Steam & Excursion > SP's AC4's doing what they do best

The date is June 26 1952 and all the AC4 and 5's are working the western division....In this shot of my favorite AC4 is 4109 working a EB past the Martinez depot and about to cross Ferry St. X4109 east is following train 52 which has just departed down the Mococo line..4109 came to a stop at the east end of Ozol siding and then got the green and as you can see, she is not wasting any time, digging in for the climb to the bridge at Martinez....Of all the AC's that operated on this route, not one ever stalled..The GS's often had trouble on the hill and Port costa would send a 2-8-0 to give them a shove....these were the good times....

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That structure in the back looks like a modeler's dream with the weathered wood and painted signage.

CPR4000...in the early 1960's the building went up in flames as some bum was cooking inside the building and lost control of the fire, by the time the fire department got to the fire, the whole building was in flames and burnt to the ground...in the early 40's, they use to ship bottled water from this site. The engine crews would go to beans and tie their power down on this siding, leaving the train on the Ozol siding.....

Regarding your GS 4-8-4 memories of the hill... fascinating information.
What length of trains required a helper? Were the 2-8-0s put on the rear of a passenger? How close to the bridge did the head end get before stalling?

My Father loved SP 4100 when it worked on the Tehachapi's.   This was in 1937 and all my Dad's films comprise the opening of Greg Scholl's DVD   "SP STEAM VARIETY" ..   Check it out Mr. Westbound !!  (Grin)

KRK

Westbound.....The GS's never had any problems with passenger traffic, but if the GS's got off to a bad start out of Port costa or had to come to a stop at east Ozol, then this is where the trouble would begin.....The GS's would make it to the lift span and then stall, the GS's always got a helper on the rear and would push until the helper got to the second span on the east end and then cut off....Tonnage on the EB's usually ran about 4100 tons.....When GS's would double head with a 2-8-0, the GS would lead as the high drivered engine would tend to lift the tender of the 2-8-0....Now Ralph Buhr got a shot with a 2-8-0 on the point of a GS and its the only time I ever saw it happen...

Great Stuff, Barstool! Please keep them coming. NKP779 in Ohio.

With large ships having the right of way I can imagine a 4-8-4 stalling in the bridge's lift section just as a ship appears headed with the tide toward the bridge. Meanwhile back at Port Costa the yardmaster's telephone rings and the urgent need for a helper is announced by the desperate voice of the bridge tender.

Don't know if that ever happened, but the bridge has certainly been struck on more than one occasion and it takes a pretty tall, ocean-going vessel to reach up to the bridge.

Interesting tidbit about the GS lifting the tender; why would that happen with standard coupler heights?

Kimball....The GS's right from the start are race horses and the 2-8-0'sin most cases could not develop the speed the GS's could, so the GS's would push the 2-8-0's until the 2-8-0's caught up with the GS' and in the mean time up came the tender...I never heard of a derailment, but this is one of the things that took place.