Nostalgia & History > A Double Shot of SP "Cruds":

First we have the SP 2626 here at Brisbane, CA. on the South City Switcher.

Second we have the SP 2637 at milepost 3.0 in San Francisco, CA. on the South City Switcher also.

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Lived in Brisbane for a couple years at the end of Bayshore's life. Cold nights you could hear those guys screaming pulling out cuts to switch.

How did these SP units get the term 'Crud' tacked on? I've never heard it before in this situation.

dcfbalcoS1 Wrote:
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> How did these SP units get the term 'Crud' tacked
> on? I've never heard it before in this situation.

I believe the first reference to the SP SW1500 as "cruds" was coined from that obscure and somewhat underground '70s publication known as Everywhere West. In one of the early issues the author laments the displacement of SP's Bay Area Alco switchers with these "cruddies" from EMD. In later publications the reference was shortened to "cruds" and the name stuck. Performance-wise, they're anything but cruds.

Here in Southern Calif. we'd see SW1500's MU'd with GP9's and Alco 415's. Mix 'n match the SP way. I was always annoyed by the term "crud" for a locomotive--I'd never apply it to anything on rails. Now one could say that an Alco switcher blows a lot of "crud" into the air.