Steam & Excursion > SP AC-9's in the San Joaquin Valley

   This is a followup to Barstool's post of a couple of days ago.  These two shots were taken about 1953 as the Lima built AC-9's were working their way west for service on the Modoc.  These three shots are from the Nolan Black collection, and inasmuch as their are unidentified as to photographer, I can only guess.  He and Guy Dunscomb were good friends, and frequently traded each other negatives.  Guy could have taken these, since he lived and worked in Modesto, California at the time.

1.  Taking water somewhere in the Valley.

2.  If the milepost is anywhere close to present UP locations, this shot was made near the present station of Alcant.  Alcant is just south of Turlock, Cal.

3.  Helloo Loggerhogger!  The note on the back of this print says "Indianapolis & Evansville, Baldwin, 1870."  Anyone know the purpose and use for this left-handed looking contraption?  Also from the Nolan Black collection, photographer unknown..

   Coming back to the AC-9's for a minute, it was mentioned in Barstool's post that the SP crews didn't like these engines very much. While I can imagine the fact that the crews were used to the visibility from the cab of a cab-forward, it was also stated in Churches book about the SP articulateds made mention of the fact the AC-9's were equipped with Hancock injectors that nobody was familiar with and "gave us fits!."
   Thanks for looking, and as always, comments welcome.

Brian Black
Castle Rock, CO.

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Beautiful, just beautiful!
Jim Leonard
Cheyenne, WY

Brian,

Guy Dunscomb did chase SP #3809 up the Valley in 1953.  I have his negatives of that chase and these look like cropped images of his.

As for the other engine, she looks like those built for elevated railways in inner city's around the U.S. at the turn of the century.

Martin

LoggerHogger Wrote:
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> Brian,
>
> Guy Dunscomb did chase SP #3809 up the Valley in
> 1953.  I have his negatives of that chase and
> these look like cropped images of his.
>
> As for the other engine, she looks like those
> built for elevated railways in inner city's around
> the U.S. at the turn of the century.
>
> Martin

   Thanks Martin.  I suspected that those may have been Guy's work.  The shots I posted were scans off of 8x10 prints, so I had no leeway on the cropping.  Also, the years had not treated them too kindly.  That engine in the third shot doesn't look like it knows whether or not its coming or going.

Brian

Wow Brian, you are really doing a great job with these two pics of  AC9's, one of my favorite SP engines. Jeez they look cool! That 0-4-4 looks like a Cab Forward, only with attached tender to look over instead of a flat cab face. I guess that is what you had to do if you had a coal burner. Headlight facing forward over the tender and cowcatcher attached to the end. New and unusual to me. Keep posting please.

Pic #2 was taken at the east end of Turlock.

For photo #3 - some early 0-4-4T types were set up to run backwards. The idea was that
they would track like a 4-4-0 and the engineer would be able to see the track ahead better
(no smoke or boiler to block the veiw). For some reason this didn't work out and they ended
up being run in the normal, boiler first, direction.