Train buffs who didn’t get a chance to see Southern Pacific steam locomotive
No. 4449 in the middle of the night on July 19 will have another crack in
the middle of the afternoon on Friday.
No. 4449 is scheduled to depart Durand, Mich., at 11 p.m. (CST) and will run
locomotive and cars to Battle Creek, Mich., where it will leave the CN rails
and travel the NS/Amtrak line to Porter, according to information provided
to the Chesterton Tribune by Craig Cloud.
Estimated arrival time is 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. (CST).
The special will be running as an Amtrak extra and further information can
be obtained by visiting The Friends of the SP4449 website, which will be
updated daily or as time permits hourly for those wishing to follow the
train on its journey to Chicago.
On its way eastward two weeks ago, en route for Train Festival 2009 in
Owosso, Mich., clearances with bridges in the Chicago area forced steam
locomotive No. 4449 and its cars to travel separate routes until they were
reunited in Michigan City.
On the second page of its July 27 edition, the Tribune published a
fine photo by train buff Don L. Burrus of steam locomotive No. 4449 as it
passed through Michigan City on July 19. It was built for Southern Pacific
in 1941, by the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio, and is the last
remaining Southern Pacific GS-4 class of steam locomotive. No. 4449 was
retired from service in 1957 and put on display in Portland, Oreg. in 1958,
but in 1975, after being restored, was returned to service as part of the
American Freedom Train and for the next two years ran the tracks through all
48 contiguous states. Since then it has been in occasional excursion
service.