Steam & Excursion > Sometimes Even A Proud Locomotive Became Just A Parts Source!

As the builders of steam locomotives shifted entirely to the production and sale of diesel motive power, they did not continue to stock the endless parts needed for the steam locomotives they had turned out for the many decades before.  This left all railroads that still operated steam motive power with the dilemma of where to find replacement parts to keep their steam motive power in service.  Sometimes the answer came in the fleet of steam power they already had on hand.

Out behind the AT&SF shops in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1951 we see a pair of Santa Fe steam locomotives who have been assigned the task of keeping their sister locomotives in service with the spare parts that they can contribute to that cause.

In the foreground we see the once proud 2-10-2 #1676 that has clearly been donating her parts to other active steam locomotives for some time now.  Soon she will have nothing left to donate and she will be finally stricken from the roster and sold off for scrap.  For now she still has a purpose, even if it is simply as a parts donor.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/20 00:34 by LoggerHogger.

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Interesting, my ATSF bell is from 1679.   I'd wager this is the only Santa Fe steam loco bell in Chile.....lol

masterphots Wrote:
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> Interesting, my ATSF bell is from 1679.   I'd
> wager this is the only Santa Fe steam loco bell in
> Chile.....lol

Alan,

I would wager you are right.

Martin

I look at pictures of engines being scrapped and dead waiting to go to scrap and see all the things we would have killed for when restoring 1522.  Any appliance, gauge, class light, air pump, injectors and check valves by the boxcar load.  Sorry to see it go and think it could have been a life support bank for her.

ATSF 2-10-2 1676 was taken out of service for the last time at Winslow, AZ on June 23, 1950.  It was "held for disposition" for almost two years before finally being stricken from the roster in March 1952 and sold for scrap to Luria Bros. on August 31, 1952. 

The tall smokestack on the left belonged to the powerhouse for the Albuquerque Shops.  It was torn down in 1984, and the roundhouse fell in 1987.  Thankfully, most of the rest of the shop complex still exists, including the brick building in the background:

https://goo.gl/maps/WnhybrNSfqzj78Q49

I'd venture to guess that 1676's parted-out appearance was due more to thrift than necessity.  Why buy new parts when you can take parts off an engine that's going to scrap anyway and recondition them?  Meanwhile, Santa Fe was still buying the stuff they couldn't take off old locomotives, like brand-new carbon steel boilers to replace the crack-prone nickel steel boilers on the 3776-class 4-8-4's.  The Albuquerque Shops were installing these new boiler shells even as 1676 sat forlornly out back awaiting its fate.  The shops continued overhauling steam until March 1954.