R-2 2049, W-1 5018, and F-3 352-C with eastward Empire Builder at Skykomish

This is one of five color prints by noted Seattle area artist Mr. J. Craig Thorpe.

Each image is a high quality giclee print on 11x14 paper, with unprinted margin of .75 inch to fit a standard 11x14 inch frame, without matte. They will also fit a standard 12x16 inch frame with a matte, or a standard 14x18 inch frame, with a larger matte.

Born and raised in Pittsburgh PA, and blessed with a grandfather who regularly took him for rides on streetcars and commuter trains, he studied art at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, completed a bachelor’s program in design at Carnegie-Mellon University, served in the Army Transportation Corps, worked for architects in Virginia where he honed his illustration skills. Craig completed a Master of Divinity program near Boston, and moved to Seattle as a Presbyterian pastor. He left the ministry in 1985 to concentrate on free-lance architectural and transportation renderings for a range of clients. A 1991 commission to show a proposed Amtrak depot at Olympia, WA opened the door to national exposure when Amtrak used the image for its 1993 Corporate Calendar.

Engine 2049 is a class R-2 simple articulated 2-8-8-2 built by the Great Northern at Hillard WA in 1929, as the culmination of a long series of articulated engines on the GN. She is one of a small group of ‘super steam’ articulated engines and was THE most powerful in terms of tractive effort. Class R-2 engines were used between Interbay yard in Seattle and Skykomish from 1946 through 1951. She was sold for scrap in December of 1956.

Engine 5018 was one of two W-1 class electrics numbered 5018-5019 received in August of 1947. They were second generation electrics with all twelve axles powered and were rated at 5,000 horsepower. After electric operation ended on July 1, 1956, she was sold to Union Pacific for conversion to a coal fired turbine.

Engine 352-C, an EMD F-3, was built in 1947 for passenger service and his depicted here in that service. The railroad bought 10 E-7 units, the passenger power of the time, for transcontinental service in 1945 but soon found that their traction motors overheated when fed 500 horsepower per motor on the 1.8% eastward ascent of the Rocky Mountains. The solution was to use a three unit set of F units with 375 horsepower per motor. Engine 352-C was traded in to EMD in September of 1967.

Prints are shipped in a tube.