TrainWeb.org Facebook Page
Oregon & Northwestern Railroad- Saving the Baldwins Part 3

Oregon & Northwestern Railroad
Saving the Baldwin Diesels
Part 3: Epilogue

A decade and a half has passed since the photos on these pages were taken. In early 2007 all four units still wear full O&NW paint almost a quarter century after the railroad that gave them those colors disappeared. The #1 remains at the museum in Campo and is a strong candidate for future operation in the excursions the museum runs over a portion of the old San Diego & Arizona; it is likely to get re-painted into Southern Pacific's "black widow" black, orange, and silver paint scheme when that happens. The Pacific Northwest Chapter of the NRHS never did much of anything with the #2 before selling it to the National Transportation Museum in St. Louis, Missouri. The unit remains in storage near Portland but has been heavily vandalized, and rumors indicating it may be scrapped finally came true in November 2009, when a scrapper started cutting the unit up. The #3 and #4 are still at the Portola museum; however, that organization has decided to focus more heavily on the Western Pacific, and already some non-WP pieces of the collection have been traded off. It will be interesting to see if the Baldwins will continue to have a place in the museum in the future.


The #1 in Campo in the Spring of 2006. Lee Hower photo, used with permission.

Oregon & Northwestern #4 arrived at Portola in the spring of 1992. The morning of 8 April 1992 finds FRRS volunteers unloading the locomotive from the flatcar using ex-Western Pacific 100-ton derrick #37.

Oregon & Northwestern #3 and #4 are seen here operating on the Portola Railroad Museum trackage on "Railfan Photographer's Day", 18 September 1993.

In a scene that could be on the O&NW years before, #3 and #4 along with caboose #300 are back together once again a year after departing central Oregon. The pair are seen here in a 5-minute time exposure taken during a night photo session organized by Vic Neves as part of the Railfan Photographer's Day on 19 September 1992. Time will tell if scenes like this will be repeated in the future.