I got carried away on Ebay a while back and ended up an owner of a beautiful W&R HO model of a Union Pacific 2-8-8-0 locomotive. Since I’m a modeler of the Southern Pacific, I said: “Mark, now what are you going to do with this?”
Well, I just read that the SP leased four 2-8-8-0s from the UP in 1946, as well as a bunch of 2-10-2s. Great! Now I also have an excuse to get at least one of those UP “decks”!
Leasing (real or imagined) is a modeler’s friend. Now tell me why I titled this using Great Northern’s initials.
I’m a sucker for anything with a whaleback or a large, semi-circular Vanderbilt tender in oil-fuel persuasion. Hopefully, the Pennsylvania RR. didn’t have any of those.
Well, I think your “mistake” is from unconsciously recalling that GN 2-8-8-0’s went through Klamath Falls along with SP equipment. Or something to that effect. You probably want to run one of those “beautiful” GN N-3’s next to Alco PA’s in Daylight. It does seem like a beautiful picture.
Yup, I’ve got a photo of one of the UP 2-8-8-0’s in service in Dunsmuir, during the War. And if you ever fall in love with a Burlington 4-6-2, SP used one around San Luis Obispo during that period, too.
That’s why I’m never bothered whenever anyone asks me why I’ve got Yellowstones on the Rio Grande. WWII was a REAL time for 'Mix ‘n Match’ on American railroads.
As far as the GN 2-8-8-0’s, they were used on the Inside Gateway–wouldn’t suprise me if WP didn’t borrow them all the way down into Stockton. In fact, I think they did.
Mark–I’d love to, but I’ll have to figure out how to get it out of the ‘book’, LOL. FYI, it’s in John Signor’s “Rails in the Shadow of Mt. Shasta”, his first book on the Shasta Division. Let me see if I can get it transferred, okay?
Say, SP guys, what passenger trains did SP run through Klamath Falls? I did an oops, I think, earlier when I said something about Daylight painted PA’s going through. What was passenger service like on the SP through there in the late forties and the early fifties (when GN steam was around SP diesels)?
Oh, good Lord, Peter, open the book and LOOK in it, LOL![:P] Seriously, buddy, it’s on page 165 of my copy, in the chapter devoted to “Late Steam Operations.” bottom photo under the rear-end views of the “Dunsmiur Switchers”. Evidently they were used during a power shortage in 1947 to help trains up the ‘hill’ out of the Sacramento River Canyon between Dunsmuir and Mt. Shasta (quite a nasty grade, BTW). Boy, howdy, those UP “Bull Mooses” sure looked like they meant BUSINESS!
Only thing–I always wonder about Articulateds with just a SINGLE sand dome.
I have the photo guys! [wow] I found it on page 223 of Signor’s Shasta Division. It shows UP Bull Moose 3513 alongside Dunsmuir’s Mallet House. As an added bonus, on page 210 is a picture of GN’s Mallet (with Belphaire fire box, thank you) at Klamath Falls where there was both GN and SP trackage. The book says the UP’s Bull Mooses were used primarily in helper service. Wadda ya know!
EMD E-7’s were originally assigned to the SHASTA DAYLIGHT in 1949, but were pulled in favor of the Alco PA units. And you’re right, cab-forwards were used on the Shasta Division between Red Bluff CA and Eugene OR on the Natron Cutoff (but not over the Siskiyou portion of the line due to the 3.3 and higher grades over Siskiyou Summit). In fact, during the steam era, you could see almost every kind of SP steam running over the division, even Daylight GS 4-8-4’s during WWII. The Siskiyou division between Black Butte CA and Eugene, OR, via Medford and Grant’s Pass were the stomping grounds of the SP’s 2-10-2 ‘Decks’ until the entire division was dieselized almost overnight, far sooner than the Shasta Division itself. I spent a couple of weeks during the summer with my best friend in Dunsmuir during the early 'fifties, and you NEVER knew what was going to be coming through on the head end of a train, steam or diesel, or how frequently the trains were going to come through. It seemed like every ten minutes–really HEAVY traffic for a single-track main line through some pretty tough mountains.
Okay, Mark, now go get a GN 2-8-8-0, LOL! [:P]Like I said, during WWII and up through the Korean Conflict, it was just ‘Mix and Match’ on American railroads.
I’m going to have to get a copy of the newer Signor book on the Shasta Division, I hear it’s got a lot more photos and is far more detailed. That division has always intrigued me.