Riders glimpse Holiday Express steam train on Springwater Trail

it was much prettier with lights at night…

I heart 4449

Wish I could have been riding by on my orange, black, silver Wabi “Lightning!”

Wow, that is so cool! In all my riding along the Springwater I’ve never once seen a train use those tracks.

How fast does it go along there? It would have been fun to try to race it!

A.K. – 5-10mph. They will sometimes hit 15, but they take it pretty slow to maintain a 40 minute trip time for the kids (the train runs from Oaks Park to 4th & Ivon and back)

Do any of the steam locomotives come in Duck colors?

Thanks, Jonathan and Matt. It’s a spectacular site to see one of these engines under steam, at night outlined in lights. More information on the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation and the Holiday Express at
http://www.orhf.org/
They have to find a new home for these superb engines.

Susan, cyclist and train fan

4449 is a fixie too.

For those who are interested – our ride report from our trip this weekend is here:
http://www.cyclewild.org/2010/12/champoeg-ride-report/

I live close enough to Oaks Bottom to hear the steam whistles from my house. Sends a chill up my spine every time. Seeing these behemoths — nearly as tall as 2-story houses — in person and under steam is always a fantastic experience.

Where the heck do they turn the thing around?

Matt Picio
Sir you are to be corrected. The beautiful and awesome 4449 is unparalled at parallel track standing.
🙂

I live between Multnomah Village and Garden Home and clearly heard it’s whistle this weekend! I attribute it partly to the east wind & atmospheric conditions. Pretty cool!

Thanks for all the info, Matt.

First time I saw 4449 was at the dedication for the “Freedom Train” in 1976: a sleek gigantic beast slithering across the yard at Union Station.

These things are alive!

I hate to be the one bitching here, but when I attempted to stop to take a picture of it on my bike I was faced right away with someone waving a “stop” hand sign inches from my face and yelling at me to slow down. I was pretty much stopped getting my camera out! Feeling pretty unwelcome I made my way (walking pace) through the crowd and their volunteers kept yelling at me “slow down”. If they are going to be jerks then dont be surprised if they get the same back.

It was the opposite for me, the volunteers were very polite when I went slowly through at night (passed about seven of volunteers), and during the day a train engineer even blew the horn for the group pictured above as we rode along side the train.

The volunteer I chatted with was also uber-nice. Maybe the one dude needs to go back to volunteer-community interface training. hah.

I could not get a toot, though, and felt maligned over that for awhile. But then I figured maybe they have to limit their toots per hour or something. Whatever. It was totally awesome anyway, and their group is looking to add younger volunteers. Just sayin.

I like the cattle catcher on the front. They should have these on the max trains for the idiots that insist on sharing the tracks

Jim- sometimes you make a good point, but I think you went a little wide on that turn.

On track- I am glad not everyone had the experience I had I was really excited to get that photo and check out the train (I am a steam geek) and the dude pretty much made me feel I better get my bicycle-shorts covered ass on down the road ASAP. I could have been an interested person, hell sometimes I decide to donate to odd causes that amuse me… but that interaction pretty much let me know I was not welcome there.

Just as a general reminder, on the path, we are the large vehicles and there are many young kids at the train stop eager to get a better look. Slowing down is important, but so is focusing on our surroundings at the same time (this means waiting to fully stop to get a camera out or marveling at the train, etc.). It is not fun if a little one gets hurt.

Thank you for being respectful and courteous multi-purpose trail users.

I was there twice and all my comments accurately reflect what I experienced. Yes you had one unpleasant experience, but as in life, one experience does equal the whole.

Not sure why you are calling me out since my general reminder was something we can (and should) all keep in mind. It’s the holidays, I prefer to be festive.

Happy celebrations and I hope many of you get to enjoy the train both at night and during the day!

…I am here now and you are getting pretty aggressive for no apparent reason with me. In a non-passive way your last post reflects pretty poorly on you.

My comment about the camera again was from my own experience, check out the above picture a bit more closely. The guy in grey is not waving at the train, but rather as filming the train while riding in the left lane. I tensed each time another trail user approached.

As for your last comment, while I probably will not comment again, I still enjoy this site even though you are being an obnoxious commenter. There are bad applies everywhere.

Please do not try and spoil the fun for the rest of us. I truly hope you let this one go.

Bill and Duncan, I’d really rather not host personal back-and-forth discussions like this in the comments. I’m going to close this thread. Thanks for your contributions.