Nostalgia & History > NWP 184

This is a Wil Whittaker picture of the NWP 184 at Willits on July 2, 1948. The photo is from the collection of Nitehostler who asked me to post it. This engine has some interesting history, and hopefully Tom will post a response and tell the story.

JBW

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Thanks for taking the trouble to scan & post this one John...184 was the "hoodoo" engine of the NWP, having been involved in at least two wrecks, the second of which, on January 17, 1953 near Nanning Creek by the Scotia Bluffs, proved to be her undoing. She got caught in a slide & ended up in the river. After she was later recovered, she was scrapped on the spot as steam was dead anyway on the NWP by that summer IIRC.
You tend to think of Ten-Wheelers all having tall drivers, but what with the NWP's speed restrictions, this class all had 57" drivers, the same as the SP Consolidations. Nice touch though, with the fluted rods. Sister 183 was transferred to the SP & worked her last assignments around Tracy.

Tom

Tom,

Why did so many of the NWP engines have such small tenders?

Good question...and one that I've never given a lot of thought to! Just conjecture on my part, but they did have water at many places along the line, so why drag unnecessary weight? A lot of those Vanderbilt tenders were 7,000 gallon capacity & some may have been 10,000 gallons, but I'd think those were the largest used except maybe for any leased SP power that might have had bigger tenders.
Stindt & Dunscomb's book on the NWP lists water tanks at Sausalito, Tiburon, Hilaria, San Rafael, Ignacio, Novato, Burdell, Petaluma, Cotati, Santa Rosa, Fulton, Healdsburg, Cloverdale, Hopland, Ukiah, Redwood Valley, Ridge, Willits, Longvale, Tatu, Dos Rios, Stony Creek, Spyrock, Bell Springs, Two Rocks, Island Mountain, Kekawaka, Hamann Gulch, Steelhead, Fort Seward, Eel Rock, McCann, South Fork, Camp Nine, Elinor, Scotia, Alton, Table Bluff, Millford, South Bay & Eureka. None of these were very far apart from each other. Example, Spyrock was around Mile 180 & Bell Springs was something like 184.3.
Hope this helps.

Tom

Tom, do you know any details of the earlier wreck involving #184? Were there fatalities, and was a passenger train involved? I seem to recall hearing of a head-on collision involving a freight and passenger train on NWP.

SierraRail Wrote:
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> Tom, do you know any details of the earlier wreck
> involving #184? Were there fatalities, and was a
> passenger train involved? I seem to recall
> hearing of a head-on collision involving a freight
> and passenger train on NWP.

I am aware of a head-on collision just beyond the Tunnel @ Dos Rios that involved a pair of steam locos, one of which had
overlooked the meet. About 20 years back while chasing the Eureka Southern, I killed some time with a local who was living
there as a kid & he said that everyone in town heard the collision. Not positive Brian, but I do think that one of the trains
was a passenger. Sorry I cannot offer any more specifics.

Tom

I did a little research last nite and came up with the following...
The head on collision involving Engine 184 (on a freight train) occurred on February 28, 1929. The other locomotive was 141. Both were repaired & 141 ended up being the last NWP engine on the property. She had been requested as a display engine by the City of Santa Rosa, but it just did not happen. I have little doubt that years later, she'd have been operating on the lower end of the NWP.
When 184 went in the river in 1953, it claimed the lives of 3 NWP rails: engineer D. G. Liscom, fireman T. R. Porter and brakeman J. H. Aure.
The head-on collision that I mentioned earlier just beyond the tunnel @ Dos Rios might have been the one on September 30, 1946 involving engines 114 & leased SP 2801. The 114 was heavily damaged & scrapped the next year. She had been one of the "Gold Spike" special locomotives used at the Cain Rock Ceremonies.
This information came from Stindt & Dunscomb's NWP book.

Tom

PS I just discovered an error of sorts between Volumes 1 and 2 of the NWP book...in Volume 2, it states that engine 140, not
141, was the last NWP steam engine on the property. But the 140 was cut up in 1954 while 141 lasted until 1957.

The Feb. 28, 1929 wreck happened near Largo, just north of Hopland. One of the engineers overlooked train orders, ordering a stop at Largo Siding, which caused the collision. Not sure about fatalities, but No. 184 and No. 141 stuck each other at track speed, which can't be good!