Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway Steam Locomotive National Register of Historic Places Listing

It is massive. Built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1938, the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway (SP&S) No. 700 tipped the scales at 440 tons with its coal-and-water tender. This E-1 class 4-8-4 "Northern" type locomotive was a true beast of the Pacific Northwest. It drank fuel oil and boiled water at 250 pounds per square inch to haul heavy passenger trains along the Columbia River Gorge. Power personified. The Great Northern and Northern Pacific railways jointly owned the SP&S, so the 700 routinely pulled prestigious trains like the Empire Builder and the SP&S Oriental Limited, connecting Portland to the transcontinental rail network.

But diesel engines arrived. By 1956, the SP&S retired its steam fleet, sending almost every other locomotive to the cutting torch. No. 700 survived because of a public relations gesture. The railroad donated it to the City of Portland in 1958, and the engine ended up sitting outside in Oaks Amusement Park for decades, gathering rust and asbestos dust under the open sky. A slow, sad death. Through thousands of hours of grime-caked volunteer labor starting in the late 1970s, preservationists rebuilt the machine. It worked. The 700 roared back to life in 1990.

Today, it is the only surviving SP&S steam locomotive of its size. That rarity earned it a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. It still runs. Actually, it lives at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center in Portland alongside its historic rival, the Southern Pacific 4449. It is loud. Historically, No. 700 represents the peak of steam engineering just before the technology died.