Hi Folks,
I’m wanting to model Tucson AZ railyard from around 1910 to 1920 and am curious to see what motive power would be seen during that time frame. I suspect that 4-4-0’s, 2-8-0’s and maybe some 2-8-2’s would be seen any others?
I’m also curious to know what kind of industry would the yard support?
Modeling Tucson,
Marv
Locomotives: 2-10-2 (F-1 class only), 4-4-2, 4-6-2, 0-6-0, 2-8-0, 2-8-2, 2-6-0, 2-8-8-2, 4-6-0, 4-8-0, 4-4-0, 4-6-6-2 were available, but I don’t which ones were actually used in the Tucson area. I doubt the articulateds, but likely most all the others.
Don’t know about 1919, but the article in the Summer 1998 SP Trainline magazine published by SPH&TS included a 1952 circa map showing corrals, ice dock and factory, lumber yards, sash and door, transfer, cold storage, fuel and feed, light and electricity, automobile unloading, freight house, team track, and railroad car and locomotive repair/service industries served by rail. Copper mines were an important source of traffic in the Tucson area, including the WWI era.
Mark
I forgot to mention that magazine issue also had an article on the copper industry in southern Arizona.
Mark
Tucson itself had not much local industry in 1919. The town itself would have the usual local dealers of lumber, coal, fuel oil, hard goods, foodstuffs, automobiles, freight-all-kinds that any small city isolated by a lot of desert would have in that era. I don’t think there was a lot of irrigated farming just yet as many of the large-scale irrigation projects were just then being built, but if one was to assume there was, a cotton shed would be appropriate.
The yard itself beyond supporting local traffic was a through yard supporting the main line and regional industry. Most yards in that era practiced “bump along” sorting in which every train stopped, set out its local cars, and filled to tonnage with outbound traffic in the same direction. Regional traffic would include blister copper ingots moving eastward from the smelters at Magma and Hayden, both served off the Phoenix line. 1919 is just a little too early to have anode copper moving from Hayden, and likewise, a little too early to have much sulfuric acid traffic. There would be a significant fuel oil traffic moving eastward to the smelters at Chino, Miami, and Clifton. Other significant eastward through traffic would be dimensional planed lumber including knocked-down boxes in boxcars; mine timbers (many precut), lagging, poles, and timbers for railroad use on flatcars and in gons; perishables; and fuel oil for railway and other use. Westward traffic would be predominately freight-all-kinds, foodstuffs, and manufactured goods including autoparts in boxcars, the autoparts destined for the Ford, Dodge, and Chevrolet assembly plants in Los Angeles; and empty return reefers, flats and gons.
I don’t think there would be significant livestock movement; there just isn’t a lot of suitable grazing in the mountains tributary to the Phoenix Line and its branches.
Tucson at that point in time I think would have sorted out cars de
Mark and RWM,
Thank you both for the info.
I’m looking forward to making my dream come true and somewhat accurate.
Marv
Woodstuff,
While you sort through the motive power and traffic for Tucson in 1919, don’t forget PFE. One should check the Pacific Fruit Express book by Church, Jones and Thompson for specific dates, but Tucson certainly developed into a major PFE facility by the 20’s. It iced eastbound reefers and serviced westbound empties.
Mark,
I’m lost what is F-1 class?
The F-1 class was Southern Pacific’s standard 2-10-2, a 1911 design that predated the USRA designs of the same wheel arrangement. SP called them, “Decapods,” a name usually associated with the 2-10-0 wheel arrangement. Of course, the SP management and faithful would sooner have cut off their tongues than referred to them as, “Santa Fe.”
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in Septmeber, 1964)
Southern Pacific’s F-1 class was built in 1917 (by Alco-Bks.) and 1919 (by Baldwin). SP acquired more 2-10-2s up through 1925. (Diebert & Strapac’s Southern Pacific Steam Locomotive Compendium)
Mark