Nostalgia & History > UP Big Jacks

Up 6926 and 6927 eastbound cajon Pass in 1981

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cs16 Wrote:
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> Up 6926 and 6927 eastbound cajon Pass in 1981


I thought all the Jacks were in storage by 1981?

BCHellman Wrote:
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> cs16 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
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> > Up 6926 and 6927 eastbound cajon Pass in 1981
>
>
> I thought all the Jacks were in storage by 1981?


It could be 1980, the writing on the back of the print is faded.

Weren't they briefly resurrected during the early eighties?

Mike

They were brought back out of retirement temporarily, I believe. This one, though is 1979.

Bandob

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Here's one Westbound on Sherman Hill, August 1984, during their brief return to service.

Bandob

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There was some conversation regarding the Centennials last night at our slide show. The subject was their horns--or more specifically for one unit, a siren!
Does anyone know the truth and/or details of this? I don't know if the unit had a horn for backup, whether this was a short-lived test, or what. I'm hoping someone here remembers something about it, which unit it was, and perhaps where to find pics of the unit with the siren showing...
Thanks for any help,
-Wes

DRGW Wrote:
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> There was some conversation regarding the
> Centennials last night at our slide show. The
> subject was their horns--or more specifically for
> one unit, a siren!
> Does anyone know the truth and/or details of this?
> I don't know if the unit had a horn for backup,
> whether this was a short-lived test, or what. I'm
> hoping someone here remembers something about it,
> which unit it was, and perhaps where to find pics
> of the unit with the siren showing...
> Thanks for any help,
> -Wes


I think that was on the 6936. We were camping one weekend on cajon and just as the train was getting to us this air-raid siren let loose. That was one heck of a sound coming from a centennial.

There was a thread on the subject of the sirens on the 6900's a few months ago. There were several units that had them. Here's a shot of the 6918 at Cajon campground. The horn/siren kind of blends in with the background, look close.

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6924 and 6918 were the Centennials to receive the siren. The sirens were initially on a pair of SDP35s. Sometime in the '70s a 4 man track gang was struck by a train at Don, Idaho, just west of Pocatello at the Simplot-FMC complex. So much machinery noise that they didn't hear the train coming and the train was unable to stop. In switchman/brakeman training in Pocatello in '79 we watched a reenactment of the accident. All 4 died and the siren was tested as a possible way to avoid a repeat.
6902,6909,6925,6930,6938,6942,6946 all operated into late Feb of '81 before they were stored serviceable. The first units stored were in May of '80.

I bet for certain railfans, and the general public in general, they were wondering if it was really an air raid siren when those units were in certain areas!