Disposition and Maintenance
From 1981 to 2012, No. 4449 resided at Union Pacific's (Formerly, Southern Pacific) Brooklyn roundhouse in Portland along with several other historic steam and diesel locomotives. The Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation, a partnership of non-profit organizations that owned or maintained historic rolling stock at the roundhouse, began a campaign in late 2009 to construct a permanent, publicly accessible engine house for the City of Portland's steam locomotives. Upon the closing of the Brooklyn Roundhouse in June 2012, the 4449 was moved with its stablemates to the Oregon Rail Heritage Center (ORHC), a new restoration facility and public interpretive center adjacent to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) in southeast Portland. The ORHC opened to the public in September 2012 and houses the 4449 and other rolling stock. Eventually, it will include the old turntable from the Brooklyn roundhouse.
No. 4449 is maintained by Doyle McCormack, retired Union Pacific engineer and collector, along with many volunteers. When the engine was on display at Oaks Park, Jack Holst, a Southern Pacific employee, looked after 4449 along with two other steam locomotives, SP&S #700 and OR&N 197. Holst kept the engines' bearings and rods oiled in case they were ever to move again. Holst died in 1972 and never got to see 4449 return to operation.
Only one other true Southern Pacific GS-class steam engine survives, Southern Pacific 4460, a GS-6, which is on static display at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri. It was built during World War II, but was never painted the famous Daylight paint scheme. Instead, it was painted black and silver thus, giving it the nickname "Black Daylight".
Another survivor is St. Louis Southwestern 819, a "GS-8", at the Arkansas Railroad Museum in Pine Bluff, Arkansas; housed in the same building where the engine was built in 1942. The 819 is currently undergoing a major rebuild/upgrading and will return once again to operation.
Read more about this topic: Southern Pacific 4449
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