Steam & Excursion > She May Be No Thing Of Beauty, But This Engine Got The Job Done!

The job assigned to the shop goat required these locomotives to not only have decent starting power, but also they needed to be compact enough to shuttle power on and off turntables while they too rode the same turntable.  This called for the conversion of regular 0-6-0 tender type steam locomotives into tender engines as we see here.

Posed at the shops at Kansas City in April 1948 we see AT&SF #9147 resting between shuttling power between the shop buildings.  Originally built in 1903 by ALCO at their Cooke Locomotive Works, she was a standard 0-6-0 with a tender and given the number 2147.  She was selected in 1944 for the conversion to a shop goat as we see here with her tender removed and fuel and water tanks added.  In 1946 she was re-numbered as 9147 as we see here.

She served Santa Fe well as a shop goat for over 12 years when finally being retired and scrapped in 1956 after a total of 53 years of service.  Not bad for a lowly 0-6-0.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/19 04:15 by LoggerHogger.

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LoggerHogger Wrote:

> She served Santa Fe well as a shop goat for over
> 12 years when finally being retired and scrapped
> in 1956 after a total of 53 years of service. 
> Not bad for a lowly 0-6-0.

David P. Morgan evidently saw the longevity of engines like 9147 as something not entirely worthy of celebration.  Santa Fe's reluctance to invest in modern steam switchers prompted a one-pager from DPM in the February 1987 all-Santa Fe steam issue of Trains Magazine entitled "Short Shrift for Switchers."  Beneath a photo of 0-6-0 #9105, he lamented that while Santa Fe was happy to spend money on new steam road engines as late as 1944, it bought its last new steam switcher in 1907, apparently deaf to the suggestion that newer, more effecient designs would pay for themselves in just a few years. 

The 9147 was one of the last Santa Fe steam locomotives to see service, and according to Stagner's Santa Fe Steam: The Last Decade, for several months in 1954-56, it was the ONLY Santa Fe steam locomotive to actually run.  Its services were no longer required at Argentine after September 1953, but it got a stay of execution in April 1954 when it was loaded on a flatcar and sent to Cleburne, TX to take over shop goat duties from sister 9088, whose tube time had expired.  She remained active at Cleburne until May 1956 and was scrapped there the following month.  That left only a handful of 4-8-4's and 2-10-4's doing seasonal helper duty on Abo Pass in New Mexico.  Those engines were stored in July, making August 1956 the first month in the railroad's history when no steam locomotives were operational.  The Abo steam helpers were reactivated during the summer of 1957, from June 10 to August 27, and that was the last time Santa Fe steam turned in revenue miles.

A Sante Fe steam shop switcher does exist....athough modified.   

ATSF 0-4-0T #9149 was the shop switcher at Needles for several decades.   She was buillt by Baldwin in 1899 for the Santa Fe Terminal Company and had the distinction of pulling the first true Santa Fe train into San Francisco via the ferry from Richmond on April 30, 1900.    Ironically shortly after that event, the inexperienced crew accidently dumped her in the San Francisco bay resulting in a new boiler from Baldwin.   After her time in San Francisco, she was sent to Needles to be come the shop switcher.

For the 1948 Chicago Raifair, the railroad planned to showcase their 2-8-0 CK Holliday locomotive.    The rebuild costs were too high for the 2-8-0, so management decided to select another exisitng locomotive for the Fair.  The chosen locomotive was #9149 in Needles which was "back dated" by losing her saddle tanks, the addition of a tender, a large box headlight, and diamond stack.    On top of these physcial alterations, she recieved a colorful red and black paint scheme, a number number,(#5) and a new name,,,,Little Buttercup.    At the fair, she participated in the daily pagent along with other locomotives such as NYC 999 and the B&O locomotives.    Upon seeing thier contribution to the 1948 Chicago Railfair, the Santa Fe executives were embarrassed.  

The sucess of the Chicago Railfair resulted in extending the celebration into 1949.    Embracing an opportunity to save face, the Sante Fe executives fully funded the restoraion of the CK Holiday in time for the fair's 1949 opening.    The 2-8-0 became the historic face of the railroad for the next severarl years.  Litttle Buttercup would play smaller roles yet would remain part ot the railroad's historic fleet,

After many years at the Calfornia State Railroad Museum, she now belongs to the Calfiornia Trolley and Railroad Corporation in San Jose.   She is displayed inside the Trolley Barn at History Park.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/19 18:11 by KMiddlebrook.

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