Steam & Excursion > S.P. #2472 on the Peninsula & S.F. in the mid 1990's.

The #2472 made its maiden run after restoration from Hunters Point in San Francisco one day before the beginning of Railfair, 1991. It was very active on the Peninsula and the Cal. P. for over 5 years before a bearing problem developed on a backwards run from Gilroy to turn the engine. In 1996, Microsoft chartered the #2472 and a ten car train to do several runs up and down the Peninsula to record sounds for a new game. Margaret (SP Fan) Monroe who worked tirelessly on the #2472 will correct any mistakes I make here. GGRM was able to run a number of excursions during this period. Several of those runs are recorded here. The first image is shortly after the UP merger and was probably the last time that an operating ex-SP steam engine will pass another on the Peninsula. #2467 in on the a yard track, awaiting a move to Hunters Point after its ill fated trip to the Sierra Railroad. The second photo shows the #2472 northbound in the Redwoods at Palo Alto just about to cross the the thru Truss bridge over San Fransquito Crrek. The final shot is a northbound run, minus a "dismal" as Margret called them, about to enter the Tunnel under Potrero Hill destined for Fourth and Townsend. Text and Photos by Mike Pechner, COPYRIGHTED 2012

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Here is another photo of the P-8 4-6-2 headed into the Mission Bay Yard to be wyed so it can back up into Fourth and Townsend Station.. Finally, here is a picture of Margret and her favorite engine on the Carrol St. lead, ready to enter the mainline after the passage of Caltrain. I have not photoshopped any of these, so if someone wants to do that and resubmit, you have my permission. My notes tell I used Kodak 400 and shot at F-22 at 500 of a sec.

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Thanks, Mike, for the mentions!

About the '72 beiing run for Microsoft:
I don't remember that at all. What I do
remember is that the '72 ran up and back
at the RR east end of Bayshore Yard during
the 1992 NRHS convention -- to record her
beautiful whistle, etc., for -- I thought --
Lionel. But I could be wrong about just who
those recordings were for. That is, after all,
22 years ago, and I have forgotten a lot of
stuff.

I LOVE the photo of the 2472 passing the 2467
in Redwood Yard! VERY nice, as usual. That one
is my favorite of all of them, along with the
close-up of the 2472.

I must apologize for getting in your way for
that great photo of the '72 and Caltrain at the
Carroll St (Coca Cola plant) lead. Someone
really should PhotoShop me out of that photo --
it would be a much better photo without me in
the way. I would not have minded being ion that
pic had I been much father away and had there
also been a lot of other people in the photo --
which would have showed what a huge people-
magnet steam locomotives almost always are.

(BTW -- I rarely call diesels "dismals".)

weather Wrote:

> The first image is shortly after the UP merger and was
> probably the last time that an operating ex-SP
> steam engine will pass another on the Peninsula.
> #2467 in on the a yard track, awaiting a move to
> Hunters Point after its ill fated trip to the
> Sierra Railroad.

This was probably October 14, 2001. The 2467 came back west from Stockton to Warm Springs on 9/30/01. I don't know when it moved from there to the peninsula, but 2472 did a test run on the peninsula on 10/14/01, and the consist shown matches other photos of that run:

http://w3.the-kgb.com/dante/rail/rrpics8.html

It's hard to tell, but photo 2 is probably the same trip (the economy baggage has matching scuff marks).

http://w3.the-kgb.com/dante/rail/2472/PA140293.JPG

Some threads about this 10/14/01 test run are still in the archives, but the photos are not:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,90098
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,89927

> The final shot is a northbound
> run, minus a "dismal" as Margret called them,
> about to enter the Tunnel under Potrero Hill
> destined for Fourth and Townsend.

Photo 3 appears to show a "hush-hush" September 2, 2002 run reported by shed47 in this old thread:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,169670

> Here is another photo of the P-8 4-6-2 headed into the Mission Bay Yard to be wyed so it can back up into Fourth and Townsend Station..

The consist in photo #4 matches the excursions that ran on December 28 and 29, 2002. The sunshine means it was probably the 29th (the 28th was soggy and overcast):

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,2907322

Shot #3 is at CP Army and unless the train is shoving, it is southbound having just come out of Tunnel 2

Evan thank You very much for your research and additional information and pictures. My memory isn't what it use to be. Appreciate the time you took to set the record straight! And to the BEST SP Fan, Ms. Monroe, I purposely included you in the shot!

