Nostalgia & History > A sea of Santa Fe

A view of the Argentine diesel facility. From the collection...no date.

Adam

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Looks like the 80's, my favorite decade in Santa Fe engine service.

Posted from Android

Now, that is what I call a historical image! Wow!

JCL

Photoshop those interlopers! :-)

Great shot... thems w'ar thuh days.

~ BZ

I can make out 55 units in that picture. Man, some roads didn't even own that many.

Wow Adam! That is one of the best pictures of gathered Sante Fe power,that I've seen! Thank's for posting,Bill

A lot of GE's there. Argentine must have been their home base...

Behind C30-7 8115 on the left is a 7484-class B36-7 with radiator sound baffles, so it's no earlier than late 1980 (the 8115 itself showed up in mid-1980). U36C 8709 became SF30C 9517 in December 1985, so it's no later than that. The FP45 on the right doesn't appear to have smoke deflectors, but looks like it might have an air conditioner. Can you read a road number on it? The 5940's became 5990's in 1982, so that would narrow it even more.

billmeeker Wrote:

> A lot of GE's there. Argentine must have been
> their home base...

It was. Santa Fe used to stencil the maintenance hub on the locomotive frame just behind the "F," and growing up in central New Mexico the early 80's, I remember seeing "Barstow" on most Santa Fe EMD power, and "Argentine" on most GE's. The GP20's were an anomoly, with "Argentine" on their frame, and a sharp eye will pick out several in that photo. Eventually GP38's and GP39-2's with "Cleburne" on their frames started showing up in Albuquerque, too.

Thanks for sharing the photo! As a young locomotive freak, images like this of Argentine made me yearn to visit the place (the sea was calling me, as it were), and I finally made it in 1990. I wasn't disappointed!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/12 01:47 by Evan_Werkema.

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> As a young locomotive freak, images like this of Argentine
> made me yearn to visit the place (the sea was
> calling me, as it were), and I finally made it in
> 1990. I wasn't disappointed!

When I drove over Argentine on 18th street earlier this month (12/5), BNSF did not have nearly half of the number of locomotives in the front as in OP's pic. However, they did have a lot of locomotives in the back, which is still not even close.

Russell Honey
Springfield, MO
My Flickr page

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Nice thanks for sharing that poor Conrail unit sticks out like a sore thumb.

We had a recession in the early 80s didn't we?

Yes.

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out


wabash2800 Wrote:
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> We had a recession in the early 80s didn't we?

Staring at the picture some more, the F45 third in line behind 8115 has smoke deflectors that were added during rebuilding, so we're talking no earlier than 1982 and more likely 1983. The GE's on the next track over have black-on-white number boards, which together with the extended radiator wings means they are probably 8500-class U33C's. The U33C's were stricken from the roster at the end of 1984. The units in the photo have a GP20 on either end, so odds are they are still active and not in a deadline pending disposition. Based on all that, my best guess on the photo date is 1983 or 1984.

What surprises me about this picture is, although there are some GP20s, there isn't one GP-7/9, CF7, switcher, GP38, GP30 etc. Looks like there might be one CF7 sitting right next to the building about the middle of the picture.

I was never brave enough to get a over all picture like that in the daytime due to the traffic. I suppose if someone else was driving slowed down and let someone out and drove off you could manage it. However, I did take a night shot from 18th St Express Way early one morning when I got in from a run,and set my tripod up on the bridge. Virtually no traffic and at least much power then as there was in the daytime photo posted. plus the Santa Fe was sign was lit up.

WichitaJct Wrote:

> What surprises me about this picture is, although
> there are some GP20s, there isn't one GP-7/9, CF7,
> switcher, GP38, GP30 etc.

End-cab switchers were getting pretty scarce by 1983 - just 20-some-odd SSB1200's, one SW900, and the Beep. As for the other types, there are a few hiding in there. I've marked them in the edited photo below.

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Perhaps for a time frame, on the right side of the photo, it looks
like the construction of a freeway or expressway...maybe you can
match the construction date...

I don't know how long the old 6300 class U-23-B's lasted, but I can see at least two, one coupled to the unit with the burnt roof, and one beside it in a track by it'self. The bridge mentioned earlier was the old iron bridge across Kansas Ave. It was replaced with a modern concrete bridge, but I don't know when.

Agt-Highland Wrote:

> Perhaps for a time frame, on the right side of the
> photo, it looks like the construction of a freeway or
> expressway.

The white gravel road with the dump trucks sits atop the levee that is supposed to keep the Kansas River out of the shops and yard. It looks more or less the same today:

http://goo.gl/maps/aP9xU

ddg wrote:

> I don't know how long the old 6300 class U-23-B's lasted,

A group of U23B's went back to GE in 1983 in trade for the last order of B23-7's (6405-6418, which reused the Type B trucks). The rest hung around, mostly in storage, until 1988. Cleburne tried rebuilding one into an SF30B in 1987, but a full-scale SF30B program didn't materialize and the remaining U23B's went back to GE as well. A few lingered at Erie as Super-7 fodder, and at least two (6337 and 6338) were actually converted into Super 7-23B's for Roberval & Saguenay (their 50 and 51). GE kept 6341 at Erie as a test bed for a while, and the rest were scrapped in the mid-90's.

And most probably had their engines running too didn't they? What a nice smell that would make !!!