Steam & Excursion > No Matter The Setting, Steam In Transition Always Stole The Show!

By 1946, steam power was on the verge of it's final decline.  First generation diesels were making their way onto the scene and the days for steam were numbered.

In Wooton, Colorado, one lucky railfan was able to capture the conversion from steam to diesel in this wonderful photo.  AT&SF 2-10-4 #5000 has been assigned to help the newly arrived diesel #13 and her passenger train up the grades ahead.  #5000 is putting on quite the show while the more modern and quite colorful diesel set is almost lost in the scene.

All too soon, #5000 and her sister engines would be silenced for all time and #13 and her successor diesels would be all that is left to pull these grades.  The scene would change for all time.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/19 03:56 by LoggerHogger.

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I don't know what your definition of "newly arrived" is, but 13 and 13A were delivered in 1941 and had been at it all through the war.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/19 11:56 by PHall.

Photographer might have been Richard Kindig or Otto Perry. 

A really NICE shot!!

Larry

Steam might have gone away but that train wasn't going to make it up Raton with those two
dogs on the point.

Out

This site credits it to Kindig: https://trains-worldexpresses.com/100/115.htm

Steam on Raton would last until 1953.  The "Madame Queen" is of course still with us, on display in Amarillo, TX.  The last steam locomotive to operate over Raton Pass is also still around, 4-8-4 #2925 at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, CA.

Sigh........ This is the classic Santa Fe all of my railfan "ancestors" got to experience as it happened. But all I have is their photos & personal testimony. Thank-you, Martin! I needed my heart to stop completely for a few seconds while my eyes cleared up from such a shock. Mercy, what a piece of history! And FORGET the damned hyper-critical nit-pickers!!! If you say a pair of diesels are newcomers in a scene where steam was king for 3/4 of a century, as far as I'm concerned it's gospel...

Lance/199

Awesome!

Posted from iPhone

Great shot, multiple power, as it should be.

Yes a classic shot , from Martin, and may we see many more.
If like a lot who look faward to this type of shot we love them.
To those who dont and are critical, DONT open the steam thread. 

I know everybody is drooling over the steamer, but in my opinion, those early Santa Fe E-Units were the most beautiful diesels ever built. To me, they make a PA look like a tinplate toy.

junctiontower Wrote:
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> I know everybody is drooling over the steamer, but
> in my opinion, those early Santa Fe E-Units were
> the most beautiful diesels ever built. To me, they
> make a PA look like a tinplate toy.

Junction, Both things can be true at the same time.  Funny, if I had to designate one diesel a "tiinplate toy", and another a real diesel, then I'd reverse your order.  Those PAs, while beefy, were also beautiful, though not in the graceful manner of the Es.

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

NIICE..!!

AMEN to your fine statement Lance. Surprised there is only one steam engine helping as the E's normally had slow speed issues on steep grades like Raton. I have seen shots of the early Super Chief leaving Trinidad with a 2-10-2 and 4-8-4 on front end and then pushing from rear an ex N&W 2-8-8-2. Absolutely mind boggling scene.

Don Allender

Actually the locomotives are only 10 years different in age, 5000 in 1930 and the 13 in 1940.