Nostalgia & History > mFile: AT&SF #5942/5947 warbonnets w/pass train

AT&SF #5942 and 5947 leading the Super Chief(?), another whereizit

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i'll guess in the vicinity of wagon mound, nm.

a zoom that may help ID the location, thanks EW

this is scanned at a higher res and replaces the first zoom I posted



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/15 07:58 by valmont.

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My guess would be #18 just after exiting the east end of Shoemaker Canyon.

I can't believe the sloppy silver overspray job on the trucks & under frame. For crying out loud, this is the Super Chief!!! Would this indicate the final months, or even days leading up to Amtrak takeover?

Lance

Lance: Slide mount has Apr 70 embossed on it by Kodak

santafe199 Wrote:
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> I can't believe the sloppy silver overspray job on
> the trucks & under frame. For crying out loud,
> this is the Super Chief!!! Would this indicate the
> final months, or even days leading up to Amtrak
> takeover?
>
> Lance

Overspray such as that was not uncommon through the 1960's. Santa Fe would "touch up" the silver on both locomotives and cars between runs as necessary. A keen eye to detail was not always utilized.

At least they made the effort, as opposed to a lot of Eastern roads. Santa Fe was a class act until the end.

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

MojaveBill Wrote:
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> At least they made the effort, as opposed to a lot
> of Eastern roads. Santa Fe was a class act until
> the end.

TOTALLY agree, Bill! I think the Burlington did this too - but - their power was ALL silver.

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

MojaveBill Wrote: > Santa Fe was a class act until the end.

Believe me, I'm deeply aware of this fact. And I'm not besmirching the Santa Fe in any way, just the sloppy work by some of its employees. I worked in this industry long enough to know with dead certainty that NO railroad ever commanded, or ever will command love and/or respect from 100% of its work force. Yes, I've seen numerous shots of overspray, especially on F-units. But I've also read NUMEROUS comments by other fans with the same frustration as me. Disgusted with with the end result of the seemingly 'who-cares' attitude that led to so much visible overspray in the end...

Lance



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/15 15:51 by santafe199.

Your half right. It is the Super Chief and El Capitan. Yes, two trains in one.

santafe199 Wrote:
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> MojaveBill Wrote: > Santa Fe was a class act until
> the end.
>
> Believe me, I'm deeply aware of this fact. And I'm
> not besmirching the Santa Fe in any way, just the
> sloppy work by some of its employees. I worked in
> this industry long enough to know with dead
> certainty that NO railroad ever commanded, or ever
> will command love and/or respect from 100% of its
> work force. Yes, I've seen numerous shots of
> overspray, especially on F-units. But I've also
> read NUMEROUS comments by other fans with the same
> frustration as me. Disgusted with with the end
> result of the seemingly 'who-cares' attitude that

The overspray got a lot worse after 1967.
> led to so much visible overspray in the end...
>
> Lance

That is overspray so bad it looks on purpose. Were they using silver spray cans or a paint gun? I can see the gun shooting out wider and all over, but not a spray can.

This one's tough, but Valmont, maybe we can help you by helping us. Do you recall making an extraordinary effort to get the shot (I recognize it was over 40 years ago)? Or were you generally a run-and-gun photographer, especially with a fast train like #17 and #18? The reason I ask is that it might help identify the location. Super_C thinks it might be just east of Shoemaker, above the canyon on the plain between Shoemaker and Optimo, which resembles the topography. But getting to this location would be difficult. Even today there's only a right-of-way road and a bad one at that. However, if you say you were generally a run-and-gun in those times on this line, and that you generally shot next to the highway, then my thinking is that it's #18 between Onava and Watrous. Do you have another shot of the same train elsewhere on the line? Because if it was between Optimo and Shoemaker, that's a one-and-done gig for sure.

Fizzboy7 Wrote:
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> That is overspray so bad it looks on purpose.

Maybe. It may depend on how you define "on purpose".

> Were they using silver spray cans or a paint gun?
> I can see the gun shooting out wider and all
> over, but not a spray can.

Looking at the lead engine the painting was pretty clearly done with either an airless or air paint gun, definitely not a spray can. A spray can would have done a somewhat crappier job of blending, but probably would have made less overspray. Remember engines are big - some of that overspray is more than a spray can could do.

As for "on purpose" - there are very clearly two things that were entirely missing during the painting: a hunk of cardboard or luan to use for masking, and any slightest concern about overspray. Or maybe this was done by a management type that had never used a spraygun before and didn't know about overspray.

The plow is an especially interesting job. On the right you can see that it was sprayed in vertical strips that look to be about a foot or a little less wide, with nice sharp edges and no runs. This probably implies an air paint gun from about a foot; an airless almost certainly would have left runs if it tried to spray less than about an 18" swath. Note that the guy just sprayed whatever was there -- including the MU hoses! You can see a curved black line where the inside hose was lying on the plow when it was sprayed, blocking the plow from being painted.

You can also see a dirty spot in the bottom center of the plow where the painter didn't even try to paint. You have to wonder why -- was the engine coupled to something else, or up against a wall?

BCHellman Wrote:
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> This one's tough, but Valmont, maybe we can help
> you by helping us. Do you recall making an
> extraordinary effort to get the shot (I recognize
> it was over 40 years ago)? Or were you generally
> a run-and-gun photographer, especially with a fast
> train like #17 and #18? The reason I ask is that
> it might help identify the location. Super_C
> thinks it might be just east of Shoemaker, above
> the canyon on the plain between Shoemaker and
> Optimo, which resembles the topography. But
> getting to this location would be difficult. Even
> today there's only a right-of-way road and a bad
> one at that. However, if you say you were
> generally a run-and-gun in those times on this
> line, and that you generally shot next to the
> highway, then my thinking is that it's #18 between
> Onava and Watrous. Do you have another shot of the
> same train elsewhere on the line? Because if it
> was between Optimo and Shoemaker, that's a
> one-and-done gig for sure.


Sorry for long delay responding, for some reason I think this was near Las Vegas, NM ... now if I could only remember what that reason wss!