Part of the fun of spending two days at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center was getting to spend time with Doyle McCormack. Doyle headed up the restoration and operation of Southern Pacific 4-8-4 4449, Delaware & Hudson ALCO PA 18 (preserved as Nickel Plate Road 190), as well as other noted vintage steam and diesel locomotives. He first came to Portland in 1974, from Ohio, to help restore SP 4449 to operating condition for use as the American Freedom Train during the US Bicentennial celebrations in 1975–1976, and he resettled in Portland in 1978, where he hired out with the Southern Pacific Railroad as an engineer. After spending two years touring the country in the right-hand seat of SP 4449, he certainly seemed at home back in that locomotive’s engineer’s seat, where he regaled us with a lot of funny stories.
Photo albums dedicated to the Men, and Women that keep the Railroad running around the clock 365 days a year. From Dispatcher to Track Gangs, these are the people that make the railroad moves!
