| Spokane, Portland & Seattle No. 700 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| SP&S 700 Double heading with Southern Pacific No. 4449 in 2005 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Spokane, Portland & Seattle No. 700 is a E-1 class 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1938 for the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway.
History[]
No. 700 was one of three 4-8-4 class 'E-1's built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1938, originally designated as 'A-3's for the Northern Pacific. As beautiful examples of latter years of steam locomotive development, the 'E-1's saddle on eight 77 inch drivers, develop a boiler pressure of 260 psi, and produce 69,756 Ibs of tractive effort. For nine years even throughout the 2nd World War, 702 worked on overnight passenger trains between Portland and Spokane while 700 and 701 provided backup and freight duty. In 1947, the Great Northern Railway began streamlining its premiere passenger train before diesel locomotives came along for motive power while the SP&S was dieselizing at the same time. But still the 'E-1's continued to provide passenger service hauling secondary trains though at one point in 1947 when a catastrophic wreck occurred on 700 in Washington. Nine years later, 700 hauled the 'Farewell to Steam' excursion on May 20, 1956 from Portland, Oregon to Wishram, Washington and back, completing eighteen years of revenue service and also the last steam-powered passenger train. After withdrawal from service in 1956, the SP&S 700 was donated to the City of Portland, Oregon two years later. It was on static display at Oaks Amusement Park until 1987, when it moved to private quarters for the continuation of work to restore it to operating condition. It began making occasional excursion runs in 1990. In 2012, the 700 was moved to a new facility where it can again be viewed by the public, the Oregon Rail Heritage Center. Its top speed is 80 MPH.
Trivia[]
- The locomotive was added to "TrainStation 2" for a limited time.
- Like SP 4449, the Oregon Rail Heritage Center is considering on installing Positive Train Control (PTC) technology on 700.