Steam & Excursion > One More Steam Locomotive Added To This Railroad's Deadline!

It happened all to quickly on railroads all around this country. A steam locomotive was a valuable and dependable asset to a railroad one day and then, with the arrival of another diesel to the line, she was discarded entirely the next day. That is what we see here.

Since she arrived on the Sierra Railway from the Nevada Copper Belt in the late 1920's, Sierra 2-8-0 #24 had been a regular workhorse for this California shortline for the next 25+ years. However all that changed when, in March 1955, the Sierra took delivery of a pair of Baldwin diesel locomotives. Suddenly, and with no hesitation, the management of the Sierra ordered #24 to be retired to the deadline near the Jamestown, California roundhouse.

He cab is now boarded up and her firebox has gone cold. She will never operate under steam again. Keeping her company is the once proud movie star locomotive of the Sierra, 2-8-0 #18. She too has been retired for good. In the case of #18 her boiler was seen to need too much work and in 1951 she made her last movie appearance and she has since sat out on the deadline.

In just a couple months #24 will be sold to a scrapper and will be towed, dead-in-train to a scrap yard in the Bay Area. #18 will not join her. Instead she will linger on here for another decade before being sold for use as advertising at a Sacramento trailer sales lot.

How quickly these engines change from being necessary to being surplus.


Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/18 04:12 by LoggerHogger.

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Martin:

Thanks for the nice photo of the 24 under less than desirable circumstances. She was one of my favorite locos of the Sierra's steam era and was just third in the Sierra's rankings for tonnage ratings, with the #38 first, the 36 second and the 24 third. She was a regular on the upper division in later years (Jamestown to Tuolumne) and also worked as a helper to get the lower division train over Chinese Hill as needed.

The 18 certainly deserved better than we see her spotted at the back of Jamestown yards on the long passing siding at the east end of the yard. Too bad they didn't dedicate just one of their locos to a community in Tuolumne County back in '55.

John