Great photos and interesting story about the Microsoft charter. This is the first I have heard of 2467 making (or attempting?) a trip to Sierra Railroad - any more info about this?

Thanks for sharing!

Here you go!

Jack Bejna
Los Angeles, CA

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msharps Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great photos and interesting story about the
> Microsoft charter.

I can fill in a lot more detail here.... The Microsoft charter was in September of 2002; I was the one who set this up on behalf of Microsoft, and authorized the check to the GGRM to cover this run, given my role as product designer/business development manager for Train Simulator at the time. We needed to record a large steam locomotive able to operate at mainline speed, and the 2472 on the SF Peninsula fit the bill perfectly. This thread is indeed pics from that day: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,169670

As for the purpose of the charter, we were recording sounds effects for an upcoming version of Microsoft Train Simulator (the "original" version 2). Our sound crew (primarily Gordon Hempton, more on him here: http://soundtrackerthemovie.com/ST/Home.html) had 8-10 microphones rigged on the '72 for much of the trip, and we were running the recording decks from the first economy baggage right behind the power. Our intent was to get various "loops" of sound effects for use in the game - steam locomotive at speed, under load, at rest, etc... Gordon also spent time capturing sounds in isolation (throttle moving, bell ringing, whistle blowing, etc...) so that we could use these in game as well. The recordings came out GREAT; I have them archived on a CD somewhere. Gordon is quite the master at his craft. And I must say, getting to ride in the cab of the '72 at speed was a pretty damn cool experience. We did other recording work with other railroads (example - White Pass and Yukon), but this run on the peninsula remains one of my favorites of a long list of really cool business trips resulting from this project.... I'll have to share pics and stories from my two weeks in Switzerland and Germany in another thread. :-)

Unfortunately, the game never shipped, and these sound effects were never used. I had a load of pictures from this run, but my camera was stolen as I went through security at SFO (ironic to have something stolen at "security"), and I never had a chance to download and process them. I left Hunter's Point to head directly for the airport, steel-toed boots and all, and the resulting chaos and distraction at security as I took my shoes off and other PPE allowed someone to walk off with all my pictures and videos from that day. As a result, the only photos I know of from that day are those which appeared on TO in this thread referenced above.

-Rick

Rick Selby
Redmond, WA
Pacific Northwest RPM



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/14 12:04 by RAS.

msharps Wrote:

> Great photos and interesting story about the
> Microsoft charter. This is the first I have heard
> of 2467 making (or attempting?) a trip to Sierra
> Railroad - any more info about this?

The Sierra RR sponsored an Iron Horse Roundup in Oakdale, CA on Labor Day weekend in late August 2001. As I recall, they invited an impressive list of locomotives, but the actual list of attendees turned out to be Quincy 2-6-2T #2 from Niles Canyon, Mason County 2-6-2T #7 from Roots of Motive Power (both trucked in), and Sierra 2-8-0 #28 down from Jamestown:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,81454
http://www.trainweb.org/chris/Trip_SummerSteam3.html
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,79923,80123#msg-80123

The 2467 was to have attended too, and it left Oakland under steam behind a UP GP50 on August 25, 2001. I shot it going over Greenville Trestle at the entrance to Altamont Pass. From what I've heard, going down the east side of the pass, the 2467 developed "bearing problems," and after a long pause to inspect near Midway, the move limped into Stockton where the steam locomotive spent about a month in the ex-WP yard. Again, from what I've heard, they drained to boiler and reworked the spring rigging to take weight off the "problem" bearing(s?), and on September 30, 2001, rebuilt SP GP40 7116 towed the engine west from Stockton to Warm Springs. Since I have no creativity, I also shot this move going over Greenville Trestle. Some time later, 2467 was towed up the peninsula to San Francisco and around the sharp curves into Hunters Point, where the Golden Gate RR Museum kept it for four years. The engine still had tube time left, and GGRM's own 2472 had only just returned to service following its bearing problems in 1996. The museum sponsored two "double steam ups" featuring 2467 and 2472 moving around the museum grounds at slow speed.

