Nostalgia & History > SW-10 pictures

I was wondering if anyone has pictures of our SW-10's in service. Even in their past life's as what they were before the change. numbers I'm looking for are, 1205, 1207, 1211, 1218, 1223, 1225, 1226, 1228, 1237, 1244, 1256, 1264, and 1276 Thanks

Here's the 1226 that we were using on the stock job (hogs for Farmer John) on December 24th and 25th 1983. The SW10s were quite a vast improvement over the NW2s that we had been using.

First shot is taken at East Yard (los Angeles) with my engineer Kenny Dufresne at the helm.

Same unit spotting the hogs at Farmer John.

Hope these are what you are looking for, I don't have any pictures of the other numbers.-BMT

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I remember them being used in four-unit sets regularly as transfer power in the Omaha area. I was told that their undoing was the application of roller bearings in the trucks which altered the original design dynamics and made the truck and wheel interface too rigid, making them hard on track. I was surprised to see a very long line of them at Livingston Rebuild Center in Livingston, MT several years ago, but I am not one to write down numbers. - - - - JLH

Here is the 1225 in Jan '85 being pulled from use on the Harbor Belt Line RR in the port of Los Angeles by UP's Harbor Local with a pair of exMP GP 38's. This was a long trip back to East Yard for the crew as the 1225 had bad flat spots and it had a 5 m.p.h. speed limit on it.
JB

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3rdswitch Wrote:
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> Here is the 1225 in Jan '85 being pulled from use
> on the Harbor Belt Line RR in the port of Los
> Angeles by UP's Harbor Local with a pair of exMP
> GP 38's. This was a long trip back to East Yard
> for the crew as the 1225 had bad flat spots and it
> had a 5 m.p.h. speed limit on it.
> JB


Nice catch with the 2 MOPAC units, JB. I hated it when they started shipping all those MOPAC units out here with no dynamics. Since it's all down hill to the harbors, you would normaly be in light dynamics all the way down. Trying to stretch brake a 10,000 ton coal train all the way to the harbor at 20 mph, with two little GP38s or a couple of B23-7s was a real pain in the butt.-BMT

Hey Brian, nice shot of the Kenny Dufresne! Worked many a night with him also.
I recognize some of those numbers as 'regular' LA assigned units. We nearly destroyed the 1228 in an accident in the late '80s, the front truck got knocked out from under it in a collision, but it was repaired and returned to service, never quite sounded the same after that.
I believe the 1276 was LA assigned also. I think that was an ex-WP unit unlike most of the other units?
I have photos of some of those SW10s, just need a slide scanner!

GreenFlag Wrote:
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> Hey Brian, nice shot of the Kenny Dufresne! Worked
> many a night with him also.
> I recognize some of those numbers as 'regular' LA
> assigned units. We nearly destroyed the 1228 in an
> accident in the late '80s, the front truck got
> knocked out from under it in a collision, but it
> was repaired and returned to service, never quite
> sounded the same after that.
> I believe the 1276 was LA assigned also. I think
> that was an ex-WP unit unlike most of the other
> units?
> I have photos of some of those SW10s, just need a
> slide scanner!

Thanks, Alan. Yeah, Kenny was great to work with. I also worked with him on the daylight "C"-yard lead job with Wilkie and (Double Door) Davee for a couple of years. We worked hard but had a lot of fun working together.
Those 1200s were pretty tough engines, we sure beat 'em up over the years. Trainjunkie has a great story on how he destroyed the 1203 with Bob Brooks. You out there Trainjunkie????
Bring some of your slides to work and I'll scan them for you and put them on a disc so you can post them. I'd sure like to see them.-Brian

I worked the afternoon hostler job in the summer of 1991 on a Sunday afternoon with Larry Hansen. Yardmaster Ken "General Patton" sent us over to the old locker room to pick up all of the 1200's that the backshop had serviced over the weekend and distribute them between the crest & Spence Street.We had eight of them. On the way out we cornered a 3000 and removed close to all of the stancions and the handrail off of the engineers side of the 1226. Larry went in and cut a food for handrails deal with the backshop foreman and he had us set it over to be fixed later, and take off with the seven we had't messed up.We set four at the crest and the other three at Spence Street and went about the rest of the shift with no more problems,thinking we had got away with something that Roger Spjut the yard manager would just love to know about.Larry had me go up to the Crest later to see if we could get some sort of a quit.Ken Patton asked me "Where is the 1226"? I told him it was at the old locker room.He said "Is this going to come back and hurt me ?" I knowing that the $6 dollars spent at Sergio's to feed the backshop foreman was a great investment, told him no and he let us tie up.

