HVRR is currently in the process of raising funds to complete that restoration. There is some grant money, conditional upon raising matching funds (there is about $250,000 to go) and railroad buffs will have a chance to help out at a Celebration for Restoration on Saturday in honor of Engine No. 618's 100th birthday. All proceeds from the day's activities will go toward restoration of the steam engine.

Restoration is no easy task. For one thing, the Baldwin Locomotive Works went out of business some 50 years ago, so finding spare parts is a challenge. "The Chinese kept building and operating steam engines until about 15 years ago. We've been able to get some Chinese copies of parts we need," says Lacey. "But if we can't find parts, then we have to make our own."

Locomotive No. 75 sits at the back of the HVRR machine shop; stripped of cab, wheels, everything but its 100-year-old iron hulk. Staybolts that hold the firebox sheets together are being checked and replaced bolt by bolt. Eventually, a new brake system will be added, as will new piston rings.

To be repaired, the wheels — which in many ways are like old wagon wheels — will have their "tires" pulled off; they have to be heated to 700 degrees Fahrenheit so the metal will expand and pop out.

Various parts are scattered around the shop. Putting it all back together will be like working on a model railroad — only on a gigantic scale.

But No. 75 is a great old girl, says Lacey. "It was used from 1907 until 1965, mostly hauling sugar beets." It was bought by Everett Roher in 1965 to use in the movies, and appeared in more than 35 films, including "The Professionals," "The Devil's Brigade" and "A River Runs Through It." Roher died in 1998, and HVRR bought it from his daughter.

No. 618 has an equally proud history both with the Oregon Short Line (where it was known as No. 1068) and with the Union Pacific (where it was No. 618, the number that will be kept). And it will be getting the same treatment, come March, although "it needs more extensive work," says Lacey.

Basically, says Mike Manwiller, chief mechanical officer for HVRR, "we will take apart every nut and bolt and put it all back together." The project is expected to take 2 1/2 years.

Manwiller, who is overseeing the restorations, is a fourth-generation railroad man. "I've been hanging around restorations, doing grunt work, since I was 12." He loves trains both for what they are and what they represent.

"The steam locomotive is what allowed this country to be built as we know it. The way it shortened travel. The way it transported goods. It's what allowed all we know to happen."

And even though that technology has been put on the shelf, he says, it's worth going to all this effort to keep it alive. Steam engines give us "a pretty important look back. They are a living link to history."