Steam & Excursion > When You're Stalled On The Grade It's Time To Get Out & Add Sand!

Sometimes the crew's misfortune can be an opportunity for a visiting railfan with his camera.  Such was the case when this photo was taken.

It was August 15, 1949 and Fred Mathews and his family were traveling South on Highway 97 out of Bend, Oregon.  Earlier in the day they had caught on film leaving the yards in Bend Great Northern 2-8-8-0 #2019 with her helper, GN #2107.  I have attached as the second photo the mallet with her helper leaving the Bend, Oregon yards that morning.  The big mallet still wore her beautiful GN Glacier Paint scheme.  As was the usual proctice, the 2-10-2 helper was dropped a Lava, Oregon just south of Bend.  GN #2019 would have to go it alone from Lava all the way to Klamath Falls.

By the time Mathews and his family got to the GN line just north of Chemult, OR they noticed that the big mallet had stalled on the grade.  Fred and his son piled out of the car to see if they could grab another shot.  By the time Fred set up his camera the fireman of the stalled engine had climbed down from the cab with his sand scoop to add sand to the rails for much needed traction.  The sand worked as we see in Fred's fine photo as the big GN mallet was able to start their train slowly as the fireman walked ahead with his scoop and as Fred's son got out of the way so he could set up for another shot.

Wouldn't we all love the chance to film a scene like this today?

Martin



Edited 8 time(s). Last edit at 09/29/15 07:33 by LoggerHogger.

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What I'd like to do is hear that scene today.

Thanks for all the great photos you post Martin.

Great photo and story!
 

Martin write a book or at least a coffee table book of photos, small locos to giant....

Posted from iPhone

Great shot. Can you post a photo of the engine when they saw it in Bend?

Have asked in the past about that but some do not have the time to do that along with all of there other demands of there life.  I hope one day to meet him in person and thank him for all he has done and is doing to share with us here on this web site.
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> Martin write a book or at least a coffee table
> book of photos, small locos to giant....
>
> Posted from iPhone

Probably some railfan greased the rails to get "the shot".   ;>)  

About the book....Seems that it is already written.   Just copy the daily post and plug them in.  But I'm sure there is a lot more to it than that.

 I was involved in a modern version of this same scenario back in the late 80's on the SP Coast Line at Lagoul, between Moorpark and Camarillo.
I was the engineer on the eastbound Guadalupe Turn that night. After making our pickup at Oxnard around 2am, on a damp and foggy night, we were over tonnage and under powered, which was typical for that train. They always gave us "junk power" on that job. As we approached the grade at Lagoul, we were already down to 10 mph before we started the hard pull. Not a good sign!
I turned on the sanders and nothing happened...also typical. As we struggled up grade, it was obvious we were going to stall...the wheels spinning out of control on the wet rail. I told the head brakeman that unless he wanted to double the hill, we were going to have to get on the ground and manually sand the rails. Luckily, the lead unit didn't have a deadmans pedal or alerter, which enabled me to get off the seatbox and help sand the rail...which I did. We both walked ahead of that train for at least a half mile sanding the rails with dirt, rocks or what ever we could find at 3 in the morning along the right of way.. It was a struggle, and the train got down to 2 or 3 mph at times...but kept it moving. When we finally got over the hump, we climbed aboard to continue our trip to Los Angeles... And even though this was "above and beyond the call of duty", the alternative (doubling the hill) would have been much worse. As I always used to say. 'Sometimes you do what you gotta do'...

Tominde Wrote:
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> Probably some railfan greased the rails to get
> "the shot".   ;>)  
>
> About the book....Seems that it is already
> written.   Just copy the daily post and plug
> them in.  But I'm sure there is a lot more to it
> than that.

I was just about to make the same comment. Good thing this isn't 765's crew or they would be blaming and spreading their all to often discontent for the railfans (even though they often partially fund and drive interest in their program).

Posted from Android

Yes, that 1949 episode would have been great movie footage with sound!

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

We have but the 765 crew blamed it on the Railfans!  You Know it could not been on there end