Fredo:

Love the story. Count yourself lucky to get the repairs done for $6.00! Back in '77, we had to fork out $150.00 for a similar repair job. My guess the difference was the M.O., your's was done 'in house'... our's had to be done by an 'outside' private mobile welder! Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do, and think "outside the box."

Take Care, Stay Safe, Have Fun!

Larry

Larry, Noticing the 1977 date it wasn't one to pull one over on your former small MTO /MOP BinLogan as he was still trying to graduate sixth grade for the third time.

Fredo Wrote:
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MTO /MOP
BinLogan as he was still trying to graduate sixth
grade for the third time.

Well, you add new information to the mix. We understood his progress was impaired by the 'sandbox incident' which occurred a couple of years before he took the officer's test. Now, his plight is a bit clearer, and we now can have a small amount of sympathy for him. We are convinced, had he not missed the maximum age (by only 1 year) to attend classes put on by the State's "First 5" program, he may have survived as a 'boss'. Now, however, with the RR behind him, and a new opportunity at Home Depot, we wish him well.

Last I heard, he was back to playing his favorite games... using those flimsy plastic red flags (you know, the ones you tack onto the lumber that sticks too far out of your truck.) to 'test' the forklift operators. He's been going through pad, after pad, of those old "FTX" 'tickets' he kept from the RR.

We all hope he calms down, lest he find himself under a dropped (accidentally, of course) stack of 2x4's! It's a sad thought, but really, didn't we all have a bit of affection for the little guy?

Take Care, Stay Safe, Have Fun!

Larry

He did not qualify as fork lift opperator as his feet couldn't reach the pedals.I had him twice for a brakeman.Once we had to tie our train down on the Santa Fe south track between Summit & Cajon. 31 auto racks on the headend , Manny said,"I'll get the engineer's side".I didn't tie my first brake until the 14th car and thought what luck!We tied 40 brakes.When time to untie them I gave Manny a job breifing as he had never tied a train down before,and I told him that as we knocked off the brakes that the train would creep down that 3.2% grade getting faster and faster as the number of handbrakes got lower.Well as I took care of brake #14 we were really starting to move. I am 6'2" ,Manny,well when he was a babytrain master in LA and was car 44,we called him car four foot four,had to climb up the auto racks to release the brakes and I could get them from the ground.Add the height challange to Santa Fe's over generous depth of pink ballast with it's steep shoulder and you have pure entertainment value at its best.When I got to the rear motor we were moving real good. I climbed on and went over to the engineer's side and turned off my lantern so he wouldn't see me watching him as he ran from B end to B end leaping onto the cars,climbing up to release the brake then jumping to the ballast to do it again and again.By the time we got to San Bernadino he was dead asleep behind me.I woke him at Mira Loma where we were pacthed.

Fredo:

LOL, I can picture him doing that, especially the sleeping part! He really liked to sleeeeeeep. Heard a story about him from a clerk, who would drive him around East Yard, when he was a Switchman. (using the title very loosely.) Anytime you're ready... I think we could start a whole new thread on you-know-who stories!

Take Care, Stay Safe, Have Fun!

Larry

I have images of 1225 and 1226 as well..perhaps a couple more...have to dig down deep in the digital bowels for those...give me a day or two..

Mike

Mike:

...The clock is ticking... (just kidding!)

Take Care, Stay Safe, Have Fun!

