Southern Pacific Remembered

[Focalplane]

Back to scanning! Three from Hardy Street, Houston:



Cynical comment - did anyone from Union Pacific stand at the corner of Opoulusas Street prior to the UP/SP merger?

Moving toward Beaumont, working locos at Englewood Yard:



Englewood is the largest marshalling yard in Houston, complete with hump. It parallels the Sunset Route for several miles between Downtown and Loop 610. Mostly off limits and impossible to photograph the hump in operation. Year unknown but based on the camera used it would have been at the time of the merger, possibly 1994.

 

[Focalplane]

Still in Houston, year 1999, and ex-Southern Railways' private car Intrepid is waiting to be attached to the eastbound Sunset Limited. This was, at the time, registered with the AAPRCO, and was Amtrak certified. I am not sure of its status today.



Unlike the earlier photo, UP is now in control with GP40 No. 648. The last picture shows the car attached to the rear of the Sunset Limited and also the rear drumhead.

 

[Focalplane]

In addition to the previous post, here is the Sunset Limited passing UP #648 waiting with the Intrepid: Two Genesis locos providing the standard power:

 

[Focalplane]

Don't you get tired of three quarter views? Well, here's a side-on look at SP switcher #2669 at Englewood, taken on Christmas Day 1994 (I was single at the time so what better to do than railfan!) A good guide to SP weathering as well!

 

[Focalplane]

Some more from the Sunset Route alongside Englewood. First, SP in 1995



This is probably taken near the Wayside overpass. I suggest this because of the 90º crossingh under the front bogie of 8132.

Second, UP in 1999



Obviously taken just before the "East Houston Curfew". The location is just inside Loop 610 and the train is westbound, heading toward Houston. The bridges suggest the main roads are Wayside Drive and Loop 610, so the location is at the eastern end of Englewood Yard on Liberty Road.

 

[Focalplane]

We are off west again. In 1993 I travelled for the first time to Big Bend, for Christmas. On the way I saw an SP freight train stationary in a refuge siding and decided to stop. Highway 90 follows the Sunset Route closely from San Antonio to El Paso so there would be plenty of opportunities, many missed because of the urge to keep driving. I thought I knew the location but can't find any reference on maps to help isolate it. Somewhere in the desert is as good as I can define!

EDIT: Just found some notes. The place is called Shamia (or Shamla) and can be seen on satellite images though not named. Between Del Rio and Langtry (named after Lily Langtry!). It can be seen on the San Antonio Division 1920s SP map.



Having stopped I walk over to take a closer look:

 

[Focalplane]

And so to Marathon where I stayed the night at the Gage Hotel. I went for a walk to the south side of the tracks, hoping a train might come along. This west bound double stack obliged:

 

[Focalplane]

A quick note on the origin of ballast used in West Texas. The photo two posts above shows the ballast to be mostly black with some white stones added. Geologically one of the best ballast rocks is near black fine grained basalt (it is preferentially used in southern France where recently extinct volcanoes such as at Bessan and Agde are quarried).

On one of my first journeys into West Texas along Highway 90 I was surprised to see a Union Pacific ballast train on the Sunset Route. This was before the merger. The area west of San Antonio was once an area of many small volcanoes and the "necks" of these provide solidified lava perfect for the job. This train is joining the Sunset Route from a modern spur (not on old 1920s maps) which leads to a quarry located south of the main line.

 

[Focalplane]

My Espee history has no connection to California. Sadly. I would really like to have visited San Luis Obispo at the midpoint of the Daylight run. If you look on satellite images south of the station you can still see evidence of the roundhouse where GS-4s and their Cab in Front helpers were stabled. Nostalgia from space!

So no views from me on California, Oregon or Washington states. But on one occasion, in 1998, we did get to Salt Lake City for a geological convention, so that is where we go next. While my better half was learning all about genealogy I was planning some post convention trips. We had already decided to leave on the California Zephyr to Denver, but what else might there be?

It was the summer of the fires in Mexico so we hadn’t seen clear skies for weeks. We decided to drive into the mountains one day and then the next we would visit the National Park dedicated to the Golden Spike, the meeting of the first transcontinental railroad.

This post is dedicated to the Golden Spike National Historic Park.

The story of the final joining up of the transcontinental railroad is well known and a reenactment is part of the daily celebrations. So let’s start with that.

First the Central Pacific side represented by CPRR’s Jupiter:



Next the Union Pacific side, represented by # 119



Note the telegraph operator!

Now, a lesser known detail of the site. Both companies were on a land grab. With poor communications to Washington, each company kept on surveying and cutting their permanent ways way past the other. In the end the actual site of the joining was selected and the extensions abandoned. We went looking for the evidence on the Central Pacific extension.

