July 12, 2017: Hello All. So, last Saturday maybe needs to be renamed Last Monday, because that seems to be when the work gets done. The past couple of Saturdays only me and George Orme have shown up. Well that’s not totally true. The Saturday before last Jim V. was in the firebox banging away […]
Yesterday’s event was a great success! We had just over 4,000 guests last year and 5,179 guests this year. We saw a lot of smiles as everyone enjoyed the railroad equipment, steam engines, speeder rides, train rides, live music, displays, model railroads and great food. #pdxTD2017
April 30, 2017: Jim Vanderbeck grinding the welds and small ends of the flue tubes that remained after the flue tubes had been cut and removed. Photos by Randy Woehl
March 18, 2017: We received our first five new superheater units, and there are four of them in this photo. Each unit has four elements (runs) and two ball ends. Thus, each unit contains two riser Pipes with a ball end (steam side and throttle side) and sixteen lengths of tubing. Each flue holds one […]
Board of Directors member Jim Vanderbeck is often on hand during work parties to help out. Here he is doing some cutting in the combustion chamber. This cutting is a step in the removal of flue tubes. Thanks, Jim!
Kyle Chappell and Randy Woehl taking aim with the sledge in the combustion chamber to drive the flues out after the tubes were cut.
The crew spent 8 hrs cleaning the boiler flues yesterday. They had to make a special tool to adapt the vacuum equipment to the locomotive. Both a professional vacuum service and the shop vac were used. It’s a dirty job – but someone’s got to do it. Our volunteers are awesome! MORE PHOTOS BY RANDY […]
We received a much appreciated and quite generous $20,000 Matching Grant Offer from Al Baker. Who is he and why does he want to help? Al Baker was born and raised in the railroading city of Altoona, Pennsylvania – a town in which over six thousand PRR locomotives were built and maintained. For Sunday afternoon […]
The PRPA has been awarded a Preserving Oregon Grant by Oregon State Parks and Recreation! This grant is dedicated to building 18 (out 0f 51) superheater units. This fabricating the various bends, bifurcates and other components of a superheater unit, and then welding and assembling them, making them ready for installation. The grant award is […]
GREAT NEWS!!! The BNSF RAILWAY FOUNDATION just sent us a generous grant to assist us in the FRA mandated 15 year (1472) overhaul and inspection process! What a wonderful gift. It is through gifts like this (both big and small) that we are able to maintain this beautiful piece of history and to preserve it […]