Steam & Excursion > Sometimes You Come Across A Steam Location That Stumps You!

While many steam era photographs are not labeled for their location, usually that is not an issue as there are unique features showing that help one identify it.  Well, this photo of Southern Pacific #2768 has plenty of unique features in it, but I still cannot place it.  That single stall enginehouse with a wooden coach parked in it should be a dead give away.  Well, not for me.

Let's see how you all do.  Thanks.

Martin



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/21 03:17 by LoggerHogger.

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Martin, another exquisite image from days gone by-!   Note the well-dressed woman right of the steam locomotive.

Martin as usual you always have good stuff to share with us.

I am not that familiar with west coast roads but I can't help but think maybe the small building next to the engine house(?) might be a bunk house for the engine crew? and this is is an end of the line small terminal. Regardless I couldn't imagine a more delightful location to tie up at the end of a run. I have stayed in a few bunk houses as a railroader working outlying jobs, over the years most of them not as nice as this.

BTW, what type of locomotive were the SP 2700s? 2-6-0, 2-8-0 or 4-6-2?

Thanks, for sharing.

Exprail



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/21 04:19 by exprail.

SP #2768 is a 2-8-0.

Martin

That's a fat 2-8-0.  Still in the big headlight days.  I can't figure out what that boxlike thing is on the pilot.  I don't have a clue where it is but its a nice scene.  Probably a Sunday railfan and his girl/wife out taking pictures.

She from what I can tell, does not have a Vanderbilt tender, does have a big headlight, and being a 2-8-0 she' most likely on a branch with moderately heavy traffic with a wooden coach as accomodations for a mixed train. Another though would be is that she was temporarily leased to a logging line, perhaps someplace in Oregon?

That is no logging line.  This looks to be a remote facility on the SP somewhere.  It almost looks to be down south.  Note the somewhat crude living quarters next to the enginehouse.  This clearly is in her early days before she got her Vanderbuilt tender.

Martin

Could this be down around Iselton or Walnut Grove, California?

Martin, do you have a clearer scan of the number plate on the front?  I ask because they, and the numbers on the cab, sort of look like 2789, but the image is just not quite clear enough to be sure. 

I'm also wondering if that is an enginehouse, given the lack of smoke jacks or other ventilation.  It is odd. 

Otherwise I agree with your assessment of somewhere in the south.  There aren't too many places on the west coast with that kind of vegetation. 

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

Then this picture is either in Louisana or Texas then. The big question is where?

Jeff,

Good spot.  Yes, the number plate is #2789.  Now, where the heck is this spot on the SP?

Martin

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LoggerHogger Wrote:
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> Jeff,
>
> Good spot.  Yes, the number plate is #2789. 
> Now, where the heck is this spot on the SP?
>
> Martin

That looks like #2768 to me....

It appears, at least in its last years of operation, the 2768 was assigned to SP's Sacramento Div. 

I can't place the location exactly but some clues exist in a a photo of the 2768 which appears in Issue 35 of the "Trainline", 
publication of the Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society. The photo caption places the engine at "Lincoln Ave., Penryn",
which is/was 10 miles east of Roseville, on July 28, 1956. The engine is equipped with a Vanderbilt tender at the time of the photo.

Martin's photo shows the smoke deflector and the box on the pilot contained a fire hose, both earmarks of mountain railroading.
The article, which is about SP's Consolidations, shows several of these Roseville based engines with the deflectors which came in 
handy on helper assignments toward Norden.

Charlie

 

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/21 08:06 by cewherry.

Txhighballer Wrote:
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> LoggerHogger Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Jeff,
> >
> > Good spot.  Yes, the number plate is #2789. 
> > Now, where the heck is this spot on the SP?
> >
> > Martin
>
> That looks like #2768 to me....

Yes, #2768 is showing in the train number indicators, however they are referring to the locomotive's number plate, mounted under the headlight (plus the road number painted on the cab side).

Is it a coach in the building, or a caboose?   I cannot tell.  

elueck Wrote:
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> Is it a coach in the building, or a caboose?   I
> cannot tell.  

I thought it was a coach, but it may indeed be a caboose.

Martin

Here's a real 'shot in the dark'.

Looking at a Sacramento Div. timetable for 1924, courtesy Tim Zukas and the wx4 website, I note that on
the Stirling City line, (later Stirling City Branch) at a place named Doon, 5.4 miles west of Stirling City, there was
locomotive water available which we see in Martin's photo. In addition to the 10 car siding, a west end connected
spur was also at Doon. Could the track in the foreground be the siding while the 2768 occupies the spur? 

Charlie
 

Charlie- Martin confirmed it’s the 2789 in the photo. Why it has a different number in the boards is one of the puzzles in this picture, usually it means this was a helper or extra engine on a train. As to your guess, vegetation is completely wrong for anywhere I can think of in California. Or Oregon. My guess is somewhere in Louisiana or far eastern Texas. The question remains, where…..

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

Posted from iPhone

I believe the number plate and train indicator are the same, but to throw in some confusion for the sake of fun...perhaps 2789 was a point helper on train X2768?

Desmond Praetzel, "4451 Puff"

Is this Placerville, CA. ?   I recall a story or caption that they had a single stall "roundhouse" and
the local crew would put the caboose in the shade of it while they switched there.
???
Don Marenzi



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/21 10:40 by west.