This separate topic has been established to make it more searchable given the interest:
A-A-B-A on Raton Pass:
A-B-B-B San Francisco Chief…
A-B-B-A backing down to their train at Clovis…
A-B-B-A notching out from Clovis for California…
A-A-B-? Mail Train 4 at Wichita (look closely-second unit is an A)…
A-A-A-A Mail Train in Fort Worth…
A-B-A at Gallup…
A-A notching out of the Big Windy in winter…
A-B-A fresh off the showroom floor in Chicago…
.
I’ll say it here, too: WOW!
Gorgeous - the photos and the PAs!
Get pictures
The first photo looks like the San Francisco Chief on Tehachapi.
Between 1962 and 1967. Who can spot the heavyweights in this consist? (Well, part of them, anyway…)
8000hp* honorary steam locomotives were not only on ATSF, as it turns out.
*Some SP units had the 2250 nominal HP, but SP apparently didn’t run them fast enough to make use of the extra horsepower
Nice! Makes one want to imitate Tim Allen - Arr, arr, arr!
In 1964 on my first trip to San Francisco I arrived on ATSF #1,
“The San Francisco Chief” I behind PAs, probably put on at
Barstow, and departed on SP #102, the “City of San Francisco”
also powered by PAs!
awesome trip
It’s a shame the PA’s didn’t live up to ALCO’s expectations, but wow, did they look good!
The PAs always had a nice low profile. A question ; Do the PAs have a lower center of gravity ? If so they or a new similar dynamic loco would be ideal for tilting trains such as Talgos ?
The Canadian LRC train, while not quite as extreme as the Talgo, has/had a lower roof profile than conventional lightweight streamlined trains. This feature included the locomotives, which were Canadian-licensed ALCos.
Think of it, the RS-series road switchers had a lower long hood than most other such Diesels. I suppose if you take an RS-3, replace the cab and short hood with a low profile nose, and as they say in Canada, voila, you have an LRC “power car.”
The LRC coaches, they tell me, are still in service but the LRC power cars/locomotives/whatever you call them are not – did I tell you they were ALCos? They have been replaced by Genesis Diesels, which are noticably taller than the LRC coaches, giving a consist some of the Cascades Talgo “look.”
As for tilting trains, I read that the locomotive having a low center of gravity is not the concern. Rather, if the locomotive has too high a weight per axle, rounding curves at a speed that would take full benefit of the active tilt of trains like the LRC, the resulting forces would spread the rails – not good.
The LRC power cars were supposed to be light in weight (the “L” in LRC standing for legere as in light), but I guess their weight crept upwards (when they went from 12-cyl 3000 HP to 16-cyl 4000 HP?), so they did not turn out to be the best locomotive for a tilting train. The Talgos are passive tilt (pendulum suspension) with limited compensation for the “cant deficiency”, but their more modest speed overage on curves is about what you can tolerate with a conventional locomotive (i.e., a Genesis as in Cascades se
Looks like Paul’s brought up the “dark side” of the PA.
Veteran Erie engineer Jim Kostibos in his Morningside book said he hated the things, calling them “uncomfortable pieces of junk.” He also said one of the most important accessories to a PA was a fire extinguisher, for when the air-cooled supercharger lit up! Mr. K preferred the E-units, hands-down, although he also said the ALCO RS series were fun to run.
“Dark Side” or not, I believe that the Santa Fe PAs were the most beautiful streamlined diesels ever produced! It’s so odd, looking at those photos, how what started out as an A+B+B+A lash up would wind up as an A-A-B-A, or an A-B-B-B, etc. !!
Shovel all the coal in, gotta keep 'em rolling. John.
[quote user=“RME”]
SSW9389
The first photo looks like the San Francisco Chief on Tehachapi.
Between 1962 and 1967. Who can spot the heavyweights in this consist? (Well, part of them, anyway…)
8000hp* honorary steam locomotives were not only on ATSF, as it turns out.
*Some SP units had the 2250 nominal HP, but SP apparently didn’t run them fast enough to make use of the extra horsepower
Thanks for this pic! My dad was a RPO clerk and worked this train. He’d ride the 21 westbound Ogden, Utah to Lovelock, Nevada then the 102 City of San Francisco eastbound. Took me and my brother with him a couple of times.
One of those photos is labelled as “awaiting departure from Chicago” when in fact I believe it is KC.
Now I never said PA’s weren’t cool-lookin’, as a matter of fact I think they were gorgeous. I wish GE would use a PA styling on their Genesis passenger locomotives instead of that sci-fi nightmare skin they’ve got on 'em, no reason they couldn’t.
All I said was the PA’s just didn’t live up to their promise, which was a shame.
Don’t we all regret that more PAs could be saved for the enjoyment of today’s and future railfan communities!
CNSF, thank you! You are most certainly correct! I had thought the building in the background was the headhouse of Dearborn Station in Chicago because of the brick color. But upon your suggestion, I blew the photo up to 400% and then saw the Western Auto building in the background that definitely makes it KC. Thanks so much for the assist!