Steam & Excursion > This Important Steam Service Stop Will Only Be A Brief Delay!

While the speed of passenger trains during the age of steam was certainly of high importance, those who prepared the schedules for such trains had to build in time for servicing the locomotives just as we see in this photo.

While Western Pacific's beautiful 4-8-4 #486 was certainly capable of clipping along at the 79 mph set for many WP passenger trains, she still needed to pause from time to time to take on water and oil and get her rods greased.  In this photo she appears to be getting her oil bunker replenished before proceeding on her way.

In just a few minutes she will whistle off and be back up to speed and on her way to her destination, or her next service stop, whichever comes first.

Martin



Edited 9 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/21 06:18 by LoggerHogger.

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correction...

oops ... there are 3 vertical pipes...thanks to the enlargement, it's obvious that
it IS OIL also being added...sorry for the rush to judgement..
W...


( consider the following sentence as being deleted:
"What's being replenished is the water cistern, using the water penstock.
The oil spout is unused, and probably the tender oil tank has sufficient oil on board."..)
Locos always used more water than fuel --- whether oil,or coal.  

Eastern 'roads commonly used ( near) mile-long, 'track pans' and 'scoop equipped tenders.
NYC's later locos had tenders equipped with internal air vent-piping --- that allowed
safe scooping at 80-mph, without bursting the tank sides out.... ( the vent drains returned
overflowed water near the trackside ROW.)

Speaking of cold weather, some folks who had tried getting 'free rides' on the rear ledges of 
scoop-equipped tenders,  got thoroughly drenched in the wild water spray --- in sub freezing
weather that could  be life-threatening....especially at high speeds and the fierce winds....

The pans were supplied by pumping houses and primitive water treatment plants.  Some of the 
pumping houses also used steam pipes under the track pans to keep them thawed
and flowing when temps were below freezing.

W.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/21 06:35 by wcamp1472.

Somewhere in Nevada?

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA

RailRat Wrote:
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> Somewhere in Nevada?

I assume so.

Martin

What a gret shot.

I want to say the location is Gerlach, but I can't really pin down why.  Definitely somewhere in Nevada.

Z
 

> I want to say the location is Gerlach, but I can't really pin down why. 

The mountains match up: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,5181718,5181810
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/21 12:07 by johnsweetser.

zephyrus Wrote:
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> What a gret shot.
>
> I want to say the location is Gerlach, but I can't
> really pin down why.  Definitely somewhere in
> Nevada.

Perhaps this is why: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Gerlach,+NV+89412/@40.6516223,-119.3567677,3a,75y/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipPP9vik6Ima7jsb1EsO_tqxkBdPnqySIfs9EVcN!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPP9vik6Ima7jsb1EsO_tqxkBdPnqySIfs9EVcN%3Dw140-h194-k-no!7i2425!8i3369!4m5!3m4!1s0x809fb25d9546944f:0xd0558e212d1d9022!8m2!3d40.6516223!4d-119.3567677

The water tank can be seen at the extreme right in Martin's photo. Still there in the 2011 photo.

According to the June 2, 1946 WP employee timetable, courtesy wx4.org,  both the eastward and westward Exposition Flyers were scheduled to meet at Gerlach, if on time.
I'm trying to figure which is shown here, east or west. 

Charlie

Since the tank is on the north side at Gerlach, this would be an eastbound train. Assuming Gerlach is the right location. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/21 11:39 by mleland.

Thanks for posting Martin.  I really like the looks of this engine.  Single headlight and smoke wings. Sharp!
Greg Scholl
http://www.gregschollvideo.com

Martin, Don't forget operating stops when discussing service stops and the destination.  My guess is that most stops were of the operating variety, with service stops at division points, or at some lonely water plug.
It might be my eyes or road grime, but it appears the WP ws very careless about the silvering of the smokebox, and, apparently, the entire inside of the smoke deflectors.
Sadly, these beauties had a very short service life.....under 10 years, I think.  They, like so many modern steam locomotives had hardly paid for themselves, and had (could have) most of their life ahead of them whe scrapped.

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

At least they masked the headlight and engine numbers before letting loose with the spray gun!

Acroding to Ken Meeker's Western Pacific book, locomotive engineers changed at Gerhlach until the California Zephyr was discontinued.

Cool looking loco

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