From the Friends os SP&S 700 Facebook page
With deep grief and sorrow, I am reporting the passing of the originator and founding father of the Pacific Railroad Preservation Association - my dear friend Chris McLarney. He was an inspiration to many, and an initiator and do-er who followed his heart in the grandest of ways.
In 1977, when Chris was only 15 years old, this remarkable man fell in love with the SP&S 700 engine as it sat in Oaks Park. He took it upon himself to begin cleaning and oiling it in hopes that it would someday be restored. He even founded the Pacific Railroad Preservation Association in his efforts of preserving and restoring this engine (and other equipment as well!).
Between the years of 1985 and 1987, while the engine was still nothing more than a park ornament, he and a handful of other volunteers removed asbestos and replaced it with mineral wool and other safer materials. They repaired the exterior of the boiler; the boiler frame and replaced the boiler jacketing. They replaced the wood deck and repaired sheet metal on the tender, before they repainted it. This small band of volunteers also repaired electrical lines and switches for lights – all while the engine remained in the park.
In 1987, the engine was moved from the park, to the Brooklyn Roundhouse. SEE VIDEO LINK BELOW. It has an interview with Chris as the engine is being moved for the very first time since it was delivered to the park in 1958. He was rightfully very proud that day.
The photo below was taken in May of 1990 by one of the volunteers, Linda Vanderbeck (back when she was known as Linda Blum). It shows Chris in the cab of the SP&S 700 on the FIRST DAY the engine ran under its own power following its restoration.
I have many photos of Chris in the engine that he loved so much. I also have them of Chris in the 1944 Union Pacific CA4 class Caboose he fully restored.
I worked with Chris on several excursion trips on the Oregon Pacific Railroad; and I was a conductor on quite a few the SP&S 700 holiday excursions. But above all, Chris was a family friend. So much so, that he was a part of my wedding party. He was someone I could call in the middle of the night when I was confused about a mechanical issue on a train I was working. He was someone who modeled an HO engine of the one that I met my husband on, as a surprise for me.
I am grateful for all he has done in the name of preserving railroad history. But above all, I am blessed because as he was too many, he was my friend.
My thoughts, and the thoughts of the Pacific Railroad Preservation Association, are with Chris’s family during this hard time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ris7LSLo_2s
Highball, Chris. Till we meet again.