Nostalgia & History > SP shops near downtown San Antonio

These shops are the ones that are being used by that custom rebuilder in SATX, but I forget their name. The SP moved out of here for a new yard east of downtown near Kirby TX, but this place used to be busy 24/7.

Con

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The way that y'all out west talk about the SP of 20-30 years ago, it looks like they were much friendlier towards railfans than they were in Texas. They would harrass us in Texas, especially in San Antonio back then as bad as UP is harrassing fans now, especially out west. I'd heard that Biagini was responsible for the hardline stance against fans over an incident that happened in, I think, Arizona way back when. I do know from experience that you had to maintain a low profile around these shops if you wanted to take pictures unmolested. Once when I was standing on the opposite side of the street, ( Pine? Olive?, I forget, senior moment here )from the shops taking pictures, a crew came out of a yard office shed, got into an ALCo S-6 and moved it just enough to block my view of the shops with out having a chain link fence obstructing my view. As soon as they had moved and stopped the engine, they stepped back onto the ground, came around to where they could see me, and I could see them. They then gave me a derisive look and smirked before walking back inside their shed. I was irritated, but I couldn't do anything about it except think about how petty they were and small minded. Maybe that's why I now have many more pictures of the MKT, MoP, and the Santa Fe from those days.

Con

PS Africansteam, did you visit the Broken Hills area of Australia? Take any mining pictures?

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Here's another shot featuring a U25B for those who like U25B's.

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xtra1188w Wrote:
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>
> PS Africansteam, did you visit the Broken Hills
> area of Australia? Take any mining pictures?

Sorry, Con. We did not get into the Broken Hill region and didn't see a single mine. However, we intend to go back next year and go all the way across to Perth, so I will keep you in mind.

Cheers,
Africansteam

When I was younger I always hung around SP East Yard and the Diesel Shops in San Antonio
during the summer months and I was never harrassed or anything, but it did help that we had a family friend that worked in the roundhouse and he was pretty well known in Texas.

I took quite a few pictures back in the 70's and 80's that I need to scan and post them on this board.



SP7615

The RR's on the West Coast varied quite a bit as to whether they were photo-friendly or not. There were times when the Companies had policies about photographers, strictly enforced by the Supervisors and RR Police and times when everybody just waved. The level of enforcement varied with by RR, by location, by day of the week, by the time of day, etc, there was always a way to get the photo or somekind of a photo. The Forest Service even had policies about when and where you could access the National Forest Service roads. when you tink about it, most folks don't want their photo taken while they are working anyways.