Steam & Excursion > Even In This Remote Location, A Steam Locomotive's Job Goes On!

Wendover, Utah is known for it's remoteness in the American West.  Located on the border of Utah and Nevada, Wendover is certainly in the dry and arid part of this country with not many people living in the area.  This was especially true in the late 1940's when this photo was taken of Western Pacific 0-6-0 #166 toiling away switching in the WP yards in Wendover.

Built by ALCO at their Schenectady Works in 1919 for the United Verde Copper Company in Arizona as that company's #88,, she was as the very last 0-6-0 purchased by the WP, #166 was the last of the 163-Class of engines for that railroad.   WP picked #166 and her 3 other sister engines for $16,000 each in September 1927.

#166 proved to be one of the very last of all WP steam locomotives to see service after the rapid dieselization that the WP experience in the early 1950's.  She would last see active operation in September, 1953 and would not be set aside for scrap until February 1956 when she was sent to the scrapper, Purdy Company in South San Francisco.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/19 03:36 by LoggerHogger.

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Great photo Martin. I can imagine the neon cowboy at Wendover looking at WP166 saying "This is the Place."

Is there anything (railroad) left at Wendover now? From google earth it looks like next to nothing.

John

Small yard, fair amount of industry tracks, used to be an out and back from SLC, don't know
what UP is doing these days.

Out

Neat shot!

If you poke around Wendover, you can still find the foundations of the old turntable and roundhouse, plus I believe the foundations of the coal loader.  Some old spurs to former military warehouses are buried in weeds.  And you can find the ROW for WP subsidiary Deep Creek Railroad curving toward the state line and then heading south along the western edge of the old Air Base.

WP 166's sister engine 165 is nearly completion of an operational restoration at the Western Pacific Railroad Museum.

Z

During WWII  Wendover Army Air field was Very important for testing related to the first Atomic Bomb.   And today there is a Rail Served industrial plant for the Copper industry

That locomotive looks very similar to my first HO Gauge steamer. Thanks for posting!

Posted from iPhone

There's the loadout from Ely and a rail served plant for the fertilizer industry!

Out

miralomarail Wrote:
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> During WWII  Wendover Army Air field was Very
> important for testing related to the first Atomic
> Bomb.   And today there is a Rail Served
> industrial plant for the Copper industry

It's where the 509th Composite Group trained before they went overseas to Tinian.