Holiday Express Derailment

by Aaron Hockley on December 10, 2005

Table of contents for Holiday Express

  1. Holiday Express Derailment
  2. Press Release: Official Cause of SP 4449 / SP&S 700 Holiday Express Derailment

Today our family had tickets to ride the 2:00 departure of the Holiday Express, a benefit put on by the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation offering 40 minute rides behind the SP 4449 in Portland. We got lucky, because today the SP&S 700 was double-heading on the trip since it was under steam for its duties as the BNSF Santa train tomorrow.

Unfortunately, as I picked up my will-call tickets at OMSI I found out that the train had derailed. The OMSI employees didn’t really know any details so we headed out to see what we could find. As I drove south on McLoughlin and took the Milwaukee Blvd. exit, I saw the steam column from the train. We parked at the Oaks Bottom parking lot and hiked in about a mile.

It was a sad sight. Both locomotives as well as the tender for the 4449 were on the ground. I hung around for about an hour and took some pictures as the crews figured out what to do next. Resources from the Friends of 4449, PRPA, Dick Samuels, and the Portland and Western RR were arriving and offering help. It’s an unfortunate occurrance. It’s not the end of the world but a setback.

Here are some assorted photos taken. Just a reminder that these photos may not be reproduced or republished without my permission. Please contact Aaron Hockley before reproducing these photos.

Overview of the Scene:

Overview of the steam derailment

Photos of the SP 4449:

SP 4449 derailed

SP 4449 derailed

SP 4449 derailed

SP 4449 derailed

SP 4449 derailed

SP 4449 derailed

SP 4449 derailed

SP 4449 derailed

Photos of the SP&S 700:

SP&S 700 derailed

SP&S 700 derailed

SP&S 700 derailed

SP&S 700derailed

SP&S 700 derailed

Doyle Smiling & Putting the Heads Together:

Doyle Smiling

Doyle, Dick Samuels, and others

Next in series
  • Roger
    Similar problem when the NPS train turned over a rail on the Delaware Water Gap run.
    poor \gauge restraint will do it every time.
  • We were interested as we sometimes run into the same problem on the Assiniboine Valley Railway but in 1/8 scale the problems while real are not so gigantic. Still a boiler running at 350 degres can not simply be manhandled. We use slider plates and pry bars to move our light 1500 lb Pacific steamer. The deasels on the other hand are easier as you can simply jack up one end at a time and drop the power truck back on the rails. We run in winter and the biggest challange is ice and snow which is in real scale. The picture shows that the rail looks very light. What weight of rail were they running on.

    Regards

    Bill Taylor
  • Peter Ford
    How discouraging. We were there for the 4 pm trip. After we learned where the engines were, we went and viewed them from Hwy 99E. I heard that the 700 was back on the rails except for the lead truck at that point. Two diesel switch engines from the East Portland Traction Co -- SW1 number 100, the orange one and an SW7 or so in an NP scheme, are on the tail of the 700 trying to set things right.

    Those guys were working hard to get the engines on the rails, but what a job.
  • Coal Man
    Strange!
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