Photo by Steve Morgan, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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About Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation
ORHF exists to preserve and celebrate Oregon's railroading history. Come by the Oregon Rail Heritage Center to get up close to three historic locomotives.
📍 PORTLAND, OR 96809
History
The non-profit was formed in 2000 as the Oregon Steam Heritage Foundation and took its current name, Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation, in 2002. A partnership of volunteer preservation and railfan groups together with Portland's Bureau of Parks & Recreation, it set out to secure a permanent home for three steam locomotives the City of Portland has owned since they were donated in 1958 and displayed at Oaks Pioneer Park. The engines had long lived in Union Pacific's 1941 Brooklyn Roundhouse, but UP's planned changes meant the roundhouse would be razed in mid-2012, so ORHF leased roughly three acres near the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in 2009 and broke ground on a 20,000-square-foot enginehouse in October 2011. The locomotives moved to the site on June 26, 2012, and the Oregon Rail Heritage Center opened to the public on September 22, 2012, its initial $5.9 million construction phase funded chiefly by donations alongside a $1 million city loan. The Brooklyn Yard's 1924 American Bridge Company turntable was saved from the demolition, restored after a major fundraising push, and was nearly complete and operational at the center as of October 2023.
The Trains
The heart of the collection is the trio of city-owned steam locomotives: Southern Pacific 4449, which became nationally famous hauling the American Freedom Train during the 1975–76 Bicentennial; Spokane, Portland & Seattle 700, listed on the National Register of Historic Places; and Oregon Railroad & Navigation Co. 197, whose restoration is still in progress — the first two are restored and operable, giving Portland the distinction of being the only U.S. city to own operating mainline steam. Diesels include Union Pacific No. 96, an SW10-class switcher built as an SW7 in 1950 and rebuilt by UP in 1982, donated in 2016, and BNSF-donated EMD SW1000 No. 3613 of 1972, which arrived in October 2023. A 1941 Davenport 20-ton gas mechanical switcher, SPMW No. 570, joined in May 2023, and Mount Emily Lumber Company Shay No. 1 — donated by the Oregon Historical Society in 2022 — moved inside the enginehouse in October 2024 to begin restoration. Partner groups keep additional locomotives and vintage passenger and freight cars on the grounds.
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