Steam & Excursion > All In A Days Work With Steam, Riding The Turntable Around!

One glance at this photo and you cannot help but be drawn into this scene.  A quiet sunny day at the Southern Pacific roundhouse in San Jose, California sees SP 4-6-2 #2468 and her crew taking a spin on the roundhouse turntable.  The roundhouse hostler relaxes as he and #2468 take a leisurely ride in this time-honored practice.

Once she is lined up, #2468 will be on her way and the hostler will go about readying another steam locomotive for her turn to take a spin on the turntable before she departs for her days duties.

Martin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/20 07:57 by LoggerHogger.

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Great picture.  I recently started volunteering at the Colorado Railroad Museum as part of the track crew.  During December they were running almost daily Polar Express trains using K-37 #491.  So this scene was repeated each day.  I was able to capture it on a recent video I posted on YT.  Just search on my name to find my channel.

John Meixel
Longmont, CO

meixel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great picture.  I recently started volunteering
> at the Colorado Railroad Museum as part of the
> track crew.  During December they were running
> almost daily Polar Express trains using K-37
> #491.  So this scene was repeated each day.  I
> was able to capture it on a recent video I posted
> on YT.  Just search on my name to find my
> channel.\   You Tube?

BAB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> meixel Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Great picture.  I recently started
> volunteering
> > at the Colorado Railroad Museum as part of the
> > track crew.  During December they were running
> > almost daily Polar Express trains using K-37
> > #491.  So this scene was repeated each day. 
> I
> > was able to capture it on a recent video I
> posted
> > on YT.  Just search on my name to find my
> > channel.\   You Tube?

Pretty sure that is what "YT" stands for at the end of his next to last sentence.

I used to go with my Dad to the Frisco's Lindenwood (St Louis) roundhouse every month when he had to meet and "figure the miles".  They would total up each pool crew's miles and this would tell them whether to add or subtract pool crews.   Usually took an hour or so.
My job after roaming around in the RH and getting filthy was to sit outside on a bench and watch engines being turned and put in the house or whatever.  Loved it.

It was always a fun task to turn our equipment on the 126 foot table here in Cheyenne, both when I was on the steam crew and before that when i was hostleing for the UP mechanical service crew.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

LoggerHogger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
  A quiet sunny day at
> the Southern Pacific roundhouse in San Francisco,
> California sees SP 4-6-2 #2468 and her crew taking
> a spin on the roundhouse turntable. 
>
> Martin

This is the San Jose Roundhouse.  Pacifics were the largest steam locomotives that could be spun on San Jose's 80' table.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/20 07:38 by KMiddlebrook.

Thanks for the correctiion on the location.   I wondered if the notation on the negative sleeve was right.

Martin

There used to be a signal box across the tracks from the turntable with a bench mounted to the track side of it.  It was the perfect railfan seat.  Next to the main line and in full view of the service facility.  No one ever bothered us when we were sitting over there.  It's like the railroad put it there to give the railfans a place to be and keep us from getting in the way by the service area.  
I went there with friends back in the early 80's.  The best day to be there was Friday evenings.  We would get there about 5:00 and catch the parade of commute trains.  This was back in SP days so the locomotives would cut off their trains and then come back to the roundhouse to be turned and serviced.  The SDP45's and GP40P's would be serviced, some of them turned on the turntable and then all hooked into a long line of power.  After the northbound Starlight went through around 7:30 the string of commute power would leave heading up to Oakland to work freights over the weekend.  That's when we would leave.  It was pretty quiet around there after that.  
I took pictures but in retrospect I wish I took more.  I kept thinking about how great it must have been back in the steam days not realizing that what I was witnessing was the end of an era.  It was a great show while it lasted.

I have many memories of train watching at this very spot.  In the late 40's my dad would take me there on Saturday mornings to see the Coast Daylight gliding into San Jose.  Sights and sounds I will never forget.

Yes “YT” is YouTube.

Posted from iPhone

John Meixel
Longmont, CO

Great shot.  Are the stalls in the picture the ones they tore down and then placed the sheet metal wall there? 
I watched trains there in the late 80's early 90's.  It was great to see all the engines lined up on theweekend or get a close up look at whatever was sitting next to the roundhouse on the outside whisker tracks.
Such a cool place.  I didn;t take harly any pictures. If I only knew then what I know now....