Steam & Excursion > If You Could Hear This Train A-Coming You Are In Trouble!

This is one steam railroad that no one wanted to become too familiar with.

Here we see the last steam locomotive purchased by the Folsom State Prison Railroad of Folsom, California. This line was originally built to assist in using prison labor to build a dam on the American River. In later years the railroad settled into a routine of bringing supplies into the Folsom Prison for which it was named.

FSPRR #1 seen here was built by ALCO for stock in 1926 and was soon purchased to replace an aging ex-SP 4-6-0 that had finally completely worn out. In this 1941 photo we see FSPRR #1 and her crew in the yards at Folsom in the late afternoon of one of their typical work days.

By the early 1950's #1 had been replaced by a small Plymouth locomotive on the FSPRR. #1 was then sold to the H.j. Kaiser Company for their quarry railroad outside of Oroville, California. Today she is privately owned in Willits, California an will be restored back to operation.




Martin



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/17 03:49 by LoggerHogger.

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Martin, a half-century and more ago my maternal grandmother's sister Mamie Marvin and her husband lived adjacent to the FSPRR right-of-way in Folsom. The prisoners were often walked along the track for exercise and she and her husband would frequently feed them as they passed by. When my family was visiting them in the late '50s we were surprised to see stacks and stacks of metal partitioned serving trays in their garage. The explanation was that the prisoners needed something on which to eat the food they were being given. They apparently had no trouble bringing food trays out of the prison with them as they left for their walk but were not allowed to take anything back into the prison upon their return so they just left the trays at the Marvin's home.

Martin, Johnny Cash couldn't have put it any better. .........."way down in San Antone."

Interesting Sand/Steam/Sand Dome.

Known as a dual-integral sand dome. Advantage is that the steam kept the sand hot and dry.

Construction number 66311 of the Alco-Cooke works, shipped to Folsom Prison on November 12, 1926.