Steam & Excursion > Last of Texas and Pacific Steam

What is up all?

I am trying to learn information on some of the last runs of Texas and Pacific Railroad steam locomotives. It is hard to find what engines ran their last miles when they were retired and what are the scrap dates. Any information on this subject would be very appreciative.

Thanks

Alec

 

last miles was the burlington engine they got for high water iirc

Last 2-10-4 # 650 ran Texarkana to Mineola Tx on Aug 12 1951.  Last steam run was class D-10    4-6-0   from Shreveport La to Alexandria  in late November 1951.  Last 2-8-2 runs were in late Oct 1951 in Louisiana.  #'s 800 and 810 sold to a gravel yard  along with a 4-6-2 and 0-6-0.  They were not scrapped until 1970.

Scrapping dates would take many pages to give information.  But basically the retirement of 2-10-4's started in 1949 when F-7's started arriving and final one #650 scrapped in May 1953.  4-8-2's were scrapped at about the same time.  Except for D-10 class all 4-6-0's were either sold or scrapped by 1950.  all 2-10-2 engines were gone by end of 1949 (a lot scrapped much earlier)

A note of interest .  All class  I-2   2-10-4's   (9 of them) were retired with 2- 3 years of flu life left in them .  They were kept in round house Lancaster Yard until late 1952   early 1953 as back up power along with the 4-8-2 engines.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/20 10:24 by tomstp.

Thanks for that info. I think the last runs of steam, along with the last of the 2-10-2 and 4-8-2 is what I need.

You do not have to do all of the retirement dates. What source (book in particular) can I find this kind of information?

Alec

Sounds like T&P was pretty quick to dieselize among the Class I's. Missouri Pacific took a few more years for most of its operations, though I think it had some steam in coal mining areas until 1955.

Any economic factors push T&P harder, such as water treatment or rising cost of oil?

The deciding factor was in 1948  EMD telling T&P that with their F-7  diesels T&P could run a train from Ft Worth to El Paso and save $1,000 per train.  That plus the fact they had E-7 passenger diesels already operating that demonstrated that. Over night T&P ordered F-7's as fast as finances would allow and completed those orders in 1951.

There are a couple of books  that can give you a lot of retirement and scrapping info.    Texas & Pacific by Watson and Brown,  and Texas & Pacific Power by Joe Collias.  Neither are complete data but certainly give you a lot of info.

Attached photo is of 2-10-4 # 650 late in life.

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Out of service, on display at the Texas State Railroad excursion line's depot at Palestine, TX is T&P 610, a Lima 2-10-4.  This locomotive was leased to the Southern Railway and ran in excursion service for four years.  It was returned under steam in 1982.

Alex Huff

Sounds like the T&P was in the same boat as the Santa Fe Coast Lines and the WP. Running through country with a lot of "bad water".
Just the savings from not having to deal with the water supply problems was enough to make the difference.