Steam & Excursion > One In Fresh From The Road, One In Need Of More Servicing!

The servicing ritual that was steam railroading is well captured in this fine photo from the early 1930's. The details show just how much effort was needed to keep a railroad's steam motive power in service.

We find ourselves in this scene inside the Oakland, California roundhouse of the Western Pacific. Prominently spotted in our view is WP 4-6-0 #80 just in from one of her runs. She is back inside for whatever work she may require before her next run.

In the foreground we see one of her sister engines receiving some more extensive boiler work from the roundhouse crews. One look around the shop from the tools hanging everywhere to the extra tires for the drivers leaning up against the wall and one quickly sees just how much work was needed to keep these steam pots in regular service.

While these scenes are long gone from today's mainline railroads, we can be glad that through photos like this one they can still live on to tell the story of steam.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/17 03:06 by LoggerHogger.

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I really like roundhouse photos, inside and outside.

Excellent scene. There aren't nearly enough photos like this floating around out there.