Steam & Excursion > Let's take another Trip: SP 2475 January 1, 1958

The date is January 1, 1958... SP 4-6-2 # 2475 (2472's sister)...
San Jose, CA to Tracy, CA via Niles Canyon and Altamont Pass...
Photos copyright by and courtesy of: Frank Maffei; with a photo by John West.
All Board !!!
The Camera used was a Voigtlander Prominent:
http://www.cameraquest.com/voiprom.htm
Frank still has the Camera... No need of memory card or batteries..
As for the fate of Pacific (P-8) 2475?
Vacated 5/24/58 at West Oakland and sold for scrap on 3/25/59 to California Metals, Pittsburg, CA.

Note from Frank: If I am not mistaken, there exists a train order confirming 2475 as the final standard gauge steam locomotive to pull a revenue freight train on the SP, and that occurred just prior to this trip. 2475 was sent to San Jose on December 30, 1957 on a cab hop out of Oakland. It stopped, most likely at Mulford or Newark, to pick up 2 boxcars for a connection with the CME. It was given right over all trains, and ran on the Oakland Section of the CME's schedule, albeit as an extra. The run was also used to position 2475 for the next day's excursion. The head end crew was Engineer R. Walker and Fireman M. L. Carrol, likely on duty sometime around 6:30PM with a departure around 7:00PM or 7:15PM. The WX4 site shows her on an excursion on 12/31/57; maybe she ran another one on 1/1/58. Rumors that all SP steam freight operations ended sometime in 1956 would seem to be false.

OK-Everybody.. Lets get started. Margaret Monroe ought to sure like this trip.
Wonder why ???

More on this trip and other 1950's SP trips in a bit. Cheers. KRK..
The Spring, 2005 issue of the Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society house publication, SP Trainline, contains an intriguing article by one of our favorite authors, Tom Dill, about the last days of Southern Pacific steam. In it, he states that the last SP standard gauge revenue freight run ocurred about thirteen months after most like operations officially ceased.

On the evening of December 30, 1957, Engine 2475 ran extra as a cab hop out of Oakland and picked up two boxcars en route to Santa Clara. The occasion for the move was the positioning of the 4-6-2 for an excursion out of San Jose the next day.

This we did not know. We always subscibed to vague rumors that the last run occured clandestinely somewhere in the San Joaquin Valley in 1958. At any rate, Dills writings tripped a collective light bulb down at Wx4 headquarters and we began to search through piles of old train orders originally collected by retired engineer D.C. Hill, and WHOLLA!

Below you will find scans of the train orders and associated messages for the train. The attached messages seem to indicate that the train ran out of Oakland as an extra Coast Merchandise East (CME). We have no information about the train's consist, but it appears that Engineer R. Walker and Fireman M.L. Carrol were on the head end.

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1) 2475 backs to depot from San Jose Roundhouse

2) Loading Passengers at San Jose

3) Train awaiting departure in San Jose (Camera had some lens flair)

KRK

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4) Farwell Bridge Run-by in Niles Canyon

5) Farwell Bridge Run-by with Observation car

6) Interior of a Passenger car on the train (anyone know what car?)

"Ferroequinologist"








KRK



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/12 09:19 by KeyRouteKen.

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7) Altamont Pass at Location of old Hwy bridge over SP main (torn down in late 1980's)

8) Same location as photo 7 going away (East)

9) Train stops for run-by in altamont pass (location unknown)

KRK

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10) Run-by with train in distance (same spot as photo 9)

11) After run-by train backs down to reload passengers

12) Train reloading before leaving for Tracy

KRK

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13) At Tracy after arrival

14) Spinning 2475 on Turntable at Tracy

15) 2475 after turning headed to pick up train and head back to San Jose

KRK

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That's it for this historic trip. Many thanks to Frank Maffei for the use of his great photos for this story !!
Remember this Holiday season-- Most of the SP STEAM Fantrips from 1951--1958 are coming to your TV screen for the first time ever. Be watching for them! Cheers.

KRK

Great posting Ken of a very famous engine. It is too back that she was not saved in one piece.

Martin

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LoggerHogger Wrote:
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> Great posting Ken of a very famous engine. It is
> too back that she was not saved in one piece.
>
> Martin


But at least one piece of her WAS saved.

Pump

Real Nice!
Pic 15. What was the SP train on the right? Any pics?

F.Maffei's passenger car interior photo matches S.P. 2979 lounge car in every detail. It's either this car or one of it's sister cars. Photo was taken from the vestibule end. These cars were built by Pullman 1914 as 75' Baggage-Club Cars, and served as the gentlemen's lounge & bar car on first-class trains such as the Pacific Limited and Overland Limited. In 1940 they were modernized by the S.P. Sacramento Shops with full-length Art Deco lounge car interiors, air conditioning, and tightlock couplers.

