Nostalgia & History > "Bright Victory" on TCM - UP PA-1 at East LA

I watched this movie tonight on DVR and it had two interesting train scenes, the first was a single UP PA-1 with a short train of heavyweights pulling into the UP East Los Angeles station and the second was somewhere back East with Pennsy GG-1 #4849 in pinstripes pulling into an elevated station.
My question for the UP authorities out there is:
Were PA-1's very common in Los Angeles?
It seems to me that in the late 40's and early 50's I only remember seeing photos of FM Erie-builts pulling UP passenger trains around LA until the EMD "E" units took over the passenger trains.
Thanks in advance.
Tom

The SP, UP, and ATSF all operated the PA series of locomotives into Los Angeles.

The ATSF had the famous 51 class and they roamed all over California and were fixtures on the San Diegan trains for years. They also worked the Grand Canyon, and I believe a mail train as well.

The SP ran theirs out on the Daylight and Sunset and all of the other trains they dispatched, although the FP-7 may have been used on the San Joaquin given the grade over the mountain to Bakersfield.

The UP didn't have that many PA locomotives, but I have seen photos of them on the Utahan and other secondary trains.

90mac Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I watched this movie tonight on DVR and it had two
> interesting train scenes, the first was a single
> UP PA-1 with a short train of heavyweights pulling
> into the UP East Los Angeles station and the
> second was somewhere back East with Pennsy GG-1
> #4849 in pinstripes pulling into an elevated
> station.
> My question for the UP authorities out there is:
> Were PA-1's very common in Los Angeles?
> It seems to me that in the late 40's and early
> 50's I only remember seeing photos of FM
> Erie-builts pulling UP passenger trains around LA
> until the EMD "E" units took over the passenger
> trains.
> Thanks in advance.
> Tom

90mac Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Were PA-1's very common in Los Angeles?

Early in their careers they were indeed common on the LA&SL. But by the mid-1950s UP had settled on E8s and E9s as their passenger unit of choice, and the PAs headed to the Eastern District as dual-service units.

The Eries were similarly bumped off the LA&SL, but migrated to the Northwest District (which is somewhat strange as they were the only FM's there. The FM road switchers from the LA&SL were sent to the Eastern District).

Maybe Don Strack will have a little more to add.

topper pretty much covered it.

UP's Alco PAs were delivered in 1947 and 1949, after the road decided to fully dieselize the old LA&SL. The Alco passenger units, and their freight FA/FB stablemates, along with the F-M cab units and road switchers, ran the whole thing until UP fell in love with EMD's F3s and E8s, and a couple years later, EMD's GP9s and E9s. Take look at this web page for a bit more:

http://utahrails.net/up/up-diesel-story-1934-1982-b.php#non-streamliner

Of course, the whole thing is covered even better, including photographs, in my two UP diesel history books:

Diesels of the Union Pacific, 1934-1982, The Classic Era, Volume I
(Withers Publishing Co., 1999)

Diesels of the Union Pacific, 1934-1982, The Classic Era, Volume II
(Withers Publishing Co., 2005)

This two-volume set about Union Pacific's diesel locomotive fleet covers builder's data and dispositions for each unit in UP's diesel-electric and turbine locomotives, as well as a varied selection of photographs detailing each model, from the early Pullman articulated trains and early EMC E units and giant GE-built gas turbines to the varied EMD SD40-2 fleet that moved transcontinental freight into the 1980s.

Volume I has 224 pages; 308 black & white photographs; abbreviated bibliography; 14-page 1934-1982 chronology of Union Pacific diesel locomotives; four-page summary of road numbers, with years in service; four-page summary of locomotive model quantities; 40-page history of Union Pacific dieselization; 153-page unit-by-unit roster of Union Pacific diesel and turbine locomotives numbered from 1 to 999. (ISBN 1-881411-24-9)

Volume II has 176 pages; 257 black & white photographs; 73 color photographs; 12-page summary of Union Pacific diesel locomotive paint schemes and lettering for the 1934-1982 era; abbreviated bibliography; four-page summary of road numbers, with years in service; 129-page unit-by-unit roster of Union Pacific diesel locomotives numbered from 1000 to 903999. (ISBN 1-881411-29-X)

Both books are available from the publisher ( http://www.witherspublishing.com ) and from fine booksellers and hobby shops everywhere. I like Karen's Books for my on-line purchases because of their excellent speed and service.

Don Strack
http://utahrails.net

Regarding the San Joaquin Daylight, this train was dieselized starting in early 1953 using both F7s and Alco PAs. PAs become the sole standard power after the delivery of additional PAs in October 1953. This arrangement lasted until January 1955 when the PAs were replaced by F7s between Los Angeles and Bakersfield and by steam between Bakersfield and Oakland. See the article "Dieselizing the San Joaquin Daylight" in the Spring 1997 (issue #51) SP Trainline (check the website of the Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society for availability of this issue. In the alternative, photocopies of article could be obtained through the Calif. State Railroad Museum Library in Sacramento).

Thank you for the very concise answers, of all the photos I have seen of passenger trains around LA from the late 40's period I cannot remember seeing a PA.
Tom

Living along the ATSF 2nd District (LA to San Bernardino via Pasadena), I never saw a PA until I had an LA Times carrier route that called for getting up at 2.30a. I'd go down to the track in Duarte before heading to the paper spot (where we gathered to fold the morning's new and features) and watch for Santa Fe #8, the Fast Mail. The block signal would change from yellow to red, and here it would come--an ABA set of PA's, shooting smoke and flame into the night sky, with a motley assortment of rolling stock following behind. If a modeler brought an exact replica of a typical #8 consist to a club gathering, it would probably be greeted with comments like "You've gotta be kidding". MoPac baggage cars, NYC Flexi-Vans, old heavyweight coaches, and of course, RPO's with clerks busy sorting mail through the night.