Steam & Excursion > Old SP steam pix

I dropped into my LHS today and found a cache of old snapshots, probably taken back in the fifties. I culled these few but there is no information on them. The shop owner said they had been taken by an SP employee who lived in Tehachapi. Possible, the TO wizards can identify him and the location. My first thought is they were taken around Tehachapi, but it is also possible they were in the Bakersfield yard. For as identifying location, there is not much to go on. Needless to say, all of these locos are long gone, turned into bumpers and razorblades.

1) A pair of unidentified GS4s (most likely) awaiting their fate.

2) A P10 Pacific, #2486.

3) A grubby class F3 Decapod, #3662.

An update. I acquired a few more (36 to be exact) of these photos and found one that matched one on the Espee modeler's website. That gave me the name of the photographer, Stan Kistler. Now I know. I'll be posting the rest of them soon.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/11 18:56 by rdsexton.

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There is more yet.

4 & 5) Two views of a class F5 Decapod, #3756.

6) An F4 Decapod, #3706.

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Finally, two more SP locos and a surprise.

7) An Mt4 Mountain 4-8-2.

8) SP3666, a class F3 Decapod, slightly clipped at the top.

9) What is "Ol' number 8" doing in this collection. Was this a Promontory reenactment or display?
It looks to be an operating engine but why and when remain a mystery to me. Anyone out there
have a clue?

And yes, it would be good to know who the photographer was. There are quite a few more of these back at the LHS and I plan to look for more like these. Most of those I saw had no information and the trains, mostly steam, were unidentifiable. Still, worth the time to filter through them.

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Hi,

Picture #9, the 4-4-0 #8 appears to be the V&T #22 "Inyo" dressed up for TV/movie work. I think it's
probably filming the "Wild Wild West" TV series in the 1960's, in southern California.

The baggage car behind the loco is former V&T 1st #21. Happily, both of these items survive at the
Nevada State RR Museum in Carson City, NV.

Don

2-10-2's are not "decapods". They are "Santa Fe" type. Decapods are 2-10-0.

tomstp Wrote:
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> 2-10-2's are not "decapods". They are "Santa Fe"
> type. Decapods are 2-10-0.

The SP employees seemed to call 10 coupled engines decapods, the 4-10-2 3 cylinders where known to SP employees and "stuttering decs"!

In #1 the head one appears to be a GS-2 because of the open cab, although I'm not sure that the GS-3's didn't also have this. GS-4's had the headlight and Mars light combo.

Scott Gordon

tomstp Wrote:
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> 2-10-2's are not "decapods". They are "Santa Fe"
> type. Decapods are 2-10-0.

Maybe so, being no expert on the subject. I took the name from the Espee Modelers Website, my usual first source for SP power.

Tell us where your local hobby shop is so we can share in this treasure trove.

nycman Wrote:
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> Tell us where your local hobby shop is so we can
> share in this treasure trove.

Not unless I get there first! ;-)

Actually, it is Roy's Trains in Clovis CA. He wouldn't mind the business.

Always figgered crews called 'em "Decs" or "Decks" (sic.) for Decapod, regardless of whether they were true Decapods or not. Such are the usages of we Amurricuns. Kurt.

It's just like the name, "Malley" given to any SP articulated regardless of the technicality that they weren't. SP tried the Mallet form but simpled all of them eventually but the name stuck.

None of the old heads I worked with called a 10-coupled engine a deck. The called them by their engines number. A 2-10-2 would not be called a deck but it would be called a 3600 or 3700 class engine. The same with a 4-10-2. The guys called them 5000s or that 3 cylinder engine. Some times the guys would call a 2-8-0 a hog or a 2-6-0 a Valley Mallet. Sometimes they call them by their wheel arrangement.

Weren't the SP 3930 and the 3931 considered a true mallet? They were a compound engine that was articulated so that qualifies, doesn't it?

Things might have been different on other divisions across the SP but this is what I was told by the old guys that I worked with on the LA Division of the SP.

JDE

In 1942 when working at Roseburg on the Portland Div., they were refered to as decks. However they were not allowed north of Ashland on the Siskiyou line. Normal power was the AC1,2,&3s.