Steam & Excursion > This Is Not A Locomotive You Would Expect On This Line's Roster!

When one thinks of the Santa Fe during the days of steam one usually conjures up images of huge Northerns sporting tall drivers and enormous square tenders for their desert runs.  Certainly this little fellow is not what you would normally associate with the Santa Fe.  So how did this little 63-ton 2-6-2 find it's way onto the might Santa Fe's roster anyway?

Well, in July 1923 Baldwin built the Prairie we see her for the Mount Shasta Power Company's Pit River Railroad near McCloud, California. This explains the small shortline appearance of this engine.  She was #4 on their roster.

10 years later, in 1933 little #4 was sold to the Oakland Terminal  RR.  Oakland Terminal was part of the Key Systems Ry out of Oakland, CA.

In the summer of 1944, during the War, Santa Fe went looking for more power to assign to their yards near Modesto, California and they snapped up little #4 from the Key Systems.  She was re-numbered into Santa Fe's roster as #2447 and even given a Santa Fe pilot on her front beam.

Her life on the Santa Fe roster lasted only a few months and soon she was sold to the Modesto Empire & Traction Co. to serve another 8 years as their #9.

Guy Dunscomb caught her at Modesto on October 10, 1944 during her brief service on the Santa Fe.  We can be glad that a few photos of her in Santa Fe lettering exist to record this interesting piece of Santa Fe history.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/17 04:08 by LoggerHogger.

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LoggerHogger Wrote:

> When one thinks of the Santa Fe during the days of
> steam one usually conjures up images of huge
> Northerns sporting tall drivers and enormous
> square tenders for their desert runs. 

Maybe, but Santa Fe also had zillions of Prairie-types, so finding a 2-6-2 on Santa Fe wasn't that unusual.  Finding a Prairie that small on the Santa Fe, with a blind center driver and the crank pin on the third axle, WAS a significant departure from the norm, however.

> 10 years later, in 1933 little #4 was sold to the
> Oakland Terminal  RR.  Oakland Terminal was part
> of the Key Systems Ry out of Oakland, CA.

In the 1930's, the Port of Oakland was beginning to develop Oakland's Outer Harbor between the Key Pier (where the Bay Bridge approaches are now) and the SP Mole (roughly 7th St.).  Except for a spur the Key built during WWI to serve a shipyard, the Outer Harbor trackage would be non-electrified, so the Key needed something that didn't rely on overhead to switch with.  They looked at gas-mechanical locomotives from Whitcomb, but ultimately settled on used steam power.  They rented an 0-4-0T from S.H. Palmer & Co. for about a year before acquiring the 4 from PG&E. When first logged aboard, the 4 was lettered for lettered for Key System Limited:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,2013280,2013280#2013280
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,3340823,3341584#3341584

The Key was forever reorganizing itself, and in 1935 it created the Oakland Terminal Railroad as its freight-hauling division (for those that don't know, the Key System was primarily a transit operator serving Oakland, Berkeley, Piedmont, and environs that did some freight business on the side).  The locomotive was soon relettered accordingly.

> In the summer of 1944, during the War, Santa Fe
> went looking for more power to assign to their
> yards near Modesto, California and they snapped up
> little #4 from the Key Systems. 

It was more complicated than that.  In 1943, Key System sold its freight business (i.e. the Oakland Terminal Railroad) along with trackage rights to reach freight customers on its lines to the Western Pacific and the Santa Fe, who set it up as a jointly owned shortline called the Oakland Terminal Railway.  The 4 was included in the sale.  I don't know how the locomotive came to be in the sole possession of Santa Fe, but Chico did provide the diesel power that took the 4's place on the OTR for several years, so perhaps the WP gave up their interest in the 2-6-2 as part of the bargain.  The July 1943 photo in this old thread shows Santa Fe Alco 2300 leased to the OTR at Oakland with the #4's tender visible in the background:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3471368,3471952#3471952

> She was
> re-numbered into Santa Fe's roster as #2447 and
> even given a Santa Fe pilot on her front beam.

That appears to be the pilot Key System gave her in 1933, vide supra.

> Her life on the Santa Fe roster lasted only a few
> months and soon she was sold to the Modesto Empire
> & Traction Co. to serve another 8 years as their
> #9.

The engine was on the Santa Fe roster for about a year during the course of 1943 and 1944.  Given the wartime restrictions on photography, film, gasoline, and tires, a surprising number of photos exist of AT&SF 2447.  Valley Division Vignettes even has a few action photos of the engine working the Santa Fe-owned former Fresno Interurban line out of Fresno, CA.

> Guy Dunscomb caught her at Modesto on October 10,
> 1944 during her brief service on the Santa Fe. 

The 2447 was sold to the M&ET in August 1944, so while it hadn't been relettered yet, it was no longer a Santa Fe locomotive when Dunscomb shot it. 

Always enjoy your posts and insite to what happened along the way and yes one thinks of Big Motive Power on the SF most shots are also of that it seems. So this little guy having ties to the other railroads and such is quite a catch.
Also this year am taking time to go north and visit some of the OR coast steam think its going to be a wonderful year fot it.

Have a question about the logging line that had the incline, I drove it last spring from  top of the hill south following the road bed for the most part, I think. The last streach down to the other gate at the south end was rather steep was that part of the road bed also? Boyd

Boyd,

Are you referring to a logging line near you?

Martin

Am sorry my discription wasnt too good but its the one by Hagelsten park on top of the hill. Did it again, should have looked it up before answering...........oops. Following that road to the top one takes a right thru the gate which puts you on the old roadbed going south past the trestle that is still there beside the road.  If you continue following it south it drops off the hill to another gate at the bottom. It has a sign on the other side which says no trespassing, unlike the other which said just close the gate. Boyd

Since this locomotive is on track equipped with overhead electric power, it must be on M & ET's interchange track with the  Tidewater Southern Railway at Modesto.  

Boyd,

That is the Algoma Lumber Incline.  I have actually hiked up that incline.  It gets steep!

Martin

Thanks much you told me one time on here about that incline am going to visit it again this year. Boyd

As Evan mentioned, the 2-6-2 was a very common wheel arrangement on the Sante-Fe.  There was a great article in Trains many years ago,  (1986 ish)  that covered the "Prarie Mallets"  This was a facinating story of the large fleet of 2-6-6-2's that they built, many from using existing 2-6-2's for parts.  Some of these had flexible boilers, and were some of the ugliest locomotives ever built, but never the less, they served for 25 year or so.  I will see if I can find that issue.  There was also a great story on the Sante-Fe 4-8-4's in that issue.

Steve

SteveC Wrote:

> As Evan mentioned, the 2-6-2 was a very common
> wheel arrangement on the Sante-Fe.  There was a
> great article in Trains many years ago,  (1986
> ish)  that covered the "Prarie Mallets" 

February 1987, page 42.

> This was a facinating story of the large fleet of
> 2-6-6-2's that they built, many from using
> existing 2-6-2's for parts. 

Just the first one, #1157, was assembled from existing 2-6-2's.  The rest arrived new as 2-6-6-2's and were scrapped as such.

> There was also a great story on
> the Sante-Fe 4-8-4's in that issue.

Yup, page 24, and a bit on Santa Fe 2-8-4's started on page 50 right after the Prairie Mallet article.  Every bit of feature article space in that issue was devoted to Santa Fe steam.