Steam & Excursion > If Ever There Was A Steam Locomotive With 9 Lives, This Is It!

The announcement a few months ago that the Pacific Locomotive Association had purchased former Southern Pacific 2-6-0 #1744 was welcome news for anyone who has followed the story of this locomotive since she was first retired by the SP in August 1956.  Prior to her retirement by SP, she was selected to run an excursion train on the Knights Landing Branch on May 4, 1958.  It was on this excursion that railfans came to first know and love this "Valley Mallet".

The PLA recounts her history as follows; "After retirement from service on the SP in 1958, the locomotive was operated at the Heber Valley Railroad, then moved to Texas and restored for a brief period of operation in New Orleans.  Iowa Pacific bought the locomotive and ran it on the San Luis & Rio Grande over Colorado’s La Veta Pass in tourist service during 2007 until it was sidelined with boiler issues. The locomotive was disassembled, boiler work started and then stopped. The locomotive has sat disassembled since 2008 with the boiler moving from Alabama to Texas and then back to Colorado during this time."

Before all her years in excursion service, #1744 was a freight locomotive as we see here in this photo of her in the Bay Area in the early 1950's.  While it will take several years of hard work and donated money to bring #1744 back to life, the wait will be worth it for this locomotive with 9-lives.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 11/13/20 05:48 by LoggerHogger.

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Greg Scholl has a DVD out on it, “Southern Pacific 1744” , standard def and Blu-ray. Includes some of the Knights Landing excursion. Gutsy Loco. Several impressive runbys on the SLRG.
Ron

Posted from iPhone

Does the 1744 retain its original tender? 

I had a beautiful sounding exhaust charging  up Le Veta Pass.

czuleget Wrote:
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> Does the 1744 retain its original tender? 

Original?  No.  But it's the tender that was behind it when the SP retired it.  The 1744 has had a bunch of different tenders over the years.  Check out the link below for pictures that Howard has collected of it over the years.  Personally I think the 10,000 gallon tender that's behind it now is the best looking one.
http://plasteam.ncry.org/SP1744/before.html



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/20 09:50 by wingomann.

Towards the end of steam SP tended to put larger tenders behind smaller steam power.
Locomotives that were delivered with 7000 gallon tanks ended up with 10000 and 12000 gallon tanks.
 

PHall Wrote:
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> Towards the end of steam SP tended to put larger
> tenders behind smaller steam power.
> Locomotives that were delivered with 7000 gallon
> tanks ended up with 10000 and 12000 gallon tanks.

The 10,000 gallon tenders were popular for the 2-6-0's, 4-6-0's and 2-8-0's.  Here's a shot of the 10,000 tender behind the SP 1785 in Woodburn Oregon.

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LoggerHogger Wrote:
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> While it will take several years of hard
> work and donated money to bring #1744 back to
> life, the wait will be worth it for this
> locomotive with 9-lives.
>
> Martin

Agreed! It was nice to see the recent announcement that Master Machinist and "Boiler Guru" Mr. Stathi Pappas, President of Stockton Locomotive Works, will be tackling the heart of this restoration - the boiler. It seems that the Pacific Locomotive Association has decided to hire one of the industry's finest for this critical piece of #1744's restoration. I say "bravo!" 

For those interested in more information about SLW or the move of #1744's boiler for restoration, here is a link: Stockton Locomotive Works

Chris Donhost
Vacaville, CA 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/20 17:14 by Digger.

Back in late June 2008 I had the opportunity to wander around the San Luis and Rio Grande yard in Alamosa, CO.  Quite the amazing scene,
especially as I was just starting out to appreciate the latent rail fan bug within me.  I had no clue as to what I stumbled into in a partially open
tent at sunset on June 27.  So just confirming the earlier comments on the 1744's life with the SLRG ... here's three images

#1 and #2: ... the partially disassembled 1744
and #3: ... sort of a roster shot of the 1744's tender in SLRG paint outside the tent work area

Don't have any details aside from the images ... but its nice to be able to put some "closure" on what I was able to capture!

Odyssey
Evergreen, CO

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/20 23:15 by Odyssey.

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LoggerHogger Wrote:

> Before all her years in excursion service, #1744
> was a freight locomotive as we see here in this
> photo of her in the Bay Area in the early
> 1950's. 

The location appears to be between Port Costa and Eckley along the Carquinez Strait.