Nostalgia & History > More Commute power on Freight (w/Popsicles)

P-Bobs shot of Commute power on freight reminded me of this shot back in the good-ol-days in Oakland. SP 3207 East leaving Oakland yard for Roseville. Behind 3207 are two of the three experamental Popsicles. If I can remember right, they had non traditional prime movers in them that the SP was trying. Someone Help my memory here, what type of engine did they try?

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dmaffei Wrote:

> P-Bobs shot of Commute power on freight reminded
> me of this shot back in the good-ol-days in
> Oakland. SP 3207 East leaving Oakland yard for
> Roseville. Behind 3207 are two of the three
> experamental Popsicles. If I can remember right,
> they had non traditional prime movers in them that
> the SP was trying. Someone Help my memory here,
> what type of engine did they try?

There were four "popsicles," 7030-7033, rebuilt by MK in 1977 from U25B's using Sulzer engines from Switzerland. MK's tractive effort based model designation was TE 70-4S. Santa Fe and UP also tried the Sulzer, dropping it into some SD45's. They didn't have much luck with it, either.

They now sit in Oakland. You can see them from BART.

Here's all four of them on the wye at West Oakland in 1980, photo by Peter Vonnegut.

Frank


Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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>
> There were four "popsicles," 7030-7033, rebuilt by
> MK in 1977 from U25B's using Sulzer engines from
> Switzerland. MK's tractive effort based model
> designation was TE 70-4S. Santa Fe and UP also
> tried the Sulzer, dropping it into some SD45's.
> They didn't have much luck with it, either.

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Nice! That photo by Peter V. was likely in late October of 1980, when the SP brought all four of them into town on my birthday. Now tell me... Is there a God?? YES! =)

Cheers,
Harry

Dave the only popsicles you can think of are the ones at Spirit gas station in Dunsmuir!

Sam Reeves
—
http://www.samreevesphoto.com

SP9392 said they (the M-K TE 70-4S's) are STILL in Oakland... NOW?...2006? Really?

Mark

mwbridgwater Wrote:
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> SP9392 said they (the M-K TE 70-4S's) are STILL in
> Oakland... NOW?...2006? Really?

Yes.

They've been stored for several years at a former General Electric facility south of 54th Avenue in East Oakland.

There's no public access and seeing them from the street is difficult, but they're easily seen from BART.

The track they're on no longer has a connection to the UP.

Espeeboy was trying to save them last year, but I reckon they wouldn't fit in the back of his pickup.

Here's a Terraserver image of the popsicles' location in Oakland.

http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=4&S=8&Z=10&X=11397&Y=83602&W=3&qs=%7coakland%7cca%7c