Steam & Excursion > Springtime On The Garden Tracks Never Looked So Good!

Each year during the age of steam the railfans of the time could not wait for Spring to return so they could grab their trusty cameras and enjoy better weather while pursing the fading days of steam on the mainlines of the West. Some of these fans even had color film so as to capture the return of green grasses in their favorite rail yards.

One such railfan was Guy L. Dunscomb. In this scene Guy has found a sunny Spring day to return to the Western Pacific yards at Stockton, California. There among the fresh green grass of the yard he found WP 4-8-4 #483 warming up for next scheduled run.

Unfortunately, this may prove to be her last Spring in steam as the WP was well along in their intense conversion program from Steam to diesel. Thank you Guy for saving the Springtime scene for us to enjoy today.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/17 03:36 by LoggerHogger.

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That is a cool shot.

Love seeing steam in color.

Z

What a great piece of history!
Bob

Did those GS copies ever run without the elephant ear smoke lifters?

CPR_4000 Wrote:
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> Did those GS copies ever run without the elephant
> ear smoke lifters?

They were built for the SP, but diverted to the WP by the War Production Board.

RuleG Wrote:
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> CPR_4000 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Did those GS copies ever run without the
> elephant
> > ear smoke lifters?
>
> They were built for the SP, but diverted to the WP
> by the War Production Board.

And they kept the smoke lifters until retirement.

CPR_4000 Wrote:
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> Did those GS copies ever run without the elephant
> ear smoke lifters?


Only when brand new. They were put on fairly early.

CPR_4000 Wrote:

> Did those GS copies ever run without the elephant
> ear smoke lifters?

According to Western Pacific Steam Locomotives, Passenger Trains, and Cars, co-authored by the Guy who took that color slide of 483, the GS-64-77 class was delivered to WP in July and August 1943 and fitted with smoke deflectors between September 1946 and January 1948. A Robert Stein photo of WP 483 running without elephant ears on a westbound at Winnemucca, NV in July 1945 is here:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,3594136

(Since that thread, I located the negative and the index card that went with it, which gave the location and date.)

What year is the photo?