Larry

sploopconductor Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fredo Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> MTO /MOP
> BinLogan as he was still trying to graduate
> sixth
> grade for the third time.
>
> Well, you add new information to the mix. We
> understood his progress was impaired by the
> 'sandbox incident' which occurred a couple of
> years before he took the officer's test. Now, his
> plight is a bit clearer, and we now can have a
> small amount of sympathy for him. We are
> convinced, had he not missed the maximum age (by
> only 1 year) to attend classes put on by the
> State's "First 5" program, he may have survived as
> a 'boss'. Now, however, with the RR behind him,
> and a new opportunity at Home Depot, we wish him
> well.
>
> Last I heard, he was back to playing his favorite
> games... using those flimsy plastic red flags (you
> know, the ones you tack onto the lumber that
> sticks too far out of your truck.) to 'test' the
> forklift operators. He's been going through pad,
> after pad, of those old "FTX" 'tickets' he kept
> from the RR.
>
> We all hope he calms down, lest he find himself
> under a dropped (accidentally, of course) stack of
> 2x4's! It's a sad thought, but really, didn't we
> all have a bit of affection for the little guy?
>
> Take Care, Stay Safe, Have Fun!
>
> Larry

I'm sorry, Larry, it's all my fault you guys got stuck with him. My last week as a Trainmaster in L.A. (I'd already given my notice), Monkey Boy (as he was affectionately know as in L.A.) was the switch foreman on the job that switched out Cereal Foods at the very west end of East Yard (right by Soto street) and was switching out his spot cars at the top end of track 210. As usual, Manny took shortcuts, and didn't tie any brakes on his first cut of cars he set over. As the yard is pretty steep towards the west end and combined with 132 ton cars of grain, they're not inclined to stay put. Well as it would happen, the cars bled off, rolled out and headed east for the "bowl". After running through about 5 switches and crashing head on into a switch job at the west end of the bowl, shearing off the drawbar of both the first car and the 1200 that the crew had abandoned in a hurry after being warned by the yardmaster, the cars derailed and came to a stop. By the time I got there, several minutes after it happened, Manny came down on his switch engine to see the damage. Of course he swore up and down that he tied brakes on the cars, while I was ripping him up one side and down the other with every unprintable word I could think of. Being he was already on a level 3, for having the same thing happen before, this should have put him out the door for good. As luck would have it, we had just gotten a new Superintendent, a new Senior MTO, and I had one foot back on an engine, and wouldn't be around for an investigation, they swept it under the carpet with a level 1, which kept him from being fired. As UP logic would have it, he was a good candidate for management, and they made him an MYO. (go figure). And (as they say) the rest is history.-Brian

Brian you didn't have much luck setting out that other well loved person either did you?

Fredo Wrote:
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> Brian you didn't have much luck setting out that
> other well loved person either did you?

I did set him out, once, but he was just like his nickname. ;)-Brian

UPNW2-1083 Wrote:
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>Trainjunkie has a great story on how he destroyed the 1203 with Bob Brooks.
>You out there Trainjunkie????


Holy crap...how did I miss this thread? Brian, since we last corresponded about this, I managed to find a copy of my actual incident report which helped me with some of the facts that had gotten fuzzy over the years. I don't know why I remember any of it though. This was one of those nights you just want to forget forever. But okay, you asked for it and it's a long one. Feel free to fill in any details I may have missed or bungled.

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A Long Night on the 1203

Yep, no matter how much I want to, a night I'll never forget was December 18, 1989. I was a new hire assigned for the night off the Los Angeles switchmans extra board to the YRLA78 "Kat House" job with Bob Brookes, who was the oldest seniority engineer on the division (if not the system) at the time, and our foreman who shall remain nameless. I was called on my rest to go on duty at 11PM at "the crest", which at the time, was the name describing the area surrounding the hump tower toward the east end of East Los Angeles yard. Technically, the Crest was the tower at the top (crest) of the hump. But we used the term to describe the general area on the tower side of the auto tunnel that passed under the hump, including the small yard office there where we went on duty and the track where we usually parked the locomotives used for most of the east end jobs (if someone said, "leave your power at the crest", this is where we left it since you couldn't literally park your power on the top of the hump unless you wanted a free 30 day vacation).

