Western Railroad Discussion > Help Save the SP TE70-4s Popsicles!

As I type they are literally sitting a couple hundred feet from this desk and office here in East Oakland. Between 54th and 57th street to be exact. If anyone wants to organize a tour, I have the GE Captital manager's personal contact info since he is our backyard neighbor. He already said he'd be cool for a tour since he is seriously trying to get these four hulks off his property. I even know of a "special needs" trucking company owned by two railfans that have already volunteered their time and $$$ to make such a Popsicle excavation move actually possible! They expressed their interest to me on this two weeks ago but need to know specifics and logistics like more people to contact, where they would go, access issues, etc.. I can help with info on some of these but need more help.

Thanks to UP killing the industry lead off the Oakland Sub a few years back, these units are super landlocked and are facing the threat of one day being scrapped on site. The GE Capital guy has actually threatened the owner with this plan. The owner of the unit (same guy who owns tugboats and planned to use the Sulzer engines for these) still thinks he can get $$$ for the four units but might be persuaded with one large tax right off and pressure from GE Capital since they have been giving him free rent. Would love to get together a list of museums/organizations (PLA/NCRY, CSRRM, ???) to try to make these Popsicle moves a reality. Please forward this to anyne you know that could help along with my email.

ALSO, at least two or three of the units are in runing shape. Before the move to this part of East Oakland from Fruitvale, they were often test run on their old storage track - maybe 5 years ago! So this is good news as far as the value for a museum but bad news in keeping their $$$ value high.


-Ryan M. Martin aka "espeeboy"
on the ex-WP Oakland Sub MP11.2

espeeboy@yahoo.com

---

I would love to help save atleast one. . Ill pass this along

Wow, Ryan!! I didn't even know that those bad girls still existed. I had thought they were cut up into Mt. Dew cans years ago. Am I to understand that all four of them are back there and in good physical shape, no less? Who exactly owns them currently?

Saving at least one of them for a museum would be very cool. Hopefully, it will come to pass. I am sort of surprised that one of the local museums / preservation organizations that you have out that way hasn't made any attempt at such an acquisition already. Hummmm.......

Good Luck!!

Soo Line Hoghead

Ryan,

How complete are the remaining units?

I can only think of a couple of places here on the west coast who would appreciate and care for a unit properly.

Please keep us all informed on your quiries with both GECapital and the "owners".

Thanks

J.

interesting post Ryan Since the Orange Empire museum has a ex SP U25-B I wonder if they would take one or more of them Or the CSRM or closer to home Niles Canyon I wonder what kind of state they are in as far as operability I shot them back when they were stored on the Alameda Belt Line they were pretty decrepit looking then

From what I have heard, I think the horns and the # plates are the only main parts of the locomotives that are missing, I am sure the paint job is now very faded. I can't remember who told me this, but yeah. If you ride BART in between the Coliseum station and the next one up North, look to your east, and you will see them. I can definately still see the colors of the paint, maybe even some rust, not sure. I myself would like to get in there during the night time to get some night shots, with permission of course. : - )


Good Luck,
Alex Ramos

Right on Ryan~

It would be a great thing to save one, two or all of these units as truely they are one of a kind. With the various organizations, museums, parks etc. that exist here in Northern California alone, with some luck someone will realize these things are still here on borrowed time and can act to do something. Thanks for calling attention to these units Ryan, hopefully you have started the wheels turning to get these things in a more suitable location.

Ted S-P

A) Are they operable?

B) If one is, how hard is it to work on/get parts for the Sulzer guts?

Whoda thunk that after 10 years of surfing train sites I'd have never known these beasts were intact, parked in Oakland. Learn something new every day.

I'm all for saving them, though personally I get more excited about preserving equipment that represent the norm, rather than the unusual.

GE capital needs a tax writeoff, they can't be worth more than $20K (minus moving costs) in their present condition, we should be able to come up with something--would $5K or $10K do it?

If they run, they ought to be useful to some museum--haul trains, lease out to that Richmond shortline, etc.

Ted in Davis

Now there's a plan I can sink my teeth into ...

I think I recall reading that the prime movers were taken out of all units for use in tug boats or some such, otherwise the units appeared (at least last time I saw 'em) to be mostly complete visually - no telling what lights, numberboards etc. .. are broken or "borrowed" ...


TCS - save all 4

From what I've heard, the Sulzer power plants were to be removed. However, they are pretty much a standard marine item, so there wasn't a market for them, and there the locomotives have sat. Watched them from many a BART train passing by.

Would be nice to see them go somewhere all together. Only saw them in service (all together) once at Martinez coming off the bridge.

any chance if one were saved if a 567 could be put in them ?

Search on Sulzers, all dates: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,186423,186458#msg-186458

Here is a print screen from terraserver. They are in this exact location today. Also, here is a link to the terraserver image:

http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=4&S=8&Z=10&X=11397&Y=83601&W=1&qs=%7cOakland%7cCA%7c

Later,
Alex Ramos

---

And here are the units via the Earth.Google.Com application.

---

So are they operable? When was the last time that they ran.

Robert Scott
FoamersNW.Org
Rochester, WA

Repower a GE with an EMD? Blasphemy!<g> Kidding aside, there shouldn't be a need to, since by most accounts they still have their Sulzer prime movers. If not, the most historically accurate route would be to find another Sulzer prime mover to put in; since Sulzer is still around and a player in the marine engine field, parts/components for them should *theoretically* still be available. All that aside, I'm interested in getting them saved first - we can worry about powering them later.:)

PE

Nova55 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> any chance if one were saved if a 567 could be put
> in them ?

I was the brakeman on the train that brought these units from Klamath Falls to Dunsmuir. All four units were dead when we moved them. It was a daylight move and there were a lot of railfans taking pictures during the trip. When we reached Dunsmuir the railfans descended upon the train. I went back to see what was going on and one railfan had a hammer and chisel and was trying to remove a plate from the side of one of the units(Builders plate)? Another jumped on top and was trying to remove a number board. There were a couple other around taking pictures.
To say the least I was not impressed with railfans or whoever these people were that day.
Dave

I've been told that the unitized cooling system gave the SP more trouble than the prime movers.

I've seen all 4 and they are good cosmetic candidates. Oregon RR Museum might want one as well. If you want running, it would probably take 2, one for parts, as I recall there were many special mods made by MK when they were rebuilt.

Be nice to see at least one saved. Moving them will be a tremendous undertaking. IIRC, these weigh around 120 tons. That's special load permits and trailers and it might even be high enough to require special routing. Best idea would be to short hop them to live rail probably.

Z

Put a 567 in them??? How about giving one of them to Doyle McCormack and let him put an FDL-16 back in and return it to a U25B. If he can rebuild that scrap pile of a PA those Sulzer/U25's ought to be a snap.

dick