I have found this image and am wondering if my eyes are deceiving me.
Is this a SW7 unit pulling some open hoppers.I am looking to kit bash/modify a couple of Athern SW7 units.
Can’t get a clear read on the number to check against the roster but it appears that it is probably an SW1200 actually.
–Randy
I think its a 2207 or 2201
The link to this photo is
http://www.historysanjose.org/dairyhill/images/photos/700/azevedogap.jpg
It seems the fist things I will be doing to the SW7s that I have is changing the numbers, add weather shields on the windows. I might paint the hand rail as well if I can find a suitable color for the model.
Not a SP though it is some guide…
Cheers
Chris
It’s SP 2267 - an SW1200 as Randy mentioned …
Here’s further information about the picture (San José reroute) - probably you got the pic from there, too ? 
http://www.historysanjose.org/dairyhill/places/southern_pacific.html
Details about the SP prototype:
http://espee.railfan.net/spsw1200.html
Modelling an SP 1200 … if you already have the SW7s update them - otherwise Proto SW9/1200 would be an even better starting point (http://espee.railfan.net/spsw1200-m.html).
cheers,
Christian
It’s SW1200 #2267: http://espee.railfan.net/nonindex/sw_photos/2267_sp-sw1200-bob_dengler.jpg
Andre
Thanks I see it now. [bow]
I think I will have to whip up some grab irons as well similar to this cotton belt unit.
Whats the load? Is that gravel or sugar beets? The absence of a caboose suggests that the source of traffic isn’t too far away.
Bill
There was a small note under the pic saying,
“A saddle was dug out between Dairy Hill and Communications Hills to allow the new Southern Pacific Railroad line to cut across Azevedo’s land and skirt Dairy Hill.”
I am not sure as to what the main industry was out that way. I think the Azevedo’s had cattle but no mention of any other trade in the area at the moment.
Here is a little more info if you like a read
http://www.historysanjose.org/dairyhill/places/southern_pacific.html
After reading this I may have to deduce the load was Gravel or soil.
Monkey, I found this tid bit of information about industry in the San Jose area on Wikipedia:
" Along the southern part of the river is the neighborhood of Almaden Valley, originally named for the mercury mines which produced mercury needed for gold extraction from quartz during the California Gold Rush as well as mercury fulminate blasting caps and detonators for the U.S. military from 1870 to 1945.[citation needed]"
Hmmm… a gold mine or Mercury mine eh. Good stuff [Y]
Cheers
Chris
A simply beautiful photo, and a simply beautiful locomotive. I would love to see your reproduction some day.
There was a question what mine or industry this move in the photo was serving.
I would gather that this was NOT a regular revenue industrial switching move, but part of the construction project mentioned earlier-
also, notice the two suited men standing near the bottom right corner. I can imagine them as railroad officials inspecting the work on the project…which is also why the PHOTO was taken. A photo of railroad officials standing along a stretch of newly ballasted track seems appropriate. If the men in suits represented a mine or industry being served by the RR, they would probably bhave been doing their inspecting at a place where the mine or industry would be visible in the photo.
Just my historian’s amateur photo-analysis.
Neat idea, but not historically accurate for open-top loads, unfortunately. Almaden Valley (where I live) is a fair distance from where the photo was taken. The quicksilver mines never had direct rail access, and in any case the cinnabar ore was processed at the mine. Large flasks of mercury were transported by stage (and later, trucks) to the SP station a few miles from the mines and loaded onto box cars until the branch line was abandoned.
Gravel is probably a good guess for the loads. I have the book from which the photo was taken and will check it tonight to see if there is any additional information.
Byron
The SP unit doesn’t seem to have the upper grab iron, but instead handrails along the walkway. That Cotton Belt unit was not typical of SP switchers.
Note the light package in the black-and-white photo of the SP switcher, which is a unique SP element that would add a lot of authenticity to your model.
This thread has been awesome. Plenty of ideas and cross examination. With all this I am sure to be able to produce something quite interesting and unique.
I think this is a NW2 but it is the closest Pic I can find to my SW7 model. I think the smaller air intake gives it away.
Again, this does not match the SW in the picture, a SW-1200. Note the handrails along the walkways.
But if you’re not modeling the engine in the picture, it does not matter, of course.
===
Now regarding the photo:
I had a chance to review the original source, Prune County Railroading by Norman W. Holmes (Shade Tree Books, 1995). As I suspected, the photo has nothing to do with the actual digging of the cut, which took place decades earlier than the May 1981 date of the photo. The book notes that this was just a routine local switching move of loaded gravel hoppers.
According to the book, the two men in the photo are SP Railroad Police awaiting a special move by SP steam engine #4449 from Portland to Sacramento for the opening of the rail museum. Afterwards apparently the train went to Los Angeles and then back through the Bay Area to Portland. Another photo in the book shows the special train passing by later the same day as the photo above with the same two men in the scene.
So to recap, the photo above is an SW-1200, on just an everyday run with gravel hoppers in 1981.
Byron
Thanks for you help Byron, that is a neat little publishing you have there. I would be needing to purchase a Walthers SW1200 unit if I where to complete the scene depicted above. The blood nose paint scheme would also need to be applied etc… I will be cheating and using my Athern SW7 unit with 5 100 ton twin hoppers. [:-^]
The hoppers in the picture seem to similar to the Walthers100 ton twin.
Cheers
Chris