The other night during a conversation about steam in Portland, OR area, I remembered having seen a 4-8-4 (?) on display at Maryhill State Park, near The Dalles. I seem to recall reading quite some time ago that it was barged down river to Portland for restoration to service. Is this correct? And if so, anyone know whatever became of the project?

Brian Wise
Benton, KY

thewises@apex.net

The engine was GN 4-8-2 #2507. It was barged to Pasco, WA for restoration but the project fell through. It is currently stored in Pasco.

Richard

> The other night during a conversation about
> steam in Portland, OR area, I remembered
> having seen a 4-8-4 (?) on display at
> Maryhill State Park, near The Dalles. I seem
> to recall reading quite some time ago that
> it was barged down river to Portland for
> restoration to service. Is this correct? And
> if so, anyone know whatever became of the
> project?

> Brian Wise
> Benton, KY


richard.s.wilkens@boeing.com

> The engine was GN 4-8-2 #2507. It was barged
> to Pasco, WA for restoration but the project
> fell through. It is currently stored in
> Pasco.

> Richard

IRM is looking for a Mountain for our collection. Any further information on this loco's condition, or contact persons?


Kevinmccabe@avenew.com

The GN P2 class 4-8-2 2507 was built by Baldwin in 1923 and is now owned by Kittitas County. Last I heard, there were a couple of proposals for operation, or relocation to a museum, under consideration. I doubt that is for sale, as there is a lot of local interest in the locomotive. The county is waiting for a credible proposal from someone with the financial resources to complete the project.

Washington Steam Locomotives and Railroads

brianfr@speakeasy.org

> IRM is looking for a Mountain for our
> collection. Any further information on this
> loco's condition, or contact persons?

Kevin,

With all due respect to a fellow brother in arms, but I have never been able to comprehend IRM's "collect by wheel arrangement" policy and what the goal is there.

Might you explain it for us here?
Jim Wrinn


http://nctrans.org
Wrinnbo@aol.com

I think many of us would like to know why this project fell apart. Without naming names, could someone fill us in? After so much hoopla, it is too bad things didn't work out, but at least the engine wasn't dismantled into a junkpile beforehand. Isn't there a roundhouse in Pasco? That would seem the best to put it..

> The GN P2 class 4-8-2 2507 was built by
> Baldwin in 1923 and is now owned by Kittitas
> County. Last I heard, there were a couple of
> proposals for operation, or relocation to a
> museum, under consideration. I doubt that is
> for sale, as there is a lot of local
> interest in the locomotive. The county is
> waiting for a credible proposal from someone
> with the financial resources to complete the
> project.


bobyar2001@yahoo.com

As far as I know the engine is owned by Kittitas County. I'm not sure what there plans are.

Richard

> IRM is looking for a Mountain for our
> collection. Any further information on this
> loco's condition, or contact persons?


richard.s.wilkens@boeing.com

> I think many of us would like to know why
> this project fell apart. Without naming
> names, could someone fill us in? After so
> much hoopla, it is too bad things didn't
> work out, but at least the engine wasn't
> dismantled into a junkpile beforehand. Isn't
> there a roundhouse in Pasco? That would seem
> the best to put it..

From what I've been able to gather, the project broke down for the usual reason: Reality Shock. It was a larger and more expensive task than was originally envisioned.

As to the round house... It was still there two years ago... well some of it was. From what I could see from the street, some of the stalls had been razed. The roundhouse is BNSF property and had diesels in it at the time of my last visit. The 2507 is stored at the end of a spur at the Port of Pasco with the collection of the Washington State Railroad Historical Society.


Washington Steam Railroads and Locomotives
brianfr@speakeasy.org

> Kevin,

> With all due respect to a fellow brother in
> arms, but I have never been able to
> comprehend IRM's "collect by wheel
> arrangement" policy and what the goal
> is there.

> Might you explain it for us here?
> Jim Wrinn

Jim:

IRyM seems to have the same policy as another well known musuem; the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis. The policy there seemed to be collect one of each wheel arrangement. What's interesting is that MoT missed out on some locomotives that were certainly available during their "major" collecting period. No 4-8-0 Twelve-Wheeler, no 2-6-2 Prairie and no geared example of any type! Was this a "sensible" way to make up a collection? Perhaps yes; perhaps no. Certainly if you're a "National" museum (as MoT once said they were) then the railroads that the engines come from was not as important. But why an engine from Canada but none from Mexico (unless you consider the Lake Street Elevated 0-4-4T that ended up down there)? And of course there were "duplicate" engine types that ended up there for one reason or another. Perhaps the most "lucky" of these was the late acquisition of NYC Mohawk #2933 which then still remained as a 4-8-2 representative at the museum enabling the "other" 4-8-2 (Frisco #1522) to be removed and restored for service.

Green Bay also seemed to have this "wheel arrangement" policy. Why IRyM has followed suit so late in the game will have to be answered by Kevin.

midlandblb@cs.com

Hmm, I know of a few 4-8-0's that are in need of a good home...

> What's interesting is that MoT
> missed out on some locomotives that were
> certainly available during their
> "major" collecting period. No
> 4-8-0 Twelve-Wheeler,


The Lost Engines of Roanoke
rjenkins@railfan.net

> The GN P2 class 4-8-2 2507 was built by
> Baldwin in 1923 and is now owned by Kittitas
> County. Last I heard, there were a couple of
> proposals for operation, or relocation to a
> museum, under consideration. I doubt that is
> for sale, as there is a lot of local
> interest in the locomotive. The county is
> waiting for a credible proposal from someone
> with the financial resources to complete the
> project.

It's owned by Klickitat,not Kittitas county...

amraam120c@hotmail.com

> Kevin,

> With all due respect to a fellow brother in
> arms, but I have never been able to
> comprehend IRM's "collect by wheel
> arrangement" policy and what the goal
> is there.

> Might you explain it for us here?
> Jim Wrinn

Good question, but Kevin doesn't seem to answer for some reason. Must be suing somebody on our behalf, so can I try making up an answer?

The wheel arrangement is the first and most important piece of information, apart from the road name perhaps, about a particular locomotive. At least it's the first question I'd ask. It gives you in condensed form an idea of the engine's class of service, to some extent its size and in many cases its approximate age. Beyond that, you have to get into specifying driver diameter, bore and stroke, boiler pressure, and the 101 other details that make every order unique.

Therefore, if we want to have as comprehensive a collection of steam locomotives as possible, and demonstrate the wide variety of types with as little unnecessary duplication as we can, classifying them by wheel arrangement seems to be the best basic policy. It's just not feasible to collect one from every possible road, and there's nothing wrong with having several from the same line to show the similarities/differences between Burlington classes, for instance.

I hope this makes some sense. Disclaimer: I am not the President of IRM and cannot speak in an official manner. Comments?

And by the way, if anyone knows where we can find a 6-2-0, 2-6-8-0, 4-6-6T, 4-4-6-2, 6-4-4-6, or 2-8-8-8-4, please let Kevin know. Thanks.

Randall Hicks (IRM)

I sometimes wonder if the ghost of Mr. Whyte knows the impact his classification system has had to our activities? In my youthful days of steam, I found that only a few real railroaders knew about the Whyte system, usually referring to steam locomotives on their particular road by number series alone. The same is true today, with only railbuff employees knowing terms like GP9 and SD40.

bobyar2001@yahoo.com