January 13, 2002: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,113530
January 18, 2003: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,1185066

In September 2005, its tube time expired and GGRM's time at Hunters Point also drawing to a close, the 2467 was moved again to the California State Railroad Museum, where it is displayed today.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,991983
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,993593

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Here is 2472 as stored at Brightside on the Niles Canyon RR, shot in June this year. Evan, I remember some great threads that I think Brian Bergtold posted of both 2467 and 2472 fired up at Hunters Point before the eviction. Too lazy to try to find them.

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Speaking of the 2472, does anyone know the date(s) that it ran to Gilroy for the Garlic Festival? I was working on my car at a friends garage in Morgan Hill and remember seeing the steam engine go by. I never knew the engine was running, so I didn't have a camera handy.

Thanks,

Dave

nycman Wrote:

> Evan, I remember some great threads that I think Brian
> Bergtold posted of both 2467 and 2472 fired up at
> Hunters Point before the eviction. Too lazy to
> try to find them.

January 13, 2002: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,113530

kilroydiver wrote:

>Speaking of the 2472, does anyone know the date(s) that it ran to Gilroy for the Garlic Festival?

July 29-30, 1995 for the Gilroy Garlic Festival
May 25, 1996 for the Mushroom Mardi Gras in Morgan Hill

...and then down for five years for rebuilding, as far as I know.

The "Farewell Doubleheader Steam-up" at the GGRM
with the 2472 and the 2467 was held on Jan. 18, 2003 --
the very last day the 2472 was allowed to steam up
under her Form 4 that expired on that day.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,587403,587403#msg-587403

very cool thread and pix about recent history. It's interesting to note how much stuff from a decade ago that is now gone forever.

Does anyone know when Paul Ave. was fenced off for good?

It makes you appreciate that you need to take your pix now because those photo and railfan opportunities could be gone without much notice.

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> msharps Wrote:
>
> > Great photos and interesting story about the
> > Microsoft charter. This is the first I have
> heard
> > of 2467 making (or attempting?) a trip to
> Sierra
> > Railroad - any more info about this?
>
> The Sierra RR sponsored an Iron Horse Roundup in
> Oakdale, CA on Labor Day weekend in late August
> 2001. As I recall, they invited an impressive
> list of locomotives, but the actual list of
> attendees turned out to be Quincy 2-6-2T #2 from
> Niles Canyon, Mason County 2-6-2T #7 from Roots of
> Motive Power (both trucked in), and Sierra 2-8-0
> #28 down from Jamestown:
>
> http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,8
> 1454
> http://www.trainweb.org/chris/Trip_SummerSteam3.ht
> ml
> http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,7
> 9923,80123#msg-80123
>
> The 2467 was to have attended too, and it left
> Oakland under steam behind a UP GP50 on August 25,
> 2001. I shot it going over Greenville Trestle at
> the entrance to Altamont Pass. From what I've
> heard, going down the east side of the pass, the
> 2467 developed "bearing problems," and after a
> long pause to inspect near Midway, the move limped
> into Stockton where the steam locomotive spent
> about a month in the ex-WP yard. Again, from what
> I've heard, they drained to boiler and reworked
> the spring rigging to take weight off the
> "problem" bearing(s?), and on September 30, 2001,
> rebuilt SP GP40 7116 towed the engine west from
> Stockton to Warm Springs. Since I have no
> creativity, I also shot this move going over
> Greenville Trestle. Some time later, 2467 was
> towed up the peninsula to San Francisco and around
> the sharp curves into Hunters Point, where the
> Golden Gate RR Museum kept it for four years. The
> engine still had tube time left, and GGRM's own
> 2472 had only just returned to service following
> its bearing problems in 1996. The museum
> sponsored two "double steam ups" featuring 2467
> and 2472 moving around the museum grounds at slow
> speed.
>
> January 13, 2002:
> http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,1
> 13530
> January 18, 2003:
> http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,
> 1185066
>
> In September 2005, its tube time expired and
> GGRM's time at Hunters Point also drawing to a
> close, the 2467 was moved again to the California
> State Railroad Museum, where it is displayed
> today.
>
> http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,9
> 91983
> http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,9
> 93593

Quincy #2 never made it to Oakdale. Just Mason County #7 & Sierra #28 showed-up.

SierraRail Wrote:

> Quincy #2 never made it to Oakdale. Just Mason
> County #7 & Sierra #28 showed-up.

Thanks - got the years mixed up. Quincy 2 did make it for the 2002 roundup, though, right?

http://plasteam.ncry.org/Galleries/IronHorseRoundup.htm