Steam & Excursion > Portland Holiday Express

I'm not even going to try to rotate this as I have been told.  Sick of having it happen.  Go ride the Holiday Express, I did yesterday and it is a lot of fun and appropriate for the season.

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NYCMAN...

Thanks for posting pics of my favorite Loco..
AND favorite "live museum" operation ...

What were the highlights of the trip you took?

Wes Camp

NYCman, beautiful  shots!   Haruo
 

Just being around all those happy kids is good therapy for our times.
Thanks for sharing.

railstiesballast Wrote:
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> Just being around all those happy kids is good
> therapy for our times.
> Thanks for sharing.

Took the trip a few years ago and couldn't agree more.  The wonder in the eyes of the little folks is something you never forget.

-John

John...."wonder in those children's eyes".......you nailed my revised thinking of what the ORHF marketing plan needs to include.......kids.     Arlen

Marty, thanks for correcting the orientation of the photo.  Wes, as the others commented, seeing the children enjoy it, plus the views from the train.  You KNOW that 4449 is the biggest attraction.  These little ones have never seen anything as big as this engine, nor have they ever experienced the steam and sound of the whistle, which this year seemed louder to me.

NYCMAN...

You know that you and I will never see a Niagara run again.

In the early 50s , my grandparents lived near Rhinebeck, NY...
Took NYC RR there several times ....at low platforms' height, those 6000s were
immense.  ( I grew up around K4s and CNJ Camelbacks in NJ...)

Never got to see BIG STEAM ---  until the trips to Rhinebeck..
Saw a couple of 'Hawks, as well as the 6000s...
Anyway, the GS4s are the closest thing we have to the 6000s.

Soon, though, we'll have that ATSF 2926 to marvel at ....and compare,
and reminisce about...  
But, forget about any hi-speed stuff...
I'm a Big Drivers & WhiteWalls guy....  

So, I'm so glad you that you took the opportunity this year to revisit the memorable
moments of your past...and to enjoy the marvel in young kids eyes, today..

I'm intending to visit the progress of the PRR 5550, T-1 project.
Constructing a brand-new boiler. with FRA participation, & is 95% complete...
That'll be a BEAST, when completed.  
The big job ahead, is the casting of the main frame, and the machining of
the poppet valve ports...as well as the frame pedestals for the RBs axles.

Improvements include rotary-cam actuated poppet valves; Titanium for
poppets & the poppet 'return' springs .... (The lower titanium mass [comparable weights], 
means easier valve events..  Titanium makes an ideal material for the coil return-springs*..).

They're casting more drivers, this winter...
Only two pattern types needed for all 8 drivers😃

Thanks for your support of ORHF... keep me posted on the Turntable Pit 
excavation progress...

Did they already sink the pilings for the center bearing support?
Typically, they'd sink pilings in a 4X4 pattern....for 16 total pilings....
the outer ones at a slight outward angle, ( wider at the base) ..
Rainwater runoff drain pipes, from the pit, should be the lowest points of excavation...

​Wes

(* Years ago --- 1968-- while NKP 759 was at Harmon Shops, Ossining, NY,
I was talking to a NYC RR machinist, named Frank Leslie, he told me about the NYC 5500
[Poppet-valve Niagara] and the problem they'd had with the poppet valve return-springs ....  

Not strong enough, they got into 'valve-float' at high speeds.  
"Too-strong" return springs battered the valve-seat inserts..
The inserts, and sometimes the poppets, would break-up into pieces..
Between Franklin Railway Supply and NYC RR, they never solved that problem....
here's hoping the 'Titanium' solution is a 21st century innovation..)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/21 14:59 by wcamp1472.

Wes, I don't know if the piling supports have been done.  This year the trains started from the oppoite end, the Oaks Park location, so we didn't even get off up at the engine house.

Thanks...
I'm glad you had a Great Time...

Wes

Would have been cool to see a Niagra run, especially since the last five were together in the corporate
"storage" yard.

Out 

Wes.....the last schedule I have heard is a "pit dig" for the turntable this spring; so no pilings yet.  ORHC is sited on a giant pile of sawdust so our ground continues to settle but not the ORHC building as it is on pilings... I believe permitting is in hand.   Fund raising is continuing.    I love Rick Franklin's crew putting the ties on the turntable bridge....makes for a much better exhibit......see I have the same problem as Jim with my picture being turned.......... Arlen   .   

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Looks good!

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That's gonna take a BIG  diameter hole!
If there's a lot of sawdust hurried there--- driving the pilings ought
to go quickly 'til you hit firmer stuff.

Down on the Rock Island RR, down in Arkansas --- along the Mississippi,
there was no end to the depth of the mud ---- pile drivers there hammered piles
on top of each other --- until the hammer blows only sunk the pile a 1/4-inch, or less,
before starting another piling..

​W.

 

asheldrake Wrote:
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> "wonder in those children's eyes".......

How true, Arlen.  It's the same even on a smaller scale.  Here's Portland's other "Holiday Express" on the same evening.  While running the trains I could hear the 4449 whistling on the other side of the Willamette River.  Here the Virginia & Truckee "Reno"-modeled WP&Z Rwy "Oregon" is climbing the 4% grade into the tunnel as the GMC EMD Aerotrain-modeled "ZooLiner" departs the station.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/21 22:20 by Jim700.

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