Western Railroad Discussion > Rolling Thru The Week On The BNSF Northern Transcon--Traction

It was a mostly cloudy with a bit of sun type day in Ritzville, WA on the eBNSF Lakeside Sub. The high-low was 41-34. With the warmer temps the pile up of snow is melting with ice underneth making for slippery and swampy conditions. Traffic is at 22 trains since midnight with more on the way. Lot of grain trains on the roll. Here are some of the trains from today and the last couple of days. Also a bit of Traction.

1/11/2022

1. WB 1013am grain train with BNSF 3992 and Warbonnet 761 on the point with DPU's and a friendly toot-toot from the hogger.
2. Another shot of Warbonnet 761 on same train.
3. DPU's BNSF 5016-6647 on same train.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/22 15:44 by Ritzville.

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4. WB 1157am manifest train with BNSF 5194-4240-4087-7858 on the pull with no DPU.
5. WB 22pm grain train with BNSF 3769 on the point with DPU's.
6. BNSF 478793 NP Heritage Hopper rolling in same train.

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7. EB 321pm "V" train with BNSF 3698-4146-6910 on the pull with DPU.
8. WB 342pm coal train with CP 8861 and BNSF 7196 on the point with DPU's.
9. DPU's BNSF 3931-6866 on same train.

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1/12/2022

10. WB 936am coal train with BNSF 7626-6948 on the pull with DPU's.

1/13/2022

11. WB 1120am manifest train with BNSF 9139-5170 on the point with DPU and a friendly wave from the hogger.
12. Old LEF&C boxcar rolling in same train.

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13. Old Blue Columbus and Greenville boxcar with graffiti rolling in same train.
14. a pleasant surprise a clean CRYO-TRANS reefer rolling in same train.
15. DPU BNSF 4232 on same train.

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16. WB 1132am manifest train with BNSF 4280-7043 on the pull with no DPU and aa friendly toot-toot from the hogger.
17. WB 1217m grain train with BNSF 7864-5705 on the point with DPU.
18. WB 1251pm manifest train with BNSF 8057-5334 on the pull with no DPU.

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Now for a bit of Traction from the Andy Goddard collection.

19. Pacific Electric Santa Ana train at 6th and Main downtown LA station in 1940's. Photo by Alan Weeks.
20. The 1940's finds Pacific Electric 316 bound for LA in Santa Ana, CA. An Alan Weeks photo. Any added info gladly accepted.
21. San Francisco Municipal Railway Line Car rolling thru West Portal District in 1970's. K ingleside PCC following behind Line Car.

That's it for today. Hope everyone has a great evening and tomorrow. Thank you so much for looking!

Larry
Ritzville, WA
 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/22 20:01 by Ritzville.

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A day with some interesting rolling stock goig through.
Most especially like first traction photo.
Thanks for the update and traction.
ALLEN

Thank you as always.

Photos 19 & 20 show two of the former Northwestern Pacific 'Blimps' that PE obtained in 1942 to 
alleviate the upsurge of wartime passenger traffic. Built in 1929-30 by St Louis Car Company for NWP's
suburban electric lines in Marin County, they had been stored in Sausalito in 1941 following abandonment
of NWP's Marin County suburban operations in favor of Greyhound buses that traveled over the newly
constructed Golden Gate Bridge.

PE leased 19 NWP cars, 12 motorized and 7 controller equipped trailers, from parent SP and had them shipped
to southern California on their own wheels where they were put through PE's Torrance Shops. Both 309 and 316
were part of the 12 motorized cars and were equipped, as built, with four 140hp Westinghouse traction motors and
a gear ratio 17:60. These former NWP motors became known as PE's "Hot-Rods" for their superior acceleration
and top speeds. The 'trailers' were later equipped with GE motors but were never the equal, in speed, to their
Westinghouse equipped brothers. 

The late David Garcia in his book Pacific Electric Cars 1911-1953 writes: "Considered the fastest cars of the
Blimp fleet, the original NWP motor cars, ..., 'literally had their wheels run off' in their final years of service." Both 
309 and 316 were scrapped before the final demise in 1961 of LAMTA passenger service on former PE lines. 

Looking closely at photo 19 and car 309 at PE's 6th & Main St station in Los Angeles, we can see that it is
about to depart on train 219, (seen in the round window on the right side of the car). Referring to an employee
timetable from 1936, a few years prior to this photo; the train is scheduled to depart L.A. at 1:45pm for its 34
mile trip to, in this case, the Southern Pacific depot in Santa Ana, which was located .39 miles beyond the
PE depot, where we see car 316 in photo 20. Train 219's scheduled arrival time at SP-Santa Ana was 3:02pm,
1 hour, 17 minutes later--not bad considering a litany of railroad crossings, passenger stops, a lot of street running
at both ends of the run. Try matching that time today, following as closely as possible the route train 219 followed.

The last passenger service to Santa Ana ran on July 2, 1950 when it was cut back to Bellflower. The final Bellflower
car ran on May 25, 1958.

Thanks Larry, 

Charlie

 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/22 22:18 by cewherry.

Thanks Charlie for your wealth of information, much appreciated!

Larry