S.P. 2979 has been restored by Golden Gate RR Museum to the 1940s appearance. See photos from last year's "Romance on the Rails" Valentine's Day train on Niles Canyon Railway: http://www.fremont-photography.com/Bulletin/Niles-romance-on-the-rails/15831102_SzhVnj/1187024616_yA3NF#!i=1187025677&k=hM6DFWz and GGRM website: http://ggrm.org/Collection_view.aspx?id=8. Tickets are still available on this car for the Christmas season, when it operates as the first-class "Holiday Club Lounge" on Train of Lights: http://ggrm.org/tol.htm

- Doug Debs

KeyRouteKen Wrote:

> 9) Train stops for run-by in altamont pass
> (location unknown)

When Frank posted these back in February, a couple of us scoured aerial photos of Altamont Pass and concluded that the runby in photos 9 through 12 was probably at the Midway Rd. crossing west of Tracy.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2681978

LoggerHogger wrote:

> Great posting Ken of a very famous engine. It is too back that she was not saved in one piece.

Is this the same plate as the one in this old thread with a black background, or did 2475 have more than one of these?

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,1567695,1567752#1567752

DWDebs/2472 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> F.Maffei's passenger car interior photo matches
> S.P. 2979 lounge car in every detail. It's either
> this car or one of it's sister cars. Photo was
> taken from the vestibule end. These cars were
> built by Pullman 1914 as 75' Baggage-Club Cars,
> and served as the gentlemen's lounge & bar car on
> first-class trains such as the Pacific Limited and
> Overland Limited. In 1940 they were modernized by
> the S.P. Sacramento Shops with full-length Art
> Deco lounge car interiors, air conditioning, and
> tightlock couplers.
>
> S.P. 2979 has been restored by Golden Gate RR
> Museum to the 1940s appearance. See photos from
> last year's "Romance on the Rails" Valentine's Day
> train on Niles Canyon Railway:
> http://www.fremont-photography.com/Bulletin/Niles-
> romance-on-the-rails/15831102_SzhVnj/1187024616_yA
> 3NF#!i=1187025677&k=hM6DFWz and GGRM website:
> http://ggrm.org/Collection_view.aspx?id=8.
> Tickets are still available on this car for the
> Christmas season, when it operates as the
> first-class "Holiday Club Lounge" on Train of
> Lights: http://ggrm.org/tol.htm
>
> - Doug Debs

Mr.Debs- Contrary to your popular belief and desire, the Observation car used on the January 1, 1958 SP 2475 excursion, is Central Coast Club's SP Observation car, the
"""Ferroequinologist"", # 2901... You can barely read both items on the side of the ELEVENTH photo. KRK.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/12 16:29 by KeyRouteKen.

This is the same plate. I returned her to the red paint used on the specials.

Martin

It's interesting that SP ran a number of steam excursions in 1957 and 1958 after daily steam ended in January 1957. Any idea who was giving the ok for the steam trips and any idea who finally said enough?

Steve

Interior of SP 2901 today:

http://s412909226.onlinehome.us/KPRMS/nrhs/biz_car/former_sp_business_car_2901.htm

Looks like the third car in the excursion consist could have been a lounge like the one Doug describes.

Thank you VERY much, Ken, for these great
photos of a memorable excursion -- which I
REALLY wish I had been on. (Had not yet
"seen the light" and was not a railfan back
then, darn!) Yes, I LOVED those photos --
the 2475 is a sister to the 2472 -- both are
P-8s. Too bad they didn't also save the 2475,
but -- heck -- they did save the 2467, 2472,
and the 2479!

Thank heavens they also saved the 2979! That
is a beautiful car. The SP did a great job
when they converted the interior and made her
into an Art Deco masterpiece.

Thanks for thinking of me, Ken!

We used Joe Schmitz's live sound film of this excursion in one of our SP videos.
-JH

What Video? Would like to hear it.
Sure was a task getting that red shifted Anscochrome to come back to life in Photoshop in these photos. My dad took these 2 years before I was born. My generation appreciates the efforts of the 2472 folks so we can see what we missed...Thanks. Great job.

Panamerican99 Wrote:
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> We used Joe Schmitz's live sound film of this
> excursion in one of our SP videos.
> -JH



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/12 21:36 by dmaffei.

Per the Train Order flimsie... Where exactly is ELMHURST?

Thanks in advance.

James R.(Jim) Baker
Whittier, CA