Friends of the SP&S 700

05/11/2026

We wanted to share a delightful update with you. The SP&S 700 has long been a cherished setting for many weddings and proposals, serving as the backdrop for countless memorable occasions. Today, we witnessed yet another one of those special moments, as a couple chose this iconic locomotive to celebrate their engagement. It's always wonderful to see how the SP&S 700 continues to inspire joy and create lasting memories for so many.

05/08/2026

🚂🔥 For National Train Day this weekend, the Spokane, Portland & Seattle 700 will once again come alive under steam!

Fittingly, this month marks 36 years since the legendary locomotive was steamed up and moved under her own power again in May 1990—the first time since 1956. What began as a long and ambitious restoration at the Brooklyn Roundhouse became one of the most unforgettable moments in the 700’s modern history.

in 1990, steam filled the Roundhouse as the 700 reached full operating pressure for the first time in decades. Just one week later, she rolled under her own power again after 34 silent years. 🚂💨

Today, members of the Pacific Railroad Preservation Association, along with volunteers at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center and Chief Mechanical Officer Luke Johnson, continue to keep this historic locomotive alive for future generations.

Join us this weekend to experience the SP&S 700 under steam and celebrate her incredible revival and legacy!

📸 Check out photos from these milestone moments in May 1990.

05/07/2026

Meet the SP&S 700 — a true Northwest icon. 🚂✨

The Spokane, Portland & Seattle No. 700 is one of the finest surviving examples of a steam locomotive from the golden age of rail. Beautifully restored and lovingly maintained by our volunteers, she represents the incredible engineering and craftsmanship of a bygone era.

This weekend? She'll be at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center. Come meet her in person.

04/19/2026

Happy Volunteers Appreciation week! April 19-25

Thanks to all the volunteers past and present that have dedicated their time to keeping the SP & S 700 steaming! Without each and every one of you this would not be possible.
We thank you all !

03/26/2026

Big progress on the SP&S 700 this Monday! 🔥

With National Train Day getting closer, our amazing volunteers put in a full day of important work to help get the 700 ready to steam, including a new air pump and a boiler wash.

This is the kind of behind-the-scenes work that keeps the momentum rolling — and every step gets us closer to seeing the 700 hot and alive again.

We’re incredibly thankful for the volunteers who keep showing up, turning wrenches, and putting in the time and effort to move this locomotive forward.

Their dedication is what helps make days like Train Day possible.

There’s still more to do, but it’s exciting to see the progress happening.

We hope you’ll come out and see her — and all the action — at Train Day on May 9 and 10!

01/01/2026

🚂 Happy New Year! 🚂💨
We're stoked to kick off 2026 after an exciting 2025 getting back to steam! 🚂🔥
Excited for the opportunities ahead and wishing you all a year filled with happiness and success 🎉👍

This journey in preservation of the 700 is possible due to the support of all of you through the PRPA.

12/13/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/1SXNzkdoT5/?mibextid=wwXIfr

: Pictured here in her holiday best, the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Locomotive 700 brings a little winter magic to the rails circa 2008. Built in 1938 by Baldwin Locomotive Works, the 700 is one of the last great 4-8-4 Northern-type steam locomotives of the Northwest, and today, one of only a few still operational in the country.

For decades, the 700 hauled passengers and freight along the Columbia River corridor, becoming a familiar sight between Spokane, Vancouver, and Portland. After her final SP&S run in 1956, she was donated to the City of Portland in 1958 and spent nearly 30 years on display at Oaks Amusement Park.

In 1987, volunteers moved her to the Brooklyn Roundhouse and began the painstaking restoration that brought her back to steam in 1990. She ran excursions and special events for the next 25 years, until federally required inspections sidelined her in 2015.

What followed was nearly a decade-long overhaul, fueled by volunteer labor, major mechanical upgrades, and an extraordinary fundraising effort. Beginning in 2016, the Friends of the SP&S 700 and the Oregon Rail Heritage Center raised more than $500,000 in parts and materials to complete the work (thousands of volunteer hours not included). Their perseverance paid off: on May 9, 2025, the 700 was ceremonially fired up again, marking her triumphant return to operational status.

This photo was taken during her long “downtime,” when she wasn’t running but still managed to show up for the holidays and steal the scene. Wreath on the smokebox, lights on the boiler, steam drifting upward... It’s a glimpse of a locomotive with a long story, a dedicated community behind her, and a future that keeps rolling forward.

Long live the Lady of the Northwest.

