Steam & Excursion > Fifty Years Ago Today . . . . LNER 4472

I had received a surprise invitation the evening before.  My fellow Vernonia, South Park & Sunset Steam Railroad volunteer and retired Portland Terminal Railroad passenger depot carman Joe Moran and I had driven up the Columbia River intending to chase the Flying Scotsman between Pasco, Washington and Bend, Oregon on September 16th.  Stopping at Wishram to eat dinner in the beanery on the way to Pasco, I chanced to meet Wilbur C. "Bus" Rainey (SP&S Fireman - 12/24/36 and Engineer - 03/18/43, 11 notches on the roster below my father) who was deadheading east to pilot the 4472 between Pasco and Bend the next day.  He invited us to come along so I left my car in Wishram and we hopped on BN #24 to get to Pasco.  Enjoy some video from the next day.  Sorry it's so grainy but it is digitized Super 8 film.

Bus (and his wife Della, who was a schoolmate of my mother in Goldendale) lived just over a block northeast of our family in Wishram.  He was always recognizable from a distance by the white engineer's cap that he wore.  In the first video is seen one of the coaches and a diner as i make my way back through the train to the observation car where long-time TRAINS magazine readers will recognize David P. Morgan sitting on the left.  Being the ALCO diesel locomotive fan that he was, we enjoyed a half hour or more of conversation before I headed back up through the train and the corridor tender to the 4472.  I was happy to let him know that the SP&S diesel roster was about 83% ALCO.  I so much preferred running ALCOs over EMDs, and especially over GEs.

I felt so sorry for the 4472's fireman.  The coal that was loaded at Pasco was a mess.  He frequently had to drag chunks of it from the tender into the gangway and break them into smaller pieces before they went into the firebox.  At the end of the second video, the 4472 is taking water at the plug at Tuskan at MP 51 on the Oregon Trunk.

Joe and I chased the train from Wishram to Bend and Bus arrived there right at the last minute of the 14-hour HOS law.  They had to stop three times on the hill to build up steam because the coal was so poor.  Many years later I read that the BN 4102 (ex-SP&S ALCO FA-1 #857) had helped the Flying Scotsman across part of Montana due to such poor coal.  It was the SP&S 857 that went into the Deschutes River many years earlier after hitting a rock upstream from Maupin.  The engineer and fireman were killed.  The head brakeman survived because he had fortuitously walked back to the trailing cab unit to get his lunch at just the right time.

09/21/2021  EDIT:  Bad-displaying second video (arriving in Wishram on the Sandy to the Tuskan water plug on the Trunk) deleted and replaced.



 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/13/21 13:48 by Jim700.

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Jim-
WOW!    An unique perspective to her US visit.    I did not realize she had 20 cars for her tour.   Thanks for sharing.
Ken

KMiddlebrook Wrote:
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> Jim-
> WOW!    An unique perspective to her US visit.    I did not
> realize she had 20 cars for her tour.   Thanks for sharing.

Ken, I don't have any idea why the running order came out stating 20 cars.  Of course, it was not even close to 20.

Sorry for the second video going bad.  It played fine the first couple times I checked on it and then went bonkers.  I'm gone for the weekend, but will try to fix it on Monday.