Steam & Excursion > A Busy Morning At The SP Oakland Roundhouse! - 1940

January 15, 1940 saw a visit by noted railfan Guy L. Dunscomb to SP's Oakland, California roundhouse. Guy was able to climb up on one of the steam locomotives waiting on a storage track to take this fine view of the activity taking place in order to ready these fine engines for the road.

In this scene alone we see SP #4401, #4350, # 4342, #4357, #2436 and #1224, all being serviced before their next runs. In the background we also see the 0-6-0T #217 used as the Oakland Shop Goat.



Martin



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/12 05:46 by LoggerHogger.

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Wow what a great scene. This was 8 months before I was born. I was lucky enough to wander around the Frisco Lindenwood roundhouse many times until the hated diesels ruined that for me when I was twelve. I used to go with Dad while he conducted BofLE business monthly (figuring the miles as he called it) I did manage to wander the MP's Compton Ave roundhouse with my cousin who worked there.
A lot of Sundays my Dad and I would go across the river and visit still active steam roundhouses (busman's holiday). The IC was always a busy, smoky place and seemingly overnight it was all diesel. What a crock! The Wabash, Big Four and NKP still had steam, but in no time went diesel.
I still hate diesels.

Great pic....got one from, say about 1942,3, or 4??

Frisco1522 Wrote:
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> Wow what a great scene. This was 8 months before
> I was born. I was lucky enough to wander around
> the Frisco Lindenwood roundhouse many times until
> the hated diesels ruined that for me when I was
> twelve. I used to go with Dad while he conducted
> BofLE business monthly (figuring the miles as he
> called it) I did manage to wander the MP's Compton
> Ave roundhouse with my cousin who worked there.
> A lot of Sundays my Dad and I would go across the
> river and visit still active steam roundhouses
> (busman's holiday). The IC was always a busy,
> smoky place and seemingly overnight it was all
> diesel. What a crock! The Wabash, Big Four and
> NKP still had steam, but in no time went diesel.
> I still hate diesels.


Yah Frisco, I'm with ya, brother! My dad was always bringing us "snot noses" to the U.P. Albina roundhouse when I was a kid and from my memories of that, I am an avid steam lover to this day! In the mid 50's when U.P. began "cuttin' and guttin" 'em, my dad would literally have tears in his eyes watching that. Til the day he died, he NEVER had a liking for diesels! Nor do I! He used to say that when steam went, so did the romance of railroading and that they were just "crackerboxes on wheels"

All you guys are lucky, you were in cities with big engine facilities. I was born 1940 in a small town a 100 miles away from any such. Didn't get to personally seen one until steam was almost dead.

I was born a tad late for steam in regular service, but I remembr as a kid going by the SP Hardy Street shops and the still had a water column on one of the ready tracks. It stayed there until the merger.

I was lucky enough to ride on a pass due to Dad being an engineer. One time we were coming back up the River Div from Memphis. I was about 9 at the time. I went into the john and discovered the window opened. So I sat there on the crapper with my arm on the sill playing engineer and watching the Hudson taking the curves. After a length of time I went back to where Mom and Dad were sitting and promptly got my butt reamed out. Of course I was innocent of anything and couldn't understand their rage. Dad took me to the john and made me look in the mirror. Oooops! Looked like a raccoon in reverse with all the soot on my face. Busted!
My Dad was a consumate story teller and it's his fault that I'm a hopeless steam person, even in my old age. He loved running steam and had seen everything the Frisco had to offer since he went into engine service in 1916 and was still running in 1964 when he died.
He told me that he was in Newburg, MO when a trainload of the "Spot" engines (1-60 2-10-2s) passed through on their way to Springfield and scrap/conversion to 4-8-2s. All the engine crews on the platform cheered at the sight. They all hated those engines.
I don't know how, but I think I learned a lot of how to run a steam engine from his stories from my youth. I just felt at home up there and always imagined him watching down keeping me from doing something stupid.

Frisco1522 Wrote:
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> I don't know how, but I think I learned a lot of
> how to run a steam engine from his stories from my
> youth. I just felt at home up there and always
> imagined him watching down keeping me from doing
> something stupid.

And you learned well, Don. We could always count on a good run with you. Don't we all wish we could still be doing it?

Mark

Dunscomb's book "A Century of Southern Pacific Steam Locomotives," is a classic!

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

When the heck are they going to invent the "Way-Back" machine? Would love to travel here!

Steve Mitchell
http://www.yardgoatimages.com

So long ago - yet 4449 hadn't even been built yet!

Stan

Frisco1522 Wrote:
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What a crock! The Wabash, Big Four and
> NKP still had steam, but in no time went diesel.
> I still hate diesels.


I was born much too late to have ever seen main line steam, but I remember excursions where the steam engine was pulled at the last minute. The most frustrating time was when I was riding a New Georgia Railroad Atlanta loop trip behind S&A 750. 750 was on the point when I got on board. The train started moving and I looked out the window only to see 750 sitting on the adjacent track. A last minute mechanical problem had cause them to pull the 750 and replace it with former southern railway E8 #6901. (At least it was a classic diesel). Diesels became a pet peeve for me after that.

My father told me the whole story of desalinization, so I already saw diesels in a dim light. He would take me out on the bridge over Inman Yard in Atlanta, and we would stand for hours watching the trains go by. Even though he told me all the steam engines were gone, I would secretly be searching for that last weary 0-8-0 working out it's last service days. I was so intent in my search for steam, that I have a vivid memory of double headed Mikados hauling a freight through Inman yard. It never happened in my lifetime, but I remember it as if it were real. A vision of the past maybe?

I was lucky enough to have seen steam in regular service starting at a very young age. My Dad worked on the Frisco's Eastern Division and ran from St. Louis to Newburg, MO which was the division point in those days between St. Louis and Springfield.
Even as a little snot, I would nag my Mom to take me to go see Dad "come up the hill" out of Lindenwood yards. We would go to one of three places, Shrewsbury Ave, Old Orchard or Webster Groves depot. WG was fun because there was a Pevely Dairy ice cream parlor just up the street, so you know what that entailed.
It was super heavy traffic back then and we would wait an hour or so for Dad and in the meantime quite a few trains came up the hill as well as went into St. Louis on the double track. I'm waiting for someone to invent a USB port you can download all those memories from onto a disc.
Uphill, it was a symphony of exhaust noise and my Mom would get really mad at me for getting too close to the track. Frisco engines all had a sharp exhaust and it really rattled windows. Dad always said the MP engines sounded like they were working water. When we were fired up down at Union Station for a trip, an old MP fireman came by and chatted with me. He told me he always liked the way the Frisco engines barked and that their engines always sounded like they were working water. I had to laugh.
After Frisco pulled the plug, I would ride my bike down to the MP depot at Maplewood and watch their steam power. I never missed seeing the commuter train stopping there and barking away to accelerate. I used to race it on my bike but never won.
Sigh..........