Photo Description: From the museum’s collection, this image shows the SP&S 700 steam locomotive decorated for the holidays with a wreath on its front and strings of lights along the boiler. Steam rises softly around the engine as a man in overalls walks beside it on the tracks. Circa 2008.

11/17/2025

Our fellow Partner group the Northwest Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society recently had this news article in the latest issue of NRHS News. The PNW Chapter and ORHC hosted the 2025 Northwest RailCamp, which included the post of the campers posing in front of the 700!
https://admin.nrhs.com/NRHSNews/202510NewsOctober2025final1.pdf

11/03/2025

For the last post we talked about the beginning of our fundraising efforts and strategy to complete our 15-year Boiler Inspection, which began at the start of 2016. We had to start somewhere, so we hatched an idea to create sponsorships for our superheaters. We created a special page on the PRPA website, SPS700.org which allowed donors to select a specific superheater at the boiler head to sponsor it in the form of donation. In the first year that we had this in place, we raised almost $20K.
We then began to hunt for any grants that we could qualify for. The first one was the Tom E. Dailey Foundation, which provides grants for railroad preservation projects. This was a learning experience for us, as each of these organizations have specific sets of criteria, as well as documentation requirements for grant requests. We submitted our request and after a wait for any announcements, (these grants were given quarterly) we received a modest award of $2500. This was a great start, but we needed to raise much more. This win gave us the confidence to keep trying and place more grant requests with other institutions.
The next grant we applied for was the Preserving Oregon Grant, through Oregon State Parks. This process was quite different and required a lot more documentation including complete project plans and schedules, budget and photographs of work in progress. The application is all on-line, and the grant staff was very involved and helpful with any questions or issues during the application and regular reporting process. The SP&S 700 is a designated National Historical Place or Landmark, which is one of the criteria for qualifying for a Preserving Oregon grant. This is also a matching grant, and the duration of the grant is for a period of one year. Receipts and documentation for work completed are submitted on a regular basis and reimbursement occurs after each report. This award was $20K. The grant would be the first of several from Preserving Oregon!
The BNSF Foundation was the third institution that we applied to. Our locomotive qualified because SP&S was a predecessor railroad, and we also had some BNSF employees that were PRPA volunteers. This grant was for $5000, the first of 2 grants from the BNSF Foundation.
We also had our first larger individual donor, Al Baker, of the PNW Chapter of the NRHS. Al is a well-known volunteer at the Chapter and at ORHF, and a true team player in the preservation community. Al created a matching grant of $20K.
Additionally, we brought in smaller donations here and there, with some donating on a regular basis throughout the life of the project. Combining the grants, the superheater sponsorships and the donations, all contributed to the cash flow needed for at least the first 2 years of the project.
We were now on our way to having the necessary funds to keep this project going. And we knew this was a good start, and that we could continue raising more money. More money would come, along with new granting institutions and more major donors. The story will continue as we recount the middle portion of this effort, including our experiences during the pandemic.

10/21/2025

2025 was a good year for us! The SP&S 700 was returned to service and steamed up for Portland Train Day in May, then steamed up again in the Summer for fine tuning, testing and the hot blow-down. It was a long road to get there, and we would like to share our experiences in completing this huge project.

Most of what we usually talk about is the mechanical work involved with this project. Yes, that was a lot of work, requiring a lot of labor hours. When our 15-year boiler inspection began at the beginning of 2016, we had to develop a detailed plan of all the items and tasks needed to complete the job. This included detailed cost estimates of materials and labor. The topic of cost is key in this conversation. We had in front of us a several year project that would cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. How could we complete this project without money? We had to begin a fundraising campaign.

That fundraising plan consisted of a 3-point strategy:
1. Grants
2. Social Media Outreach
3. Donor Outreach
4. Crowd Funding (which was soon abandoned in favor of more suitable methods)

Steve Sedaker, PRPA VP at the time, created the strategy and implemented in spite of the doubts inside ORHC that we could pull this off. It was an incredible challenge, and we took up that challenge by raising almost $50K in the first year. Later, about midway through the project, Roger Woehl joined PRPA and happily applied his skills as a fundraiser, and working together with Steve, got the rest of the funding needed to get to the home stretch. Between Steve and Roger, almost $500,000 was raised, which was enough to finish the project.

It was a long road in raising funds, and there is a lot more to the story than this initial summary. Next time we will talk about the organizations and individuals who contributed these funds, the details that describe how much effort was required in fundraising, as well as key PRPA members who also helped with this effort.

It's a good story, and we hope you will find this next series of posts to be very informative. Without this level of fundraising effort, we would never been able to complete this project let alone start it. More to come!