Nostalgia & History > SP 5623 on the Oakland Terminal

For ten years, from 1995 to 2005, a black widow torpedo boat GP9 called Oakland, CA home. Howard Wise and Errol Ohman purchased SP 3189 from a scrapyard in 1993 and lovingly restored it to its original identity, 5623. The Oakland Terminal Railway used the geep as a spare when their regular engine was down for servicing, often in December. In 1999, the OTR interchange with the Class 1's was down along 7th St. on what used to be the approach to the Oakland Mole, so cars destined for OTR customers off of Wood St. had to cross the ex-SP mains and Desert Yard on the 1939-vintage former Interurban Electric Railway flyover. The flyover had been built to allow the SP red electric trains to reach the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, and its 4% grades and 12 degree curve were definitely better suited to interurbans. On December 29, 1999, 5623 was in charge of three gons and a boxcar as it shoved east over the bridge. The black widow attracted railfans like flies (so to speak) - that's Dan Furtado on the ground to the right shooting stills and Rolland Myers on the engine's walkway shooting video. The 5623 is now on the Niles Canyon Railway at Sunol, CA. The flyover is still in place, but hasn't been used since West Oakland Pacific took over from the OTR in June 2012.

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What a fine, fine video, Evan. And man, is it dramatic! Thank you for sharing it today.

That unit is a true gem. And no candy-ass museum queen either. :-)

~ Bob Z.

Being a frothing SP fan AND living in San Jose along the commute line meant that when I first laid eyes on the restored 5623 I was in the proverbial Hog Heaven. The fact that this rare torpedo boat GP9E along with the restored SD9 are both alive and well in Sunol, a mere 75 minutes from where I live is just frosting on the cake!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/13 15:16 by CrudPunko.

Ah yes, the happy days. Thanks Evan!
Howard

CrudPunko Wrote:
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> The fact that this rare
> torpedo boat GP9E along with the restored SD9

I hesitate to bring this up as I usually get stones thrown at me but, the 5623 is a GP9R-1. It went through the GRIP rebuild program in 1977, not the E upgrade.
Attached is a scan from a SP employee "Locomotive Data Book" from 1979 which lists both "E" rebuilds, "R" rebuilds and a couple of units that were not rebuilt, at least not as of the book's printing date. The 5623 (3189) was actually built in 1956 but running it though GRIP caused it to be re-capitalized with a new build date of 1977.
Now, I will cover my head and stare at the ground.

Howard



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/13 15:56 by sp5623.

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I don't care what you call it - it's GREAT to watch and to listen to!

AWESOME video, Evan! I remember meeting them every so often over at 26th ST and I saw them on the flyover a couple of times... all just memories, now!
Thanks for bringing them back for all of us!

Thanks for posting, Evan.

The sound of the 567 revving up to take the hill is fantastic!

Stan Praisewater

Evan, wonderful video and equally wonderful sounding Nathan M3 on 5623.

Thanks!

daniel

My God! If that doesn't get your blood pumping, you should not be on this website. THAT'S AWESOME!

Thanks for posting this Evan. Great stuff like this is why I'm a big fan of your videos!

Fantastic! Thrilling to hear the whine as he shoved them up that grade...

... but ... as the cut went over the top, I asked the computer screen: "Now what?"

Did he have air in the gons? He's moving along pretty good to get them stopped on the other side. Yee-haw!

sp5623 Wrote:

> Attached is a scan from a SP employee "Locomotive
> Data Book" from 1979 which lists both "E"
> rebuilds, "R" rebuilds and a couple of units that
> were not rebuilt, at least not as of the book's
> printing date.

Thanks for posting this, Howard. I always wondered if there was an official reference for SP's "E" and "R" rebuilds or if it was just railfan lingo.

srlawton Wrote:

> ... but ... as the cut went over the top, I asked
> the computer screen: "Now what?"
>
> Did he have air in the gons? He's moving along
> pretty good to get them stopped on the other side.

The OTR was pretty consistent about putting air into the cars even when switching. Other than the flyover, the railroad was essentially flat, but it seems like I almost always heard the loud blast of escaping air as a car's brakes went into emergency when they cut away from it.

Thanks also for the compliments, folks. The OTR was a neat little railroad, and I'm grateful to have known it and its people.

srlawton Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fantastic! Thrilling to hear the whine as he
> shoved them up that grade...
>
> ... but ... as the cut went over the top, I asked
> the computer screen: "Now what?"
>
> Did he have air in the gons? He's moving along
> pretty good to get them stopped on the other side.
> Yee-haw!

We used air on any movement, except when flat switching in Baldwin or Knight yards. The video is a little deceptive as there is some flat area at the top of the flyover and the grade on the east end is less than what you see in the video on the west end.

Howard

Great video and it brought back good memories. I am fortunate to have ridden the OTR and 5623 thanks to the super friendly people working for the company.

The SP 5623 website was a favorite of mine back in the day, I'm glad to see its still online in its original 1990s era format.

Howard -- You folks documented the restoration well, I like all the scrapyard pics, the description of the thought processes that led you to buy the locomotive and how to go about restoring it.

If ya'all haven't taken a look, here's a few pages that might whet your appetite for enjoyable browsing.
* Scrapyard visit http://trainweb.org/sp5623/lmc.htm
* Return to Black Widow http://trainweb.org/sp5623/widow.htm

Ted in OR

Nice video and background to the locomotive, but was that really a blind shove and over a grade crossing ?

I could swear I smelled the smoke watching this. It was really there.

train1275 Wrote:

> Nice video and background to the locomotive, but
> was that really a blind shove and over a grade
> crossing ?

No. Watch carefully as the first gondola passes and you'll catch a glimpse of the conductor hanging off the grab irons on the far side of the car. You can also see him in this frame-grab from a portion of the video I edited out:



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/13 15:12 by Evan_Werkema.

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Great video, Evan. For the un-initiated, I'd like to point out that when the SP/IER Flyover was first constructed, in 1938, it was essentially a "double-track" WYE. Yes, I said "double-track".
The stem of the WYE led to the Bridge Railway's yard in Oakland known as "Bridge Yard".. and then onward to the lower deck of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
The North leg of the WYE pointed toward Shellmound and Berkeley. The South end of the WYE pointed toward 16th Street Station and West Oakland. Overhead trolley on the whole thing was 1200 volts, dc. The Sacramento Northern and the Key System never operated over the Flyover. They ran underneath the SP mainline via a Subway, which was nearby. The KEY ran on 600 volts, dc from overhead trolley as did the SN cars, although they were running on half-power. After passing the "Bridge Yard" interlocking tower, near the Toll Plaza, the KEY lowered their pans and started using a 600-volt dc third rail. The SN cars continued using overhead and after passing over a section insulator in the trolley, suddenly re-gained the full 1200 volt dc trolley wire supply which they shared with the SP-IER cars over the Bridge.

KRK