Steam & Excursion > When The End Came For Most Steam, The Scene Was Not Pretty!

The end of the line for a steam locomotive was quite different than most of it's prior life.  Gone was the factory fresh paint and polish that she wore when she rolled out of the factory to be delivered to her new owner.  Equally lost in time was her neat and clean appearance she wore each time she left her railroads shops after a major shopping.

Sadly, the last days of most mainline steam power looked like this scene taken in 1952 at the scrap yards of the Purdy Company in South San Francisco.  Western Pacific #319 has come here, along with several of her sister 2-8-2's to meet her demise.  To save the railroad's dignity, WP has already removed the Feather River shield from her tender before sending her dead in train to this final destination.

This once proud product of the American Locomotive Company who built her in 1923, will not see her 30th birthday as anything more than a pile of scrap.  What a shame.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/20 03:16 by LoggerHogger.

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You are so right and in most major cities these scenes could be found as we here in the Baltimore, Maryland area had several scrap yards where in the mid to late 1950's there were all kinds of retired steam locomotives, mainly from the B&O and the Western Maryland Railway that were slowly being cut up for scrap metal.
John in White Marsh, Maryland

The problem was not railroads scrapping steamers, they have been doing this since the existence of railroads. The problem became, they stopped ordering new steam power.

Still a sad day and picture. But inevitably, the first generation diesel will meet thier end in much the same way. Its just the way of things.

Posted from Android

Oh man, these scrapping images make those dead lines look like a happy place.  Sigh.

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

I wonder if there are as many saved F units as steam locomotives ?

Another great time capsule from a sad time for steam; oddly enough I have one of the builders plates from the 301, albeit the top corner is missing.  Must've had rough handling when she was scrapped.

Dan

tomstp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wonder if there are as many saved F units as
> steam locomotives ?

No.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

tomstp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wonder if there are as many saved F units as
> steam locomotives ?

If you are talking about the Western Pacific then I believe the answer is YES.

Steam:
#26    2-8-0, Travel Town Museum, Los Angeles, California
#94    4-6-0, Western Railway Museum, Rio Vista California
#164  0-6-0, Park in Oroville, California
#165  0-6-0, Western Pacific Railroad Museum, Portola, California
#334  2-8-2, Western Railway Museum, Rio Vista California

F-Units:
#804A  FP7A,  Western Pacific Railroad Museum, Portola, California
#913    F7,       California State Railroad Museum, Sacramento, California
#917    F7,       Western Pacific Railroad Museum, Portola, California
#918    F7,       Pacific Locomotive Assn (Niles Canyon Railway) , Sunol, California
#921    F7,       Western Pacific Railroad Museum, Portola, California

wingomann Wrote:

> F-Units:
> #804A  FP7A,  Western Pacific Railroad Museum, Portola, California
> #913    F7,       California State Railroad Museum, Sacramento, California
> #917    F7,       Western Pacific Railroad Museum, Portola, California
> #918    F7,       Pacific Locomotive Assn (Niles Canyon Railway) , Sunol, California
> #921    F7,       Western Pacific Railroad Museum, Portola, California

Two more former Western Pacific F7's still exist down under:

#917A F7, Pilbara Rail Historical Society, Gap Ridge, WA, Australia (as Mt. Newman Mining 5450):

https://www.flickr.com/photos/railwa/5539718770/in/photostream/
https://goo.gl/maps/b4PXn2nG9N9vFswG7

#923A F7, Don Rhodes Mining & Transport Museum, Port Hedland, WA, Australia (as Mt. Newman Mining 5451):

https://streamlinersaustralia.org.au/mount-newman-mining
https://goo.gl/maps/tbi3pGGuSRR9vWh7A
 

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> wingomann Wrote:
>
> > F-Units:
> > #804A  FP7A,  Western Pacific Railroad Museum,
> Portola, California
> > #913    F7,       California State
> Railroad Museum, Sacramento, California
> > #917    F7,       Western Pacific
> Railroad Museum, Portola, California
> > #918    F7,       Pacific Locomotive
> Assn (Niles Canyon Railway) , Sunol, California
> > #921    F7,       Western Pacific
> Railroad Museum, Portola, California
>
> Two more former Western Pacific F7's still exist
> down under:
>
> #917A F7, Pilbara Rail Historical Society, Gap
> Ridge, WA, Australia (as Mt. Newman Mining 5450):
>
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/railwa/5539718770/in
> /photostream/
> https://goo.gl/maps/b4PXn2nG9N9vFswG7
>
> #923A F7, Don Rhodes Mining & Transport Museum,
> Port Hedland, WA, Australia (as Mt. Newman Mining
> 5451):
>
> https://streamlinersaustralia.org.au/mount-newman-
> mining
> https://goo.gl/maps/tbi3pGGuSRR9vWh7A
>  

Yeah, I have to admit that I knew about the two F-units down in Australia but convienently ignored them to make the number of surviving WP f-units match the number of surviving WP steam.  I guess it still works out if you only focus on loco's in the US.

The numbers don't work out so hot for the SP.  I only know of 5 SP F7A's still in existance.  1 at the CSRM, 2 owned by the GGRM stored on the Niles Canyon Railway and 2 at the Galvaston Railroad Museum.  There are a few F7B's still used in snow service as snails plus the one B that just went to Texas.  Ironically the two SP F7A's in Texas are painted as Santa Fe units and the plan for the F7B is also to paint it as a Santa Fe unit.