I had never worked that end of the yard before that night. I'd passed by on the main a few times, but had never actually worked on the east end of the yard. I had worked with Brookes once or twice on other jobs but I'd never met our loudmouth foreman prior to that night and I had no idea that this was his first night back after a rather lengthy Rule G vacation. He talked blindingly fast and was jibber-jabbering all night about one thing or another. If he wasn't grumbling about the job, he'd pause long enough to scream at me just for being a new hire (as if I could help it). What an ass.

Our motley crew consisted of me, a 6'1" tall, very cautious and slightly awkward 20-something new hire, Bob Brookes, our kind and mild-mannered elderly engineer who looked like a cross between Ward Kimball and George Burns (including a pair of suspicious looking Coke bottle thick glasses), and our highly animated, jive talkin' seemingly crazy foreman. All I wanted to do was make our moves, get through the night and, hopefully, get an early quit so I could jam home and get to bed before sunrise. I had been doubling-out almost every day since October and I was pretty wiped out and sleeping during the day was still something I hadn't quite adjusted to.

As we prepared for the night ahead, the whole scene was kind of surreal. As with most yard jobs, we were sitting in the tiny, filthy crew room in the middle of the night waiting for our paperwork. But as our loudmouth foreman carried on, all I could picture was one of those cages at the zoo where all the monkeys but one would kind of sit off to the side, minding their own business while keeping a suspicious eye on the one monkey who was screaming and carrying on while swinging wildly throughout every part of the cage. That was the registration room at the crest one week before Christmas in 1989, and I should have known this was the prelude to a night I'd never forget.

The YRLA78 was assigned UP 1203 that night, one of UP's ubiquitous (at the time) SW10 switch engines. I should pause here to honor the memory of the 1203 by at least mentioning that she was built from UP SW9 number 1864 in March of 1980. The 1864 originally entered service in 1953 so by the time this cold, December night commenced, the 1203 and her progenitor had been in service for Uncle Pete's armor yellow army for about 36 years, longer than I had even been on the planet at the time.

Anyway, we finally got our papers and boarded the 1203. Our crazy foreman kept carrying on with his bizarre outbursts so I was looking forward to some groundwork and getting as far away from him as possible. We got sent east out of the yard to make a few moves between the yard and Whittier Junction, returning with two cars that we shoved over the hump for classification. So far, so good.

After a short break, the yardmaster sent us light into Drott track 2 (also called the dirt track, or just "the dirt"). The Drott tracks in East Yard are the intermodal loading/unloading tracks, so-called because the first straddle cranes placed in service there for loading and unloading trailers to and from piggyback flat cars were built by a company called Drott. By 1989 the original Drott cranes had long been replaced (by LeTourneau straddle cranes IIRC), and even Drott itself ceased to exist as a brand when it was purchased by J.I. Case in 1968 (which eventually sold the line to Shuttlelift, Inc. in 1988). Still, the name "Drott tracks" stuck. It was all very confusing to the new hires who were trying to figure out how to navigate their way through the yard with such arcane jargon used in their job instructions. Fortunately, being the closet railfan that I was, I was pretty familiar with a lot of the jargon and with the heritage of the place so I was rarely stumped by esoteric East Yard terminology.

So we headed down "the dirt" to come against seven autoracks full of Chryslers which were billed for the "Kat House", the auto unloading facility somewhere around MP 7 in Montebello which was a few miles east of the yard just after you crossed the Rio Hondo channel. The Kat House is where all the Chrysler products destined for Los Angeles area dealers were unloaded from rail cars. I was actually looking forward to this move since I had done it a couple times on my student trips and it was an interesting place to spot cars. Don't ask me about how the name came about though since I don't remember the story but this is the location of the place on Google Maps (click on the satellite option to see the rail facility).

