Steam & Excursion > It Was Trips Like These That Made For Some Interesting Pairings!

The routine of steam railroad operations was certainly altered by the periodic railfan excursions.  It was during these infrequent events that one could capture scenes that simply did not occur during the typical days operation.  Here is one such example.

The date is April 17, 1955 and the Sierra Railroad is holding their "Farewell To Steam" excursion to formally end their use of steam in daily service.  The event was well so well attended that the AT&SF had to bring in an especially long passenger train of excursionists to the Santa Fe Depot in Oakdale, California to handle the crowds. The crowds were treated to this once-in-a-lifetime side-by-side scene of Sierra 2-6-6-2 #38 and 2-8-0 #28 along side AT&SF Geeps #2892 and #2890.

Again, this extraordinary scene could only occur as a result of a railfan excursion.  The next day both railroads returned to normal, but with the Sierra being all diesel from that day on.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/18 03:03 by LoggerHogger.

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And a black day it was then and from then on, but thanks for the photo, Martin. Interesting coincidnce as in the past you've also posted a photo of the #38 and #28 running westbound dragging the daily "down" freight up Chinese Hill - back in better days!

Now the #28 is in Jamestown in her stall, but the #38 is wasting away up north. I suspect those two growlers are worse off and probalby cut up for scrap by now?

John

sixbit Wrote:

> I suspect those two growlers are worse off and probalby cut up for
> scrap by now?

Seems likely.  Santa Fe chopnosed and renumbered both of them in the late 70's, with 2890 becoming 2110 and 2892 becoming 2123. They disposed of 2110 just seven years after rebuilding it, selling it off in 1984.  It became the first Santa Fe geep to go to a shortline: Kalamazoo Lake Shore & Chicago #85 featured in a recent thread:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4613422

There's a photo on Railpictures.net showing the unit at a Chicago scrapyard in 1999, so it's probably pushing up razor blades by now.  ATSF 2892/2123 survived into the BNSF era and was assigned number 1330, though I suspect it was one of the units that got the number while sitting in storage, never to run again.  It was sold to Gulf Coast Rail Services in 2000 and never heard from again.