Steam & Excursion > Proud of his charge

The photographer, location and the name of the man are unknown.  However, here we see someone who evidently loves his work.  He is posing with Spokane, Portland & Seattle Challenger #905, which is likely on borrowed time when these photos were taken (it doesn't appear she is hot, though looks servicable).

I'm sure the memories of working on these giants will live on with this fellow for a lifetime!

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/21 12:46 by MaryMcPherson.

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Great photos!

Wonder what else we can hang on the smokebox. 

Rick z

Looks like that youngster caught something good off the extra board.

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MaryMcPherson Wrote:
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> The photographer, location and the name of the man are unknown.

LocoPilot750 Wrote:
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> Looks like that youngster caught something good off the extra board.


Though I don't know the exact location, I'm quite confident that it is on the eastern part of the SP&S Third Subdivision, perhaps at Lamont or Washtucna.  I fired SP&S and pre-Amtrak BN Portland - Spokane passenger service for several years (often firing for my father between Pasco and Spokane) but that's been a half-century ago and I'm no longer sure of the location just from what's seen in the photos.

If it is on the Third Sub, even though he looks like a youngster, that would most likely be his regular assignment rather than an extra board call as might be assumed.  Though there may have been an SP&S extra board in Spokane (GN Hillyard or NP Parkwater - which rotated) at an earlier time, I think that by then there were only the four enginemen-only passenger, the Scribner Turn, and a variable number of pool freight jobs in Spokane.  Any passenger or Scribner Turn vacancies (except for vacation vacancies which were biddable) were filled from the freight pool.

Considering the fellow's youthful appearance, I'd say he probably was the fireman and about the same age as my father was when he happened to be first out on the Hillyard freight pool and caught the maiden voyage of the SP&S's first Challenger, #900, on his 25th birthday, October 22, 1937.  It's a good thing that the Z-6s didn't have a vestibule cab like the later Z-8s did because he told me that at one point along the line he counted 26 people in the cab.  Exactly 65 years to the day after my father fired the maiden run of the SP&S 900 from Spokane (where it had been set up for service in the NP Parkwater shop) to Pasco, I found myself running the SP&S 700 from Spokane to Pasco with one of the 900-series whistles on it.

I had a "golden moment" working the engr's x-board at Emporia. Newly promoted, just out of the simulator, I got called for the 189, normally a high seniority pool job. I get to the depot, and found out there were only two rested pool engineers marked up, and they were needed in Wellington for eastbounds. So, they deadheaded them on the train, then called me off the extra board to work it. I caught some scowls & smart remarks, because I was "doing their job" and making more money than they did for the trip. All good natured, and it didn't happen often like that for me.

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