day
On October 5, just a few short days before the SP&S 700 departed for the Montana By Steam excursion, roundhouse volunteers pushed the three steam locomotives resident in the Brooklyn roundhouse out the back doors to pose for some photos, ostensibly to publicize ORHF - Oregon Rail Historical Foundation. As always,the reality was a little more complicated; they were pulled out onto the turntable, turned around, and pushed back in. Since the trackmobile didn't have enough mustard that day, Doyle's Alco RSD5 did the shuttle service.
On the left is the Oregon Railroad & Navigation 197 (a.k.a. the UP 3203), in the middle the Spokane Portand & Seattle 700, and on the right, the Southern Pacific 4449 proudly wearing her American Freedom Train colors once again a quarter-century after her Bi-Centennial travels. All photos by Terry Thompson, except for the crew photos, where David Lippert kindly shot with my camera.
Here are some of the volunteers that work on these locomotives. Each locomotive has a separate group that is responsible for its upkeep. The majority of the volunteers work on just one locomotive, because any one of these gals can absorb all your free time, However, we pitch in and help each other in time of need.
In digital hardware, this move would be called a left circular shift. At the roundhouse, it's called foolin' around.
Speaking of pitching in and helping each other, here's Doyle McCormack on the following morning, Oct 6, painting the 700 for us, which was a real help to us.