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&sa=N&resnum=0&q=riverview%20road%2C%20montebello%2C%20ca&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&tab=wl

Like a lot of rail served industries, it was a seemingly simple process of pulling up to the switch, cutting off, gathering up the empties, coming out against the loads and spotting them. But spotting the Kat House had a couple little wrinkles in the process. For one, at the time the switch (or turnout) into the facility was right off the main and there was only one main back then. So as you were doing your work, you were usually blocking the main, much to the frustration of the L.A. Sub dispatcher who was constantly calling and urging us to move faster so we could "clear up". To further complicate the move, they used "circus ramp" style unloading which required that bridge plates be installed between the autoracks to drive the cars off. This required us to spot each car a precise distance from each other and to put a hand brake on each car to keep them from rolling once spotted. After unlocking the gate to access the facility, the field man would retrieve a specially cut piece of wood laying nearby which was our "gauge" to determine car spacing. I don't know why, maybe because I hated sitting around doing nothing (which there was a lot of on the railroad), but I enjoyed the excitement of spotting the Kat House.

So back in the yard, I made the joint on the autoracks on Drott 2, gave it a stretch, cut in the air and knocked off the hand brakes as the foreman disappeared into the darkness along the cut to double-check the car numbers on his work order. I normally didn't like working with those ungainly 89 foot cars with their wide swing on the tight curves in the yard and the ridiculous slack action from the enormous travel in their cushioned underframes. But on this night I was thankful for our little string of 89 foot autoracks as I knew it would take a little extra time for the foreman to walk our train, giving Brookes and me a little peace and quiet aboard the clattering 1203 as we awaited his return.

As we sat there enjoying our little break, I noticed that the trailer dock job, the east end yard job that shuffled intermodal cars around the Drott tracks, had come out of Drott 4 and onto the "Old Mechanical" lead ahead of us. I figured that if they were still there when we were ready to leave, and they likely would be since they were doubling over loads to build an outbound train, we were going to have to cross over to the adjacent "New Mechanical" lead to alongside the trailer dock job to get out of the east end of the yard.

After a few minutes, the tranquility of our welcomed but unfortunately short break was shattered by the jibber-jabber of the foreman as he clambered aboard. Satisfied with the list, he called the crest and, sure enough, we were instructed to cross over to the New Mechanical so we could get out around the trailer dock job. Because the crest controlled the power switches on the east end of the yard, I wasn't sure of the exact procedure once we crossed over to the New Mechanical so I reluctantly asked the foreman. Both he and Brookes took turns telling me to line us up then come in the cab when we got past the last hand throw and that the crest would line us up the rest of the way to get us out of the yard. It was kind of funny because it seemed like Brookes was trying to help by translating the jibber-jabber speed talk from the foreman just to make sure I had it right. Since they were both in obvious agreement, I never even questioned it.

So, I lined us up, climbed aboard and came inside the cab. When I got there, I found the foreman leaning on the control stand next to Brookes and jabbering in his ear trying to figure out how we were going to spot the Kat House. For the first time that night, I felt like I would finally be able to get this guy off my new-hire ass by showing HIM how to spot the Kat House. So I sat down in the fireman's seat and tried to tune him out as I looked down the lead ahead. As we moved down the rail, the trailers on the adjacent trailer dock job cast their shadows through the yellowish-orange sodium vapor glow from the yard lights and onto the long hood of the chugging 1203. I must have been the only one who noticed though since the foreman continued to drive Brookes crazy with his incessant jabbering.

To this day, even though I later discovered that leaving my post "on the point" within yard limits was a rules violation, I'm not sure if my being in the cab contributed to the ultimate demise of the 1203, or if it all would have gone down the same anyway and I would have been killed standing out there.

It was now about 4AM. We were chugging down the lead through the east end of the yard at a brisk 5 MPH when we entered a right hand curve that brought the lead out the east end of the yard and alongside the main (or so I thought). As we entered the curve, my forward view was cut to less than 2 car lengths as I couldn't see past the radiator bulge on the long hood of the SW10. The trailer dock job was along side of us on my side, shoving back into the Drott tracks. But never having worked on the east end and not being able to see past the hood (and assuming Brookes could see without any problems), I had no idea we were about to merge with the track the trailer dock job was on.

Brooks was distracted by the foreman and I couldn't see very far forward until we straightened out just enough for me that the trailer dock job was NOT crossed over to the next main as we all assumed and that we were headed straight for it. As my hand reached for the red handle on my side, I yelled at Brooks to "PLUG IT"! At that same moment, he was looking up from the paperwork that the foreman had thrust in his face, plugging the train right as I said it. The stupid foreman never knew what happened.

