Steam & Excursion > Scrapping A Northern Pacific Steam Locomotive - !

Here is sad sight. We see the demise of an NP steam locomotive at the end of her career.

Can anyone tell me what is signifigant about this scene?

These photos were all taken by Ralph Viggers.

Martin



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/12 04:55 by LoggerHogger.

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Don't know, Martin.. Except that it looks (from the size of the "stenciling") like they are using an old NP tender tank for storing scrap remnants.

KRK

Old tender holding scrap. Doghouse maybe used as a porta potty?

Angled cylinders... And I believe Key is correct about the tender. And it kind of looks like there is a crack in the boiler...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/28/12 09:52 by thefracturedfrog.

In photo #2, it looks like there is still coal in the tender.

Good spot Pat. There is indeed coal in the tender. That is one of the clues.

Martin

The fire was still hot?

thefracturedfrog Wrote:

> Angled cylinders... And I believe Key is correct
> about the tender. And it kind of looks like there
> is a crack in the boiler...

Cutting the boiler shell in half lengthwise and peeling the top off was a common strategy when scrapping a steam locomotive.

Looks like an NP Class S-4 4-6-0 with Stephenson valve gear like these preserved examples:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,1556429
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,2274696

The last NP coal-fired loco?

Martin, Was this the engine that was in the Renton wreck around 52 or 53? I believe it was side-swiped by a diesel switcher and the crew was either killed or f'd up pretty bad!

patd3985 Wrote:
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> Martin, Was this the engine that was in the Renton
> wreck around 52 or 53? I believe it was
> side-swiped by a diesel switcher and the crew was
> either killed or f'd up pretty bad!


Oops! Major edit here! The Renton wreck was on the 4th of July, 1955. I looked it up by Googling "Renton, Wa train wreck 1955" . I seems that there were 2 fatalities. I'm guessing the engr. and fireman by the looks of the engine. The engine was NP 1373. It was a hell of a mess. My girlfriend lived/lives in Renton and told me about her dad taking the kids down there to see it and take pictures Could this be the NP 1373? If not..."Damned good guess, Pat!"

Actually my good buddy Jim (nycman) is on the right track. Let's see if you can figure this one out.

Martin

Last NP steam locomotive to drop its fire?

Cheers, Dave

All west coast engines at this time were oil fired.

No - as this engine shows, all West Coast engines were NOT oil fired. This engine was coal fired and a coal fired engine.

I did get a voice mail from Pete Replinger who did correctly identify this signifigant locomotive. Let's see who on this board can figure out what NP locomotive this is and why it is signifigant.

Martin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/28/12 18:12 by LoggerHogger.

I see now that Dave (Hillcrest) nailed it.

What we have here is the very LAST Northern Pacific steam locomotive in active service. She is NP 4-6-0 #1351.

This engine was in steam through the end of NP's steam era in the late 1950's. While all of NP's steamers were going off to scrap and NP diesels took over the chores on the mainline, this NP steamer was leased to Crystal Mountain Sugar in Missoula, MT. She switched their yards of sugar beet cars until 1959 when she was sent by the NP to Montana State University to be used in late 1959 as a stationary boiler.

In early 1960 she was towed with pistons removed to NP's South Tacoma, WA shops and was reduced to scrap. She was both the LAST NP steamer to operate and the very LAST NP steamer to be scrapped.

In the first photo we see her in operation at the sugar beet plant in 1959 still owned by NP and in NP lettering. Her builders plate is shown at rest after she was removed from this very last NP steam locomotive to be in service and the very last NP steamer to be scrapped.

I have over 100 photos of the scrapping of this last NP steamer including the crew that perfomed the scrapping duties. It will make a nice book. All the photos were taken by Ralph Viggers.

For those of you who collect TRAINS Magazine, they and an article on NP #1351 as the Last NP Steamer in the February 1961 issue.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/12 04:57 by LoggerHogger.

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South Tacoma Shops. An industrial brown field.
Roger Beckett

The Northern Pacific shops complex, built in 1891, once included some three dozen buildings, many of them red brick structures where rail cars and locomotives were repaired and maintained.

The shops were one reason that South Tacoma developed as a neighborhood. Most of homes built in the area during the railroad’s heyday were occupied by Northern Pacific workers. The shops closed in 1974. All but a few of the original buildings were razed.

In the ensuing decades, the tract has been the site of extensive environmental cleanup to remove toxic wastes left by the railroad work.

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/05/14/1664925/new-life-for-tacoma-site.html#storylink=cpy

And picture 2 there of the builder's plate on the ground answers JayR's question of a few weeks ago about whether the plates were curved or flat when applied to the boilers.

So, its up in the Nalley Valley?

When NP #1351 arrived at the NP shops in S. Tacoma, WA for her scrapping she was a completely operable engine. As some have noted she still had coal in her tender from her recent service.

Her arrival in town surprised many railfans of the day as NP had run out of stem locomotives to scrap a couple of years earlier.

On June 9, 1960 right after she arrived, Al Farrow (who worked as an engineer for the NP) made a special trip to see this last operable NP steamer. Al himself had run this engine and many others of her class in his years with the NP.

Here we see the portrait Al made of this very complete and totally operable steam locomotive on the eve of her destruction by scrappers.

Not only was this the last for #1351, the was the Last NP steamer to be scrapped and the very last locomotive to be scrapped at the NP S. Tacoma shops. A true end of an era.

A few days later the team of scrappers would take over. In a mere 18 hours #1351 would be reduced to nothing more than scrap ready to be melted down. The second view shows the scrappers during a break from the carnage.

The last view gives you an idea what the debris field of NP #1351 looked like when the terrible job was done.

Martin

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