 

[Focalplane]

On the way back to Salt Lake City, we stopped to admire the station at Ogden. Here we saw the railroad museum but could not gain entry. So some photos through the fence.







Note that they keep the SP outside! In fact 1297 has gone, sold to another museum in New Mexico. The story is told on my layout page.

 

[Dog Star]

I would really like to have visited San Luis Obispo at the midpoint of the Daylight run. If you look on satellite images south of the station you can still see evidence of the roundhouse where GS-4s and their Cab in Front helpers were stabled.

Are you referring to (what might be) the radiating loco pits on the waste land at the eastern end of Roundhouse Street?

Just asking, is that a GTEL poking out behind some other diseasels in the first photo of Ogden?

thanks, Graham

 

[Focalplane]

Graham

Yes and yes!

 

[mickoo]

Cynical comment - did anyone from Union Pacific stand at the corner of Opoulusas Street prior to the UP/SP merger?

Probably not, for one very good reason, UP didn't buy out SP.

Long crooked and political story short, UP merged into SP and remained so for one day (legal requirement I believe) the next day the whole business became UP; something to do with land rights in CA, taxes and goodness knows whatever historical legalities in SP's closet.

SP drilled it's own hole expending finances and energy on the SPSF merger, UP wasn't much healthier at the same time if what I've read is true.

 

[Focalplane]

Mick, I have been through the mill of a Wall Street “merger” - Occidental Petroleum and Cities Service - there is no such thing as a simple deal, particularly when the two companies are registered in different states (California and Oklahoma in my case). At the time that UP and SP pooled their resources UP was definitely the stronger of the two. The actual joining up was a function of management egos, poor financial standing, corporate complexity and an assessment by the Government of the day that it should happen.

My cynical comment is just that. What happened after the joining up was operational chaos for several months as UP management discovered the incompatible workings of the two companies. But egos had to be satisfied.

This thread is drawing to a close soon as I will run out of photos. I might then take a look at what many call the “dark side”, namely Union Pacific, and in particular their heritage fleet, of which I have some excellent memories.

On a more positive note, I think I have secured a copy of McLennan’s book on the T&NO, and my S class Switcher cleared customs yesterday.

 

[Stephen]

Look forward to seeing the S class switcher when it arrives!

Do you know off hand what year the SP introduced the grey and blooded nose livery - just wondering whether there was a crossover between steam ending and that livery being introduced?

Cheers,

Stephen

 

[Focalplane]

Hi Stephen

Well, the switcher is here at a post office but no one has told me which one! There is a customs fee to pay apparently. Needless to say, Royal Mail's web site is experiencing problems at the moment! There will be photos, this is WT!

Most of my reference books that relate to your livery question are in France so I hope someone else can answer. Most photos of diesel electrics working alongside steam are either Black Widow or Daylight, the former being mainly for freight, the latter for passenger. But the precise changeover will have to be answered by someone else!

There was another livery, of course, the short lived Kodachrome SPSF, but that was after steam had ended.

Paul

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Do you know off hand what year the SP introduced the grey and blooded nose livery - just wondering whether there was a crossover between steam ending and that livery being introduced?

The Red and Grey 'Bloody Nose' paint scheme was developed in 1958, however, there was a very short lived Black and Orange 'Halloween' paint scheme. Odd units were still carrying a faded Black Widow scheme in 1973.

Passenger diesels were the first to receive the 'Bloody Nose' paint scheme. The SP subsidaries were not unknown to have local variations i.e. the SSW (Cotton Belt) painted their handrails yellow instead of white to begin with.

During the final days of SP steam - last known run was in 1959 but the majority of steam was withdrawn during 1952-56 - it may have been possible to have seen steam and 'Bloody Nose' diesels together. However rule# 1 applies .


Steam/diesel transition layouts is one of those strange quirks of railway modelling having just though about it. In general terms - for the US it's the late 1940s to mid 50s, for the Brits it's late 1950s to mid/late 60s and for mainland Europe its the early 1960s to mid 70s, and the 80s for parts of the former communist block.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

A quick note on the origin of ballast used in West Texas. The photo two posts above shows the ballast to be mostly black with some white stones added. Geologically one of the best ballast rocks is near black fine grained basalt (it is preferentially used in southern France where recently extinct volcanoes such as at Bessan and Agde are quarried).

It makes sense to use ingeous rocks thinking about the UK ballast quarries in former volcanic regions (Devon, Leisctershire and Cumbria to name a few).

 

[mickoo]

Don't forget the Tiger stripe scheme

 

[Focalplane]

I thought I had found all the Englewood photos, then this one popped up:



Taken from the southwest end of the main yard. Behind the camera there is a newer container terminal. The photo is dated January 1999. I really like this one yet forgot it existed.