Steam & Excursion > Last Stop for the SP AC-9's

Several days ago, LoggerHogger ran a shot of SP AC-9 3810 waiting her fate in Sacramento, well here she is in sparks Nev, and its June 1954, and looking like she did in Sacramento, it appears that the 3810 never reached the paint shop, but was good enough to run for art lease another year....these fine looking AC's started life working out of El Paso Texas, but when the FM's arrived they were converted to oil burning and came west.....There was a bulliton released that the AC-9's were heading to the Western division, but this all changed when it was decided that the tunnel at Selby Calif. was too narrow and the AC-9's were excess width and would not clear the tunnel...We were licking our chops when we first heard they were coming our way, but that all changed and they went to the Modoc line...Wide open space, no clearace problems, not the best water, but they foud a home for a short spell.

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You're right, stool. It was a short lived but glorious life on the Modoc. See Bowden and Dill's wonderful book showing these powerful engines, not altogether beloved of engine crews, snaking along the west side of Pyramid Lake. Marvelous!

Posted from iPhone

I am a BIG fan of AC-9s. You mention a book by Bowden and Dill. What is the title? and is it still available?

Jim Leonard
Cheyenne, WY

By any chance, were any of these preserved?
George Andrassy

Posted from iPhone

hogantunnel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You're right, stool. It was a short lived but
> glorious life on the Modoc. See Bowden and Dill's
> wonderful book showing these powerful engines, not
> altogether beloved of engine crews, snaking along
> the west side of Pyramid Lake. Marvelous!
>
> Posted from iPhone


I'm curious--what did crews not like about the AC-9's?

 

Auburnrails....none were saved....SGTIGGS.......That long boiler that the crew looked over did not go well as there sight was limited but  the crews were use to the cab forward where you could see every thing, but they did fire very well........On the last fan trip on the Modoc line, the 3804 was the power out of sparks to Wendel, but ther 3804 developed problems and an AC took over.....I often wondered if the 3804 did not develop problems, if we would have had a AC12 and a AC9 doubleheaded to althuras....

The full Library of Congress catalog record.

May be out of print, but is available from Amazon.

OCV


BOOK

The Modoc : Southern Pacific's backdoor to Oregon

• Full Record
•  
• MARC Tags

Personal name

• Bowden, Jack, 1934-

Main title

• The Modoc : Southern Pacific's backdoor to Oregon / by Jack Bowden and Tom Dill ; with pen-and-ink illustrations by Jack Bowden.

Published/Created

• Hamilton, MT : Oso Pub. Co., c2002.

Request this Item   Â LC Find It Where to RequestMore InformationLCCN Permalink

• https://lccn.loc.gov/2002029048

Description

• x, 336 p. : ill. ; 29 cm.

ISBN

• 1931064091

LC classification (full)

• TF25.S668 B69 2002

LC classification (partial)

• TF25.S668

Related names

• Dill, Tom.

Subjects

• Southern Pacific Railroad Company.
• Railroads--California.

Notes

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 306) and index.

LCCN

• 2002029048

Dewey class no.

• 385/.09794/2

Geographic area code

• n-us-ca

Type of material

• Book
•  

Thanks for the info.
Jim Leonard
Cheyenne, WY

Barstool Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> ...these fine looking AC's started life
> working out of El Paso Texas, but when the FM's
> arrived they were converted to oil burning and
> came west.

The conversion to oil came in 1950 when the Dawson coal contract expired in 1949. It was not brought about because of Diesels as the 3800s ran on the Rio Grande Division as oil burners for 3 years.  But it was the Diesels that bumped them off the Rio Grande Division 1953, except 3800, which was scrapped at El Paso in 1953 and did not make the trip west.

>....There was a bulliton released that
> the AC-9's were heading to the Western division,
> but this all changed when it was decided that the
> tunnel at Selby Calif. was too narrow and the
> AC-9's were excess width and would not clear the
> tunnel..

This is perplexing because the Western Division Special Instructions No. 5, September 27, 1953 shows no such restrictions for the 3800s and they are listed in the tonnage tables, which was defacto authorization to operate on the Martinez Subdivision. In fact, the Special Instructions has already noted the fact that 3800 was no longer on the roster by listing 3801 to 3811. An AC-9 was allowed 9150 tons between Oakland and Martinez.

I'll have to say that you certainly got around as a young man.  Not many people can say they saw one of perhaps the best looking steam locomotive ever built. A shame none were saved, no matter how obscure they were as a locomotive on the SP.

 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/17 08:09 by BCHellman.

I still remember my dad showing me a picture of a "Gila Monster" when I was 9. One of my favorites.