GARIBALDI, Ore. — One of private preservation’s most effective individuals, steam locomotive owner Roland “Skip” Lichter, has died. The owner of Polson Lumber Co. 2-8-2 No. 2, long based in Wisconsin and relocated to Oregon in 2017, died Wednesday.
Lichter bought the locomotive in 1982 and ran it at Wisconsin’s Mid-Continent Railway Museum until it needed repair. Lichter performed massive amounts of work on the locomotive including a new boiler course, but could not get financial support from Mid-Continent, which led to a legal dispute. In the end, Lichter and Mid-Continent parted and Lichter moved to Oregon Coast Scenic, where he has been running No. 2 for the last four years.
In 2017, when it was time to head west, Trains News Wire asked Lichter about the locomotive. “I want to be able to run it,” he said. “I want it to perform. To do what it’s supposed to do to. Let the people enjoy it. Let the public enjoy it. I feel like I’m the caretaker for it. When I pass away, my family will take care of it.”
Polson No. 2 is owned by a trust made up of Lichter’s three children. They plan to keep No. 2 operating at Oregon Coast Scenic, as Lichter had intended.
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