700 was delivered on June 21, 1938, joining the 702 pulling overnight passenger trains between Spokane and Vancouver, Washington, along the north shore of the Columbia River, with the No.

[4] By 1947, the Great Northern Railway had begun to streamline its premier passenger train, The Empire Builder, and had started adding diesels to the locomotive mix.

SP&S also started purchasing diesels at this time, but they arrived after the streamlined cars were brought into service and for a few months, the 700s pulled the Portland section of Great Northern's Empire Builder and Northern Pacific's North Coast Limited.

The Farewell To Steam run had a total of 21 cars carrying 1,400 passengers from Portland, Oregon to Wishram, Washington, in the heart of the Columbia Gorge, and back again.

For nearly 20 years the 700, along with other locomotives and other historic rail equipment, sat behind chain link fences, slowly fading and rusting away.

[2] On November 9, 1987, the SP&S 700 was moved from Oaks Pioneer Park to the Southern Pacific's Brooklyn Roundhouse, in southeast Portland, for the continuation of restoration work.

[4] Although it's one of the largest steam locomotive still in operation and expensive to run and insure, the 700 has managed a number of excursions since its restoration on May 15, 1990, including an historic doubleheader with SP 4449 from Portland, Oregon to Wishram, Washington and back during the 2005 National Railway Historical Society national convention and a 2002 "Steam across Montana" from Sandpoint, Idaho to Billings, Montana and back.

At one point during the excursion, it started having mechanical issues and BNSF #6308, an EMD SD40-2 locomotive which would also end up being preserved, was taken off of the train it was on and helped the 700 the rest of the way.

The lead trucks on the power car caused the derailment to occur ending the excursion abruptly.

700 was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 25, 2006, as the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway Steam Locomotive.

[4] The Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation, with significant support from the City of Portland, raised funds for a new restoration and visitor center down the street from the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry to provide the city's steam locomotives with a permanent and publicly accessible home before the closure of the roundhouse.