We only had seven cars but they were loaded and heavy and the emergency application barely slowed us down before we hit the trailer dock job on my side. Figuring one of the TOFC trailers was about to clean off the fireman's side of the cab, I dove to the floor in the center of the cab against the back door. I'll never forget the smell and sound of the metal crashing together. I forgot most of the sights but never the welded-metal smell or the screeching and grinding sounds of an SW10 sideswiping a pig flat.

When we finally came to rest the 1203 was sitting in the ballast and nearly tipped on its side. A couple of our autoracks were skewed and the trailer dock job was on the grouund. The silence was eerie except that through the whole thing that stupid foreman never did shut up. Not even when we went for our FRA mandated whiz quiz later that morning!

So we all got a little vacation. Our first investigation hearing scheduled for December 22nd got postponed until sometime in late January (I can't recall exactly when) so we ended up with a month off. When we finally had the hearing I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be a "company witness" or a defendant. It turned out that as a result of the post accident drug test, the foreman tested dirty under Rule G so the company was aggressively pursuing a permanent dismissal for him. With the spotlight on the foreman, Brookes and I basically got a slap on the wrist, even though I was on my derail (probation period).

Ironically, this hearing is where I first met BMT (UPNW2-1083 here on TO) as he was the acting Trainmaster the night we killed the 1203. Needless to say under the circumstances, we never got around to introducing our "railfan" selves to each other even though we both had a number of mutual fan friends both inside and outside of the company. As it turned out, I never saw Brian again after the hearing before I left the railroad for good a few years later.

Even though I got scolded for not being on the point that night, I probably wouldn't do it any other way if it happened all over again. I figure that if Brookes couldn't see a whole train in front of him, he sure as hell wouldn't have seen me standing on the porch flapping my lantern around trying to get him to slow to a stop. I probably would have been killed if I had been standing out there that night. Don't get me wrong, Brookes was one of the nicest guys I knew out there. But those old, thick Coke-bottle glasses that I mentioned at the beginning of this story should have been my first warning about what was in store for me that night. Unfortunately Bob passed away shortly after he retired a few years later. As for our foreman...I never saw him again.

The poor old 1203 was re-railed and shoved over by the RIP tracks in East Yard where it sat for awhile before being shipped off to Salt Lake City. According to Don Strack's roster on utahrails.net, in May of 1996 the 1203 and four more SW10s were officially retired. Finally in February 1997, the 1203 (along with the 1273) were sold to Helm Financial and moved to Metro East Industries, East St. Louis, IL for scrap.

Long live the 1203. Thanks for hanging in for the long read. Hope it was entertaining. If anyone has any pics of her either before or after December 18th, 1989, I'd sure like to have them for posterity.

Mike

The last itme I saw Bob Brookes was about Feb or March 1996. He had been retired for a while. It was a bitterly cold Saturday morning after a Friday night of rain. The sun was out and it was real windy as the tail end of the front was passing through LA eastward.Bob was on his way to the Denny's on Triggs Street behind the Crest for breakfast.Bob was one of those old heads who lived within walking distance of the UP East Yard Terminal and the railroad crew caller would send out a"shagger" to bang on your door to inform you that you had been called for duty.He used to ride a bicycle to work some nights.Well that morning there was a lone SW-10 that had gone on the ground on the crest lead from the night before and it was nearly sideways.Bob walked up to it with the LA Times under his arm wearing a Hawaiian shirt that could be seen from Hawaii,shorts,and a straw hat. I was in the Crest pocket and walked up to say hi to him. He was just tickled to death to see this 1200 in that state,and told me it would still be that way long after his breakfast was finished. Mike,Bob was offered a buyout and they had a going away party with a locomotive cake and all the trimmings. The buyout was yanked out from under him.Shortly after that they had him take a physical and found a slight heart murmer. Bob was set out after that.By the way Larry I bumped Manny off of the job I was working that morning!