Each of the three locomotives has its own team of volunteers, whose experience ranges from a full railroad background to people who just want to do something different on the weekends.
The engines themselves are steam-driven wonders of an age that changed the way goods were hauled in the U.S.
They include the Oregon Railroad & Navigation 197, which arrived in Portland just in time for the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition; the Spokane Portland & Seattle 700, which was built in 1938 and provided passenger service between Portland and Spokane from 1938 to 1954; and the Southern Pacific 4449, which was built in 1941 and famously pulled the American Freedom Train around the nation in 1975 and 1976 to celebrate the U.S. bicentennial.
"To me, the 4449 is what got this entire thing started," said Dale Birkholz, a volunteer on that engine's team, whose duties include machining new parts for it. "But you can't look around this place and not be in awe of all of these engines."
A lot of that feeling is likely to be going around this weekend, when the engines are once again ready for prime-time viewing.
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