Nostalgia & History > AT&SF's zebra RSD5's 1957

RSD5's #2146, 2153 working in Pueblo, CO on Oct. 23, 1957 by Dick Rumbolz .... now that's a pair!

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Nice Pair, Vince! I wonder if that extra "plumbing" on the hood, going up the side of the exhaust stack, is the crankcase breather vent - see the oil on the face of the stack? Hmmm...

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

It's interesting, how the Santa Fe set up their RSD-5's, for short hood forward operation. They're the only ones, that I know of, that did that. Was there any other road that did that with their 244 engine RS/RSD's?

Bob Callahan
Monticello, IN

Does any one have a time machine I can use this afternoon ? Very nice.

rcall31060 Wrote:
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> It's interesting, how the Santa Fe set up their
> RSD-5's, for short hood forward operation.
> They're the only ones, that I know of, that did
> that. Was there any other road that did that with
> their 244 engine RS/RSD's?

Not on any eastern roads, that I know of - but - both the NP and Milwaukee Road had their RS-3's set up with the short hood as the front.

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

rcall31060 Wrote:
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> It's interesting, how the Santa Fe set up their
> RSD-5's, for short hood forward operation.
> They're the only ones, that I know of, that did
> that. Was there any other road that did that with
> their 244 engine RS/RSD's?
I am thinking the UP'RSC'2 s were set up for short hood operation.It seems like the SP's RSD 5's where set up for short hood first operation ,but the Cotton Belt's were set up for long hood first. The other roads would take some research. Got any more???

mopacrr Wrote:

> It seems like the SP's RSD 5's
> where set up for short hood first operation ,but
> the Cotton Belt's were set up for long hood first.

SSW and T&NO had long hood forward RSD-5's, but parent SP evidently went both ways. Richard Percy's site lists the RSD-5's set up long hood vs. short hood forward:

http://espee.