Steam & Excursion > Some Espee Steam from the Archives

These three pictures were taken from my father, Nolan Black's collection. His collection consists of the work of four different photographers: himself, Guy Dunscomb, who he was great friends with, Ralph Melching, and a bay area friend, Russell Arhnke. He had a weird coding system for his collection that I haven't been able to figure out, so I don't know who took what in his collection.

1. The afternoon commuter lineup at San Fransisco. No date on this shot, but the GS series 4400's must have been still used in main line passenger service, since there are none in this shot. All 4-8-2's and 4-6-2's. Not a diesel in sight!

2. An undated shot of one of the early 2-6-6-2 cab-forwards. It must have been taken after 1947, since the front panel has been painted silver. I believe this engine was originally built as a compound. Taken at Alturas, California.

3. Every ones favorite, the 4449 during her service years. This was at Los Angeles, shot in July of 1953. According to Robert Church's book on the Daylight engines, 4449 was painted black in November of 1946, and re-painted into Daylight colors in November of 1947. It is uncertain when she lost her skirts, but it had to have been not too long after this image was made. She's a bit dirty to say the least.

Enjoy the images, and as always, comments welcome.

Brian Black
Retired SP/UP Conductor



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/15 14:59 by tehachcond.

---

---

---

I'd like to sit on the platform and listen to those 4300s leaving.

The second shot is a 2-8-8-2.

coastdaylight Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The second shot is a 2-8-8-2.

Coastdaylight is correct !!

SP locomotives #4002-4016 emerged from the erection shop in 1909/1910 as Cab Forwards, Class MC-2.
A 2-8-8-2 wheel arrangement.

KRK

Brian, thanks for the great images. One question about the line up at Third and Townsend....you mention there are 4-8-2s and 4-4-2s visible......I'm not aware of the 4-4-2s in SP commute service, but am aware of 4-6-2s in that service. It's hard for these old eyes to be sure, but I think I see only Mountains and Pacifics heading up the fleet. AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

agentatascadero Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Brian, thanks for the great images. One question
> about the line up at Third and Townsend....you
> mention there are 4-8-2s and 4-4-2s
> visible......I'm not aware of the 4-4-2s in SP
> commute service, but am aware of 4-6-2s in that
> service. It's hard for these old eyes to be sure,
> but I think I see only Mountains and Pacifics
> heading up the fleet. AA

My bad. I meant 4-6-2's. I'll try to correct my original post.

Brian

tehachcond Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> agentatascadero Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Brian, thanks for the great images. One
> question
> > about the line up at Third and Townsend....you
> > mention there are 4-8-2s and 4-4-2s
> > visible......I'm not aware of the 4-4-2s in SP
> > commute service, but am aware of 4-6-2s in that
> > service. It's hard for these old eyes to be
> sure,
> > but I think I see only Mountains and Pacifics
> > heading up the fleet. AA
>
> My bad. I meant 4-6-2's. I'll try to correct my
> original post.
>
> Brian

Correction made.

4005 was part of the original order of cab forwards. They were built as saturated compounds and were later rebuild with superheaters and converted to simple engines.

Love that giant Simplex injector....

I'll bet that when all of these engines were introduced some guys were whining about how much better things were in the Good Old Days...

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

This morning, a gentleman copied two of these images to a Facebook page without any credit, attribution, or anything. I don't mind images that I've posted being used for non-commercial purposes elsewhere, such as Facebook, but I would appreciate in the future that proper credit and attribution be provided when they are used for other purposes.

Brian Black
Retired SP/UP Conductor

Brian, those are all great photos and thank you for posting them. Regarding someone using them, the other day I went searching on the net for info on the Lake Shore Limited wreck on the New York Central back in 1940, and in almost all of the links I found copies of MY photos posted on various forums over the years. Once you put one out on the net it seems to be fair game.

Great stuff Brian! Thanks for posting. Nice to see what life was like before dismals. Sorry someone took liberties with your photos without credit. I've had the same thing happen to me.

Ray

tehachcond wrote:

> According to Robert Church's book on the Daylight engines, 4449 was painted black in November of 1946, and re-painted into Daylight colors in November of 1947.

It's unlikely that 4449 was painted black in November of 1946. Page 65 of "Daylight 4449's Family Album" has a photo of 4449 in the all-black scheme that was taken on Nov. 7, 1946 and it is evident by closely examining the photo that 4449 was not newly-painted at the time. The caption stated: "4449 went through an all-black stage in the later part of World War Two and the year following."

> It is uncertain when she lost her skirts, but it had to have been not too long after this image was made [in July 1953].

No. 4449 retained her skirts and her Daylight paint scheme until at least October 1954. See the third photo at:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,869669 .



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/15 13:38 by johnsweetser.