Steam & Excursion > For A Railroad About To Dieselize This Is Sure A Full Roundhouse!

The time it took to convert from steam power to diesel power varied from railroad to railroad.  Some lines took their time while a few seemed to convert almost over night.

Among the fastest railroads to abandon steam power for that of internal combustion was the Western Pacific.  When it started the process in earnest in the mid-1940's the management decided to go all out and the process was finished by the early 1950's.  This loss of steam power in such a swift fashion was quite a disappointment to railfans who enjoyed the variety of WP's steam powered roster.

Fortunately, a trip to the WP roundhouse in Stockton, California in 1938 rewarded a railfan with quite an array of steam locomotives filling nearly each of the stalls of this facility.  Sure, this scene would change in just a few years, but for now let's just stand back and enjoy the view!

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/16 04:04 by LoggerHogger.

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A Guy Dunscomb image?

Tony,

Not Guy.  I am not sure I have the name of the photographer.

Martin

Though they had a handful of 1899 built Moguls still around until the mid 1950s on the Keokuk Branch, freight power on the Wabash was dieselized much quicker than the WP--from the late 1940s to the early 1950s.

​Victor A. Baird
​http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

WP had good reason to convert to diesels. Bad water and not much of it!