Explore for 12/14/2007 #83 -- Thanks, everyone!!

We rode the Holiday Express today! I'm a real train freak, so this was a huge treat for me. This old steam engine has been beautifully restored by the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation. Here's a blurb from their website::

"Southern Pacific #4449 Built in 1941 as a 4-8-4 GS-4 'Northern' type locomotive, she is 110' long, 10' wide and 16' tall. With locomotive and tender weighing 433 tons and a boiler pressure of 300 psi, her eight 80" diameter drivers and unique firebox truck booster can apply 5,500 horsepower to the rails and exceed 100 mph. Retired to Oaks Park in 1958 for display only, in 1974 she was completely restored specifically to pull the 1976 Bicentennial Freedom Train throughout the United States to the delight of over 30 million people.

The only remaining operable 'streamlined' steam locomotive of the Art Deco era, this grand Lady of the High Iron pulled Southern Pacific 'Daylight' coaches from Los Angeles to San Francisco over the scenic Coast Route and then on to Portland until 1955. She is arguably one of the most beautiful locomotives ever built -- and kept that way by the all-volunteer Friends of the SP 4449."

Here's a link for more information: www.orhf.org/events/07holiday/index.html

Published at amanwithaphd.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/make-you-wonder/ and at thehospemag.blogspot.com/2008/09/from-coach-7-ideas-you-c...