Nostalgia & History > Lets see if you can ID this roundhouse

Too bad it is hard to make out the lokie on the turntable, as that might narrow it down a bit.

Yes, I know where and whos facility, but do you?

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Well, lets see.   There is no coal chute visible, oil storage tanks instead. A backshop on the property and the diesels appear to maybe be Black Widows or MP/T&P units.   That's as much as I can figure out.  Take it from there.

Very astute observation.  You have indeed narrowed it down a bit.

The shop complex in Sacramento, CA?

El Paso??

Great view of El Paso!  Expressway here today, so all is gone but suspect they saved the turntable and moved it a bit west.

Before SP, the El Paso & Southwestern.  When the AC-9s were there, where did they coal them. They were coal fired from 1939 to 1950.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/15 02:41 by Labby.

Yes El Paso it is.

tThose are indeed black widow diesels in the photo.

i didn't think the Ac's operated east of AZ?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/15 05:55 by WrongWayMurphy.

If I recall correctly, all the AC cab forwards were oil fired, kinda hard to get the coal past the boiler and into the fire box. 

AC-9's were not cab forwards, but standard articulateds with the cab in the normal position.

Seems like i remember the AC9's were referred to "backwards" cab-aheads

The AC-9's also had streamlined pilots and skyline casings making them look like elongated Daylight engines. They burned coal in New Mexico as it was more readily available than oil in the early days. When converted to oil they moved to tne Modoc line in Nevada.  For  discussion and photos after conversion see: [url=http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,3640729,3640789#msg-3640789]http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,3640729,3640789#msg-3640789[/url]

MP4093 wrote:

> When converted to oil they [SP's AC-9s] moved to tne Modoc line in Nevada. 

The conversion of the AC-9s to oil was not related to their reasignment to the Modoc line.  The conversion came earlier.

This is all well documented. The AC9 were converted to oil in 1950 at El Paso. From 1939 to 1950 they burned coal and operated that way over the Tucumcari Line, so they needed to get coal in El Paso.  Picture evidence please!  Never seen it.

An addition for those unaware. The reason they burned coal was that when (1924) Southern Pacific took control of the El Paso & Southwestern (to Tucumcari) they were  bound by contractual agreement to use coal from Dawson, New Mexico.  When the AC-9s were ordered the SP still was tied to that agreement. Surely they wanted to use cab forwards, but this was the best alternative to handle a train with only one engine over this line. There are pictures of them in passenger service also. 

Many consider this class of 2-8-8-4 as one of the finest looing engines ever produced.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/15 19:31 by Labby.