For all of you Pacific Northwest fans, the SP&S 700 will be running Thursday through Sunday on the Oregon Pacific, from Oaks Park to OMSI and back. Prices reasonable and more info available on the website for PRPA.
While TDY in Salem, OR, I had the privilege to see the 700 run, both trackside and behind her from the door of a baggage car. It's a well-maintained locomotive, and well worth going to see.
On another site today there are some pictures which surprised me, of this wonderful gentleman, Harold Borovec, running the 700! I hope he was as thrilled as I was to see him running that big brute, after oiling around his Cowlitz, Chehalis and Cascade 2-8-2 No. 15 in the photo attached. Harold is one of the really great people in the world, and goes out of his way to please us railfans. Neat to see him running the 700. It would appear that Jim Abney, one of the regular 700 engineers, had a lot to do with it. I love the way these guys take care of one another, as we all should.
I count myself very lucky to live in the same city as both the SP&S 700 and the SP 4449. Hopefully, I can get away this weekend long enough to go foam the 700. I may not make it since the to-do list is long and tomorrow I am running the open house at my club layout.
