Wednesday, August 12, 2015

PNWC #600 Mount Hood at ORHF Holiday Express 2009

I originally posted this on my old website on February 13, 2010.

…Continued from Southern Pacific #4449.

IMG_0968 PNWC Sleeper-Lounge #600 Mount Hood in Portland, Oregon on December 4, 2009
PNWC Sleeper-Lounge #600 Mount Hood on December 4, 2009

The Mount Hood, SP&S #600, was ordered from the Pullman-Standard Manufacturing Company of Chicago in September, 1946 by the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway for the Portland section of Great Northern's Empire Builder. It was delivered in February 1950. It and sister car Mount St. Helens are sleeper-lounge cars with a small kitchen and 20-seat lounge with a Farnsworth radio, six single-person roomettes and three large 2-person compartments, two of which can opened up to form a 4-person room. The Mount Hood was refurbished by Pullman in 1968 as the company's last project before exiting the sleeping car business. When the SP&S became part of Burlington Northern in 1970, the Mount Hood was assigned #1205, and it was leased by Amtrak from May 1, 1971 until early 1972. The Mount Hood logged almost 5.3 million miles between Spokane and Portland on SP&S, Burlington Northern and Amtrak passenger trains.

IMG_1088 PNWC Sleeper-Lounge #600 Mount Hood in Portland, Oregon on December 11, 2009
PNWC Sleeper-Lounge #600 Mount Hood on December 11, 2009

In 1972, Burlington Northern donated the car to the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. In 1981, the Mount Hood was painted in Southern Pacific Daylight colors to accompany #4449 to the opening of the California State Railroad Museum and on the 7,477-mile 51-day excursion to the Louisiana Worlds Fair in New Orleans in 1984. It was repainted into its original colors, which it still wears today, for the 1985 AARPCO/Union Station neon sign celebration. Mount Hood's sister car Mount St. Helens still exists and is being restored by owner Michael Gelhaus in Spokane.

Continue to DLMX #1210 Plum Creek

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