Steam & Excursion > A Silent Deadline Of Cab-Forwards At Bayshore Yards!

By 1957, when this photo was taken, if a railfan wanted to see a number of steam locomotives all at once he no longer could visit his favorite mainline roundhouse. Instead, he would have to venture out into the yards outback of that same roundhouse and he would likely find a silent deadline of once proud steam power in deadlines awaiting their date with a scrapper.

Such was the case when, on a sunny day in May, Vern Sappers visited Bayshore yards in South San Francisco, California. There he was greeted by a long line of Cab-Forwards parked in a line and certain to never turn a wheel again under their own power.

A "Silent Spring" indeed.

Martin



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/14 04:15 by LoggerHogger.

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Always a very sad sight. I remember the early '50s around St. Louis. A trip to the steel companies on the East St. Louis side was even sadder. A gathering of steam power from many roads waiting for the torch. Awful times.

Thanks for the stirring photo, Martin!

Nearly a decade later, there was still disbelief amongst my fellow group of young fans that those big malleys were indeed all gone. We came up with all kinds theories as to how SP had sequestered-away a few in dark corners, saving them for a time when they could be displayed (or RUN!) without threatening SP's "modern" image. None of us had cars, let alone the Internet (we regarded Trains Magazine as participating in SP's cover-up), so our foamentations were free to wander in crazy directions. One of our baseless pet assertions was that the company had hidden some malleys in the Sparks roundhouse (another: in Eureka, on NWP), and I was assigned to check this out during a family trip to Utah. This was 1965, and when I got to Sparks - no roundhouse! The crushing truth was apparent.

I suspect that a few adults likewise, but secretly, shared our futile hopes that a line of malleys still existed "somewhere", for those were wonderful times when the world was a bigger place, and its realities remote and indistinct enough to blur the line between fantasy and reality.

I should note that we bore-up to the blow of reality rather well, since we had already become exceedingly preoccupied with girls.

hogheaded Wrote:
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> Thanks for the stirring photo, Martin!
>
> Nearly a decade later, there was still disbelief
> amongst my fellow group of young fans that those
> big malleys were indeed all gone. We came up with
> all kinds theories as to how SP had
> sequestered-away a few in dark corners, saving
> them for a time when they could be displayed (or
> RUN!) without threatening SP's "modern" image.
> None of us had cars, let alone the Internet (we
> regarded Trains Magazine as participating in SP's
> cover-up), so our foamentations were free to
> wander in crazy directions. One of our baseless
> pet assertions was that the company had hidden
> some malleys in the Sparks roundhouse (another: in
> Eureka, on NWP), and I was assigned to check this
> out during a family trip to Utah. This was 1965,
> and when I got to Sparks - no roundhouse! The
> crushing truth was apparent.
>
> I suspect that a few adults likewise, but
> secretly, shared our futile hopes that a line of
> malleys still existed "somewhere", for those were
> wonderful times when the world was a bigger place,
> and its realities remote and indistinct enough to
> blur the line between fantasy and reality.
>
> I should note that we bore-up to the blow of
> reality rather well, since we had already become
> exceedingly preoccupied with girls.

Nice inadvertent play of words with your last sentence.

I am curious what was done about the asbestos lagging back when they began to cut up steam locomotives in mass! Were any precautions taken or did they just put to torch to the metal?

TomPlatten Wrote:
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> I am curious what was done about the asbestos
> lagging back when they began to cut up steam
> locomotives in mass! Were any precautions taken or
> did they just put to torch to the metal?

They just waded knee deep into the stuff and lit their torches.

> TomPlatten Wrote:
>
> They just waded knee deep into the stuff and lit
> their torches.


Correct. No asbestos and lead paint hysteria back in those days.

Similar experience for me in the late 1950s watching deadlines of Mikes passing through the south Chicago suburbs on the way to oblivion in Detroit. Haunting vision.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/14 09:03 by mwarfel.

As a curious 12 year old I climbed all over the deadline that UP
had parked along Greely Ave at the Albina yard in Portland. Not
a soul bothered to tell us kids that we weren't allowed to risk
injury (or more) and stay away. At that age we never thought of taking a
piece of an engine for sentimental value or as a souvenirs.

Larry Dodgion
Wilsonville, OR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/14 10:12 by truxtrax.

My Dad just came in from a run from Newburg and told me to get in the car, he wanted me to see something. We went and parked by the Frisco's Webster Groves depot and a half hour later here came a funeral train of steam engines heading for Granite City. I still vividly remember that scene and Dad and I were both sad over it. He loved running steam.

That's the A yard at Bayshore. In my day, it was full of retired and soon to be scrapped passenger cars.

pretty much a continuous dead line out behind Paducah Shops, starting with steam in the late 1950's and morphing into diesels by the time I was a switchman. Still a dead line there today. I didn't take these pictures, but I saw all three views....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/14 19:32 by eee.

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I remember seeing Santa Fe big steam coupled cab to cab by their drawbars going over the hill at Inglewood's Centinela Park on Harbor District going to scrap at Terminal Island pulled by a huge Baldwin Center Cab Transfer locomotive.

--Jim Baker

I appreciate you posting the photo. It wouldn't be until early 1961 when the last three locomotives left the Bayshore deadline. One of them was the Bayshore Shop goat SPMW966. I was there that day inside Bayshore Tower when they rolled onto the mainline for the trip to South San Francisco.

Damn shame they couldn't have found a forgotten corner for that shop switcher

John Gezelius
Tustin, CA

Well, I wouldn't call SPMW966 pretty...

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,2941868

SP did save lots of 0-6-0's with tenders. I'd be more inclined to lament that the dark corner SP 4367 was stuffed into wasn't quite dark enough...

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> SP did save lots of 0-6-0's with tenders. I'd be
> more inclined to lament that the dark corner SP
> 4367 was stuffed into wasn't quite dark enough...


Amen to that!

Was that the one in Roseburg?

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> SP did save lots of 0-6-0's with tenders. I'd be
> more inclined to lament that the dark corner SP
> 4367 was stuffed into wasn't quite dark enough...


To some, just another reason to hate the city of Eugene...