Steam & Excursion > OTD Once Again, Shooting 3751 in 1992

30 years ago today, 3751 completed its round-trip from LA to Chicago and returned home to SoCal heading the AT&SF employee appreciation special. A few TO pics of the outbound trip on August 30, 1992, can be found here and here.

Today, 3751 remains alive and well, and will be on display under steam at Fullerton next weekend, Sept. 24-25, as described at https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,5541393,5541808#msg-5541808

Thanks for looking back again,
GK

1.  Just east of Barstow, under high mid-day sun.  (Disclosure:  I cloned out a parked car at the left.)

2.  Passing through a familiar location at Ono with rods down, a few miles north (RR east) of San Bernardino.

 

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3 and 4.  At Colton, as the train travels under I-10 and across the SP. 
 

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Wonderful photos!
Bob

It's hard to believe they made that long trip, without an extra tender.. They must of had to make many more stops for water, increasing the time of the trip.

Trainman41 Wrote:
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> It's hard to believe they made that long trip,
> without an extra tender.. They must of had to make
> many more stops for water, increasing the time of
> the trip.

The diesels did most of the work on that trip

Trainman41 Wrote:
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> It's hard to believe they made that long trip,
> without an extra tender.. They must of had to make
> many more stops for water, increasing the time of
> the trip

As many others have noted, the long trip relied heavily on diesel assistance.  On the last inbound day through Lockport, Illinois, the 3751 seemed like a hood ornament with no chugging sounds.  The next day on the return trip, my radio scanner picked a crew conversation regarding how little water they had on that last day through Lockport.

These are four star images !  Thanks for sharing. 

Killer stuff, Gary! I just alerted a key individual, a current TO member who was involved with the whole 3751 visit back east episode in those days... :^)

Lance/199

The part I never could understand is that they had the diesels available and the old engineer blasted throught tunnels and brought a mountain of diesel shot down on the engines and head end.   Made no sense to me at all.
I watched a video of the train leaving LA and in the going away shot, the engine was just slipping away for many carlengths before somebody woke up. 
Things improved after a time with the group.
I found through experience that the guys "who ran steam in their day" aren't always who you want running your engine.
Had one up in IA leaving town. He'd laid off and wanted to catch the pilot job on 1522 because he was "an old steam guy".  I didn't get a quarter mile before he was laying all over me hanging on the whistle and waving.  Wasn't a pleasant experience.
I've seen others in action too and felt sorry for the engine.
I'm not claiming to be a "professional" engineer, but come on man...............

Frisco1522 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The part I never could understand is that they had
> the diesels available and the old engineer blasted
> thought tunnels and brought a mountain of diesel
> shot down on the engines and head end.   Made no
> sense to me at all.
> I watched a video of the train leaving LA and in
> the going away shot, the engine was just slipping
> away for many carlengths before somebody woke
> up. 
> Things improved after a time with the group.
> I found through experience that the guys "who ran
> steam in their day" aren't always who you want
> running your engine.
> Had one up in IA leaving town. He'd laid off and
> wanted to catch the pilot job on 1522 because he
> was "an old steam guy".  I didn't get a quarter
> mile before he was laying all over me hanging on
> the whistle and waving.  Wasn't a pleasant
> experience.
> I've seen others in action too and felt sorry for
> the engine.
> I'm not claiming to be a "professional" engineer,
> but come on man...............

Don,

That "Engineer" was the late Vince Cepola, who "jobed" his way on to that assignment, and really had no clue. When the 3751 began to slip, he reached for the sand lever, and luckily Bob Kitel slapped his hand away, and told him the shut the throttle down before applying ANY sand. We had Mr. Cepola as a Pilot Engineer on 4449 over Techapie enroute to LA, and he had no idea where he was concerning the various tunnels. Thought Doyle was going to strangle him!

Great pics!!