The Oregon Rail Heritage Center (ORHC) is a railway museum in Portland, Oregon. Along with other rolling stock, the museum houses three steam locomotives owned by the City of Portland: Southern Pacific 4449, Spokane, Portland & Seattle 700, and Oregon Railroad & Navigation Co. 197, the first two of which are restored and operable. The center opened to the public on September 22, 2012. The project to establish the center was led by the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation (ORHF), a non-profit organization, which was renamed from the Oregon Heritage Steam Foundation in 2002. The non-profit Oregon Steam Heritage Foundation was formed in 2000. The museum site is in Southeast Portland.
Background
ORHF was tasked with finding a new home for the three city-owned steam locomotives and other rail equipment, after planned changes by Union Pacific Railroad (UP) made it apparent that the locomotives would need to be moved out of their longtime home in the UP's (formerly Southern Pacific's) Brooklyn Roundhouse (), which was a 1941-built roundhouse in Brooklyn Rail Yard in Southeast Portland's Brooklyn neighborhood. ORHF comprises several entities, including non-profit railway preservation and railfan groups as well as the city's Bureau of Parks & Recreation.
Proposals to construct a new enginehouse to house the historic locomotives were expanded to encompass a visitor center and eventually an interpretive center. After considering other potential sites for an enginehouse, ORHF reached agreement in 2009 on a site near the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), encompassing about .
Construction
Ground-breaking for the enginehouse took place in October 2011. The three steam locomotives were moved to the site from the Brooklyn Roundhouse on June 26, 2012, and were temporarily placed outdoors, awaiting completion of the enginehouse. With the house fully enclosed (though not completed), the locomotives were moved inside on July 28. Several vintage rail passenger coaches were moved to the site from the Brooklyn Yard (surrounding the roundhouse), where they had been outdoors, and they will continue to be kept outdoors at the new center. The budget for the initial phase of construction was $5.9 million, and funding has come mainly from donations, but with the City of Portland loaning $1 million.
The Brooklyn Roundhouse was demolished in early September 2012, but the Brooklyn Yard's 1924 turntable , built by American Bridge Company, was removed and placed in storage. A major fund raising effort has since resulted in the turntable components being updated and restored for service, and a new pit excavated and completed at ORHC. As of October 2023, installation of the turntable is nearly complete and operational at ORHC.
The Oregon Rail Heritage Center opened to the public on September 22, 2012. As of early 2023, it is open for visitors Thursday through Sunday, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., with no admission charge. Donations are welcomed.
Collection
The centerpieces of ORHC's collection are the three steam locomotives: Southern Pacific 4449, Spokane, Portland & Seattle 700, and Oregon Railroad & Navigation Co. 197. All were donated to the City of Portland in 1958 and were on static display near Oaks Amusement Park at "Oaks Pioneer Park" until the mid-1970s or later. No. 4449 was moved to the Burlington Northern Hoyt Street Roundhouse in 1974 for restoration and proceeded to become famous nationwide, when it hauled the American Freedom Train throughout much of the country during the United States Bicentennial celebrations of 1975–76. It was thereafter stored and maintained at the Brooklyn Roundhouse between excursions. SP&S 700 moved to the roundhouse from Oaks Pioneer Park in 1986, and OR&N 197 followed in 1996. SP&S 700 is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Union Pacific diesel switcher locomotive No. 96 was added to the collection in 2016, donated to ORHF by UP. It is an SW10-class locomotive, built originally as an SW7 in 1950 by Electro-Motive Diesel (and originally numbered 1821) and rebuilt as an SW10 by UP in 1982. It arrived at the ORHC in 2017.
Another diesel locomotive was donated to ORHF by the BNSF railway in 2022. This is unit No. 3613, an EMD SW1000 unit built in 1972. It was restored off-site and moved to the ORHC in 2023.
In May 2023, the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society donated a 1941 Davenport Locomotive Works built 20-ton 4-wheel gas mechanical switcher locomotive SPMW No. 570, which served nearby at Southern Pacific's Brooklyn yard, to ORHF. It is being restored off-site.