Steam & Excursion > With Only 12 Years Of Service This Fleet Was Still Impressive!

In 1938, the Western Pacific purchased seven 4-6-6-4 articulated locomotives to work exclusively between Salt Lake City, Utah and Elko, Nevada.  These were rostered as WP #401 - #407.  Each of these giants were built by ALCO to be coal burners given the territory they were assigned.

These were powerful locomotives.  Each produced 99,600 lbs of tractive effort.  They carried 25 tons of coal and 22,000 gallons of water.  They operated at 265 lbs of boiler pressure.  They were designed to operate on a maximum of 20-degrees of track curvature.

While these locomotives helped the Western Pacific handle the heavy freight traffic of WW-2 and the years after the war, they were all retired off the WP roster by 1950 when the WP converted to diesel power.  This gave this fleet of 7 giants only 12 years of operation, far less than they were designed to handle.

Here, in August of 1949, Guy Dunscomb captures on film, the last of these 4-6-6-4's departing Wells, Nevada with a long freight train.  Sadly, by November of 1950, she will off the roster for good and in 1952 she will be sold to be scrapped in San Francisco. 

Martin



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/20 07:22 by LoggerHogger.

---

This photo and a going-away view of just the 407 appear on page 290 of Dunscomb & Stindt's Western Pacific Steam Locomotives, Passenger Trains and Cars.  It appears to be the same train as in these old threads:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,4165553
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,4166177

Oh how I wish I could have seen and heard one of these guys rounding Arnolds Loop in eastern Nevada!

Dick Ebright
Rochester, Minnesota

The second car, looks to be a reefer, has one swing door open. Make a interesting car to model.

Posted from Android

Just looks burly and badass.  Thanks for posting.

I've seen at least one photo showing one of the WP 4-6-6-4s passing Deep Creek Railroad's tiny 2-8-0 2 in Wendover just months before 2 was retired.  The difference in size is astonishing.

Z

zephyrus Wrote:

> I've seen at least one photo showing one of the WP
> 4-6-6-4s passing Deep Creek Railroad's tiny 2-8-0
> 2 in Wendover just months before 2 was retired. 
> The difference in size is astonishing.
>
> Z

You may be thinking of this photo.

Martin

---

Does the Deep Creek locomotive survive?

LoggerHogger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> You may be thinking of this photo.
>
> Martin

Thanks Martin!  Could be, although I thought it was #2.  Still, WP 122 wasn't much different in size.  Quite a difference with the 4-6-6-4 for sure!

And to answer the post above, no, DC 2 nor WP 122 survive, unfortunately.  DC 2 was a former Rio Grande system engine and WP 122 was built for the Alameda and San Joaquin.  Would have been very nice if one or both had escaped the scrapper.

Z

LoggerHogger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> zephyrus Wrote:
>
> > I've seen at least one photo showing one of the
> WP
> > 4-6-6-4s passing Deep Creek Railroad's tiny
> 2-8-0
> > 2 in Wendover just months before 2 was
> retired. 
> > The difference in size is astonishing.
> >
> > Z
>
> You may be thinking of this photo.
>
> Martin

That is an amazing comparison Martin, enjoyed this thread. We stopped at the park in Wells on trips to Utah from California when I was a kid. Too bad we didn’t see trains like this!

Nathan

Posted from iPhone