By Justin Franz

Genesee Valley Transportation’s newest acquisition, “Nickel Plate Road” PA-1 190, is expected to depart Portland, Ore., this week bound for its new home in Scranton, Pa., the railroad announced Monday. 

In March, GVT announced it had inked a deal with preservationist Doyle McCormack to acquire the locomotive and move it east. McCormack, perhaps best known for being the engineer on Southern Pacific 4-8-4 4449, spent the better part of a decade restoring the former Santa Fe/Delaware & Hudson PA-1 into Nickel Plate Road 190, his favorite locomotive as a child. The locomotive has been housed at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center. 

The locomotive was built for Santa Fe and was one of four sold to D&H in 1967, where it was used to power passenger trains between Albany and Montreal. In 1977, the PAs had a brief stint in commuter service in Boston for Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority before being shipped to Mexico in 1978. The PAs were used in Mexico for a few years but were eventually retired. Two of the PAs remain south of the border at a museum and two others, including the 18, returned north. Locomotive 18 became 190 and 16 went to the Museum of the American Railroad in Texas. McCormack’s PA-1 is in near-operating condition and GVT plans to finish the restoration at its shop on the Delaware-Lackawanna. 

The locomotive was expected to be picked up by Union Pacific at the ORHC in the coming days and interchanged with BNSF, where it will be added to an eastbound. It was unclear on Tuesday morning what route it would take on its eastbound journey.