smitty195 Wrote:
> It is my understanding that these units no longer
> have ANY connection to the Portland people at all.
> They have been sold (or donated, or whatever) to
> the Ogden Train Museum (I don't know the formal
> name of the museum). They will be put on static
> display, and will never be placed into operating
> order.

Hey, 'Joe', thought I'd help set some things straight: The 231 was donated by Friends of SP 4449 to Dynamic Rail Preservation (DynaRail), likewise with 644 by Northwest Rail Museum. DynaRail, a newly-formed nonprofit organization made up of a board fully committed to the cosmetic restoration and operation of the two locomotives, have entered an agreement with Ogden Union Station to relocate the locomotives and create a work area for not only these two, but also other pieces of equipment at the museum. I'm going to ignore your confident claim that they will never be placed into operating order, despite the fact that 644 runs and 231 close to being fired up account a few gummed up exhaust valves and ring replacements...


> I think one of the biggest mistakes they made was
> painting that F40 into Daylight colors. It looks
> ridiculous. There were a lot of people behind the
> project at the beginning, and we were all thinking
> that it was going to be restored so that it could
> be operated on the rails, with Amtrak Phase III
> livery and everything. But someone got the bright
> idea of painting it Daylight orange, which makes
> absolutely no sense. Once that happened, I could
> see the interest go swirling down the toilet. I'm
> glad that F40 is gone----it looked like hell.
> Hopefully Ogden will repaint it to its proper
> colors.

The justification for repainting it in Daylight colors was due to my being unprepared to paint it in Phase III Amtrak, as much as I would've liked to. In 2005, a 700 and 4449 steam doubleheader trip was almost canceled due to lack of Amtrak power, and our relationship with Amtrak during that time was pretty iffy considering Amtrak nearly shut down a few times in 2002-2004. A month later, more weight was put on fixing 231 to be the dedicated HEP helper for these excursions, but as years went on, a better relationship with Amtrak grew to the point where the 4449 was able to do big trips (such as to Michigan, a hell of a feat to pull off these days) and utilizing the F40 was no longer a priority.

I had also never painted a railcar or locomotive with a spray gun before, so this was a perfect opportunity to take advantage of 3 months of summer to needle-gun the whole carbody and slap on some practice paint, outdoors, under guidance and instruction from Doyle McCormack. He actually wanted me to paint a New York Central lightning-Daylight scheme like he did for the F45... To do a proper paint job, it would be wise to clean up the locomotive indoors and not worry about the rainy weather Portland gets. I didn't have much sunny weather to work with outdoors, and having had no experience spraying, I felt I would be more content with screwing up a temporary paint job instead of a good Phase III scheme that would only be eaten up by rust again. The temp paint accomplishes another thing: rust control. Rust was eating up the locomotive like cancer and had holes big enough to stick your arm through, so cleaning it up and putting on a coat of paint helped buy time. Look at the Santa Fe FP45 rehablitation project going on *indoors* at Orange Empire in Perris; it's been going on for a good while, and they're barely getting the carbody walls back on.

Due to the vacating of Brooklyn Yard, Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation went through a long process determining which equipment gets to go to the new Enginehouse. The final result was equipment dedicated to the annual Holiday Express fundraiser, NKP 324 for switching, and the NKP PA so Doyle can continue completing his project that he set aside for years in order to dedicate full time efforts on the land acquisition and building of a new facility. The 4449 toolcar was sold and went to Canada. Other pieces of equipment still occupy space on the Oregon Pacific Railroad shortline (NP 498 being one of them, which now has busted window). NRM would've liked to continue work on the SP&S FA for display at the Enginehouse, but it had to go to a storage location along with 231, 644, the Daylight-painted Clackamas River sleeping car, and misc equipment. Doyle and the Friends of 4449 have played an incredible role in which allowed the saving of 231 and its slow rehabilitation towards operating condition despite recent setbacks with vandalism, so gratitude is owed. It should also be noted that at the time when 231 and 644 went to Portland, a roundhouse and enginehouse was planned for a plot of land 3 times larger than what ultimately resulted. A lot changed in 10 years... but I think for the better.

During storage in NW Portland, meth-heads busted their way into the sleeper car and trashed it for its copper. They also found and took 231's HEP cables and shot up the cab windshield in an attempt to get inside. Luckily through a week-long stakeout and a security system installed by DynaRail that utilized live video alarms, a number of people were netted, one of which is still serving time in prison with restitution hanging over his head.

By transferring ownership to DynaRail, the locomotives now belong to an organization to which the mission statement fits, and is out of the problem storage lot. We can apply for grants and conduct thorough fundraising without running into issues with steam locomotive mission statements and objectives. Now that I've painted some Amtrak-certified cars (such as NP Travellers Rest 498) along with other steam and diesel locomotives, I'm confident on restoring 231 and 644 to their former glory.

I realize you've had a beef with how I do things for a while, such as when you've posted here as 'Joe' and obsessively ranted about certain issues in 2011, or criticizing a project or paint job you've not contributed to. That's OK, I respect that. There are F40s currently listed for sale at a number of rail equipment websites, and I would support your endeavor to do a project however you see fit. What's written above is just part of the story, and I hope it helps paint a bigger picture of how things turned out the way they did. I'm happy, despite the challenges and setbacks, and have no apologies nor regrets. Fact is something's being done, which is about all that really counts and pretty much applies to all aspects of life.

If anyone has any further questions, our mailing address, email address, and phone number is listed at dynarail.org and we'll be glad to appropriately answer any further questions.

Here's to a bright red-white-blue future for 231 and 644!