Steam & Excursion > This Locomotive Was Perfect Here & Perhaps Should Go Back!

When the town of Placerville, California asked the Southern Pacific for a display locomotive in 1959, the SP was all to happy to paint up and place on display one of their trim 2-6-0's in the form of #1771 seen here shortly after being put on display.  Placerville was a natural fit for such a display given it's proximity to SP's mainline over Donner Pass.  Unfortunately, #1771 is no longer in Placerville.

In 1985, a group of folks from the California State Railroad Museum in near-by Sacramento decided that #1771 would be a perfect candidate for restoration to operation back into tourist service at the Museum.  While she was certainly the right size for the Museum, apparently no one did an extensive inspection of her as to her condition before they removed her from Placerville and took her to the museum shops.  There it was quickly discovered that #1771's boiler was beyond repair and would have to be replaced and a huge cost for which there was no money to cover.  Thus, sine 1985, #1771 has sat in pieces around the museum shops and is not available for viewing by the public.

While there were certainly good intentions for her when #1771 was taken off display, one cannot help but wonder if they would had done a more through inspection of her before moving her, they may have decided to leave her were she was and simply build a roof over her to keep her on display as SP had originally intended. 

Martin



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/20 04:18 by LoggerHogger.

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Voided, account replaced comments, below



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/20 06:56 by wcamp1472.

Another example of poor planning, from the start.

Mistake no. 1:
Limited capacity of a too small
Candidate .

Mistake no. 2:
Common practice of: “Let’s take everything off, take everything apart, leave parts lying around,
out of $$$ ( no. 3), and sudden lack of interest in completion...

Since 1985?

A sad story, repeated dozens of times...across the nation.

Some ’projects’ are nearing
the 4th “anniversary” of a 15-year
‘Flue-time’ removal period, and haven’t seen the ‘first fire’, yet!

How long did Steamtown take
to ‘do’ ( 15 year inspn,)
on that 0-6-0? 20-some years?

Oh, well..

W.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/20 06:58 by wcamp1472.

FWIW, this happens with passenger cars all the time.  Just look at the dismantled wrecks for sale on Ozark Mountain Railcar:  buy the car, tear it apart inside and out, then sell it.

The 1771 sure did look nice in Placerville.  I agree - count the cost before you leap.

Inbound P'Ville Local had four units, rare occurence, the full length of the yard all the way up to the CP&LT interchange
was used for the move. The two GP-38s ferried the 1771 out of town, with festive flags and many viewers, was all a big
deal. The 1771 was replaced by a caboose and it's just not the same not to mention the ill feelings toward the museum.
Some things are better not done.

Out 

Martin:

Sadly, that does not surprise me. The State Parks system has, over the years, suffered from good intentions coupled with lack of information and suboptimal internal communications. There's some very good people working for them, but from time to time, things go haywire.

Many years ago I was at the Sierra's Jamestown yard out by the turntable, when a fellow came walking over to me with a clipboard in hand and a camera strapped over one shoulder. He introduced himself as being "from the State" and explained he was here to find out what they had just acquired. This was when State Parks took over railtown. I promptly found out that this fellow didn't even know what parcels of land were involved, nor what was on them. Apparently he could find no one else on the property, and made no arrangements to meet with anyone,  so I ended up giving him the 5¢ tour of the entire property. It would have been much better had Al Lehr been on site that day but he wasn't. The state guy was snapping pictures and taking notes while I tried to explain to him where the property boundaries were, what the structures were on that property, what the equipment was and so on. It just didn't seem like I was getting through to him because he never responded with any statements that would lead one to believe he understood all the history around him.

When he left, with what informatoin I could give him, I had a sinking feeling the acquisition was perhaps, going to end badly for some of the rolling stock, stockpiled parts and old movie props. He seemed uninterested in the historic value of what was to the uninformed eye, a bunch of old junk. Thankfully, the state only burned up some of the old wooden rolling stock before someone called a halt to that 'cleanup'.

The iniital involvement of State Parks was disquieting to say the least, but thankfully, over the subsequent years they've had some good Parks people and a lot of fantastic volunteers down there keeping the Sierra's history alive and operating.

John Mills

 

It saddens me to this day that the two ATSF steam locomotives which had been stored in the Belen roundhouse for years were drug out there and turned into derelicts. The years they were in Belen, they were moved periodically and kept inside.
At the time, people inspected them and proclaimed that with a flue extension, they were serviceable. Wash the pigeon guano off and fire up!  This was prior to the 1472 law.  The ATSF took the Northern to Cleburne and estimated it would cost over $200 million or some preposterous figure to restore her to run.  Tells me they weren't intersted in steam. 
Those two engines deserved a far better fate.

And as you could hear from several people, the "backshop" at CSRM turned away volunteers for a variety of their own reasons. Don't get
me wrong, it's a wonderful museum, but there's an ugly underbelly to it as well.

Out 

Frisco1522 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
  The ATSF took the
> Northern to Cleburne and estimated it would cost
> over $200 million or some preposterous figure to
> restore her to run.  Tells me they weren't
> intersted in steam. 
> Those two engines deserved a far better fate.

Wow for the seventies this is an incredible figure. I bet that was only to do the running gear. You should see the quote for the boiler work!

Dreamer

Posted from Android

callum_out Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And as you could hear from several people, the
> "backshop" at CSRM turned away volunteers for a
> variety of their own reasons. Don't get
> me wrong, it's a wonderful museum, but there's an
> ugly underbelly to it as well.
>
> Out 

CSRM is not alone in this. It happens in other places too.

Don, it was only a little over $200,000 (doesn't sound like much today but it was back then) plus any unsuspected problems to get it ready to steam with Cleburne shops doing the work..  Santa Fe thought about it for months and then finally said "no".  I think it was over a year in Cleburne  after the "no" decision  before it was returned to Belen.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/20 16:46 by tomstp.

We all  know who that shop person was, I will not mention names. That being stated when I was told that no one on the west coast knew anything about boiler work I just had to let it go.

Wow!

wcamp1472 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Another example of poor planning, from the start.
>
> Mistake no. 1:
> Limited capacity of a too small
> Candidate .

I have to disagree with your Mistake #1.  The 1771 would have been a perfect locomotive for their operations.  They are just hauling a few cars down the levee for a few miles.  The 1771 would have been able to haul just about any length of train that they would have been able to assemble with their available equipment.  In 1985 they were using UP 4466, an 0-6-0 and more recently Granite Rock #10, an 0-6-0T.  Using a larger locomotive would have just been a waste of fuel.  Poor planning would have been restoring one of the Santa Fe locomotives for that operation.  Cool to see in operation, but not cost efficient.