Margaret (SP fan) Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Question: Would the SP 4449 have to go
> through that tight curve or that too-
> tight leg of the wye in order to get into
> Albina Yard?
>
> Please pardon the seemingly dumb question,
> but I am not at all familiar with the trackage
> in and around Portland.
>
> I have a story to tell.
> Back in 1979, my sons and I visited Albina Yard,
> during
> our layover in Portland when we were on our way to
> ride
> behind the UP 8444 Boise-Weiser-Boise, Idaho.
>
> After we got to the yard, they said they had a
> surprise
> for us. The man escorting us took us into a large
>
> warehouse, turned on the lights, and --lo and
> behold! --
> who should we see but -- the SP 4449!!
>
> She was still in her original Freedom Train paint,
> with
> her smokebox door ajar. Boy, was I ever
> surprised!
> I do not know why she was there back then, but
> she
> did manage to get into -- and, later, out of --
> Albina Yard.
> So, at least, back in 1979, did she have to go on
> a route
> that made her go through those sharp curves and
> the leg
> of the wye with the sharp curve?
>
> I would appreciate any info anyone has on how she
> got into
> and out of Albina Yard back then.

Yep! She was kept after the Freedom Train run at the UP Albina yard until moved over to the then SP Brooklyn Yard Roundhouse. I will have to ask Doyle which way they brought her into and out of Albina but the possibility I can think of to avoid the sharp curves at the south end of the yard is they came south out of Vancouver through Penninsula Junction and straight through the Albina tunnel into the north end of the yard for storage.