Steam & Excursion > Monahans, Tx. surprise

I had heard that T&P was using some 900 4-8-2's on the Texas-New Mexico RR from Monahans, Tx to Loving NM.in  1950. T&P owned the T-NM.   I discounted that for a couple of reasons.  # 1 steam had been basically killed from Big Spring Tx and west. in June 1949 when a large number of F-7 diesels arrived and more would come in 1950, 1951, and 1952. T&P dieselized the Big Spring to El Paso route first.   Every couple of months a steam engine might go through on a passenger train but that was rare. It didn't seem to make sense that a 73" driver 4-8-2 would be used on freight on that T-NM  line due to the heavy trains hauled on it.  2-10-2's had been used but they were taken off the roster about late 1947 with a only a  few lasting into 1949. No photos ever were seen of 900's there either.

When a friend told me  he had a negative marked Monahans July 8 1950 of a T&P 4-8-2  I was  surprised, no stunned would be a better word..  Something I had tried to confirm for years just falls into my lap at this late date some 66 years later.  How lucky can one get? Well, here she is  class M-1  #901 with a 10000 gallon aux water car tied to her tender resting in the T-NM yard in Monahans.

Now you may ask why wouldn't they be using 2-10-4's?  Track would not take them and besides the arrivals of F7's  in 1949 caused about 25 of them to be retired and as their flu times ran out and  more were to come.  4-8-2 engines did not run out of flu time until Aug 1953 (although none ran after after about Oct 1951. They were kept as protection power and never used).
I thought my years of getting new pictures and information ended years ago only to have this lucky thing happen.  Just makes me wonder if there are any other surprises out there I have not discovered.

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Few yaears ago just east of Wink, TX which is north of Monahans which is about 45 miles west of Odessa, TX in the panhandle..
Wink is home to, I think, now worlds largest sinkhole.
Where Roy Orbison grew up..

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I had always heard Washington D.C. was the world's biggest sinkhole?

Frisco1522 Wrote:
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> I had always heard Washington D.C. was the world's
> biggest sinkhole?

I think you mean Largest CESSPOOL!!!!

Mike

2720 Wrote:
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> Frisco1522 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I had always heard Washington D.C. was the
> world's
> > biggest sinkhole?
>
> I think you mean Largest CESSPOOL!!!!
>
> Mike

Where's the "LIKE" button?
 

Bob Callahan
Monticello, IN

Thanks for bringing more T&P gems to TO.

Thanks Tom, for more great stuff on the T&P.     I moved to Texas after the T&P was mopped up, and in the wrong part of the state even, but thanks to you, I have become a really rabid T&P fan.
 

Seems to me the T&P 610 made an Oh Dark Thirty service stop at Monahans in American Freedom Train service.  I don't have pics, but maybe someone else does.

No, 610 did not go west of Ft Worth.  Hope my memory is correct that the freedom train did not travel the T&P from Ft Worth to El Paso.

tomstp Wrote:
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> No, 610 did not go west of Ft Worth.  Hope my
> memory is correct that the freedom train did not
> travel the T&P from Ft Worth to El Paso.

Ah, well it was a while ago.  I should start writing things down.  Maybe Boiling Man remembers ....