By the Blimp Hangar...The Northwest Rail Museum owns these two former SP "Daylight" cars, and has used them extensively on fan trips and other special runs in and out of Portland, Ore. behind the city's famed 4-8-4s, former SP GS4 #4449 and SP&S #700.
The chair car is #2202; the observation is former SP #2955 and is a veteran of the famed "Coast Daylight", where it ran as a parlor-obs. It is now named "James J. Gilmore".
The structure behind the cars is Hangar B, one of two immense airship hangars built by the U.S. Navy in World War II at the Tillamook, Ore. naval air station, where the cars were stored at the time of the August 2001 photo.
The other hangar, Hangar A, was where Tom Rader started his railcar repair and rebuilding business in the 1980s. Many of the early "Ultradome" rebuilds in Alaska cruise line service got their start at Tillamook, as well as rehabilitation of ex-MILW, GN and ATSF full-length domes that also went to Alaska.
Hangar A burned down in the early 1990s, leaving only its huge concrete corner pylons to mark its location. Hangar B survives as an aircraft museum.
Photographed by Thomas McCann, August 11, 2001.
Added to the photo archive by Thomas McCann, March 7, 2009.
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