Steam & Excursion > This Sad Ritual Was Once Part Of The Regular Roundhouse Routine!

While we usually see the steam roundhouse as a place where locomotives are kept in top form and ready for the next days work on the railroad, there was another, darker side to the average roundhouse. This wee see here.

It was at the roundhouses where steam motive power was first determined to be too old or too far used up to continue in service. When this occurred it was often the roundhouse crews that began the process of taking the engine permanently out of service and then to prepare the engine for ultimate scrapping.

This ritual is playing out in July 1938 at the Southern Pacific Bayshore roundhouse for both #1703 and #2267. The roundhouse crews have been told that these 2 engines have just been stricken from the SP roster and they are to prepare both engine for scrapping.

Both engines have lost their tenders and have had their main rods removed as well. #2267 has lost her bell while #1703 has retained her bell but lost her smokebox door. #2267 has even lost one of her drive wheel sets. Soon they will be towed off the roundhouse garden tracks where we see them now and will be taken to a siding where the acetylene torches will reduce them to a pile of pieces to be loaded in gondolas for the smelter.

Once all of this occurs, all that will be left is the nagging question among the other engines in the roundhouse, "Which one of us will be next?"

Martin



Edited 8 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/18 15:14 by LoggerHogger.

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Sad to see, but I'm happy a photographer was able to grab one more image before it was too late.

GUYS...In many trips to Bayshore, it was pretty common to see steam power being stripped on the wiskers, it broke my heart when I saw the 2486 being dismantled, she was my favorite

Thanks Martin, for the excellent and detailed explanation of this sad process.

I have to go now, too much condensation forming in my eyes!

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/18 14:57 by RailRat.

What was the function of the steel arc structure above the locomotives? Appears to be two different sizes of piping going up plus a steel wire. On top of each stand there is something that looks like a valve or spray nozzle.

Terje