Old Train Thursday.

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Old stream train travelling through the bush, Mary Valley, Australia

Portland museum lands historic train, plans to give rides soon

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – The Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation has acquired a 102-year-old steam engine from the Oregon Historical Society, which it hopes to use for future train rides between its museum in Southeast Portland and Oaks Amusement Park.

Portland museum lands historic train, plans to give rides soon© Provided by KOIN Portland ORHF President Roy Hemmingway announced Friday that “Mount Emily Shay” will be transferred to the foundation’s rail yard after nearly 30 years of service on the City of Prineville Railway.”The Mount Emily Shay will allow the Oregon Rail Heritage Center to show the public the important role logging railroads played in the development of the timber industry in Oregon,” Hemmingway said. “Specialty locomotives like the Shay, which could operate on steep and rough track, were able to access timber not available by other means Shays were key to bringing logs to the mills and developing Oregon’s timber economy.”

Mount Emily Shay still chugs along after more than 100 years of service. | Photo courtesy: Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation© Provided by KOIN Portland. The locomotive was a celebrated local asset in Prineville, where it was used for class field trips, the Crooked River Dinner Train and annual rides on the Fourth of July, the Central Oregonian reports. However, after several years of declining use, the City of Prineville decided to end its loan agreement with the Oregon Historical Society. Mount Emily Shay has changed hands many times in its rich history. Built at the Lima Locomotive Works in Ohio in the 1920s, the geared steam locomotive was originally purchased by the Hofus Steel & Equipment Company in Seattle, Washington. The train engine was then sold to the Independence Logging Company in Independence, Washington, before it was sold again to the Mount Emily Lumber Company, in La Grande, Oregon, which ultimately gave the engine its name. 

“Toot-toot!” | Photo Courtesy: Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation
Three pictures above are of Portland’s Shay, contributed by Phil.

From Phil.
Phil forced me to include this…
East Tennessee & Western North Carolina RR, Big Country took a picture of a picture at a RR Depot restaurant on his and his wife’s sojourn to Tennessee over his Granbebe…
Hauling Ice.
Central.
Thurmond.

14 thoughts on “Old Train Thursday.”

  2. My boys when they were young loved trains and the historic ones in our area of Stockton, CA. We took them to Jamestown, CA as a Parent helper to their classes to the gold country and Jamestown and Columbia so they got to see the train and go gold panning.

    I also would take my boys to the Western Railway Museum, which is on HWY 12 west of Rio Vista, CA. I also took my boys to Sacramento to the trains the were adding into a museum there. We left the state in 96.

  3. ET & WNC…..eat taters & wear nasty clothes…OLD nick name for their trucking line…MEANS, IF YOU worked for the truckline you could NOT afford to “WARSH” your clothes OR eat any food, BUT… “TATERS”……(southern slang)..all accourding to my DAD. he worked for HARPER Motor freight.

  8. Glad Phil got you to post Blackfoot. My favorite was Highway Song. Always seemed to play when I was coming home for work after dark. Still love it.

    Those old trains are too cool. A Few vids on YT that show the LMS trains being built in the 30’s and 40’s over in Ye Merry Olde. From castings to rollout. Even have one showing how they would repair them and another showing how they wash them up. VERY interesting information, at least to me.

    Steam was a very mature technology by 1900. My thermo books had all the charts in them (enthalpy….. oh baby). Technology passed steam by, but those old girls are still good girls…

  9. I remember Oaks Amusement Park. Went there many times as a kid.

    I’ve never ridden a steam train. I ought to do that sometime, before the eco-tards shut them down.

  10. I saw one of those rail cycles at the California train museum Sacramento back in the 80’s. I’ve always wanted to fabricate something like that…

  12. Shay Locomotives – ‘All Wheel Drive’ with an offset boiler. The preferred locomotive of loggers in the first half of the 20th century.

    The Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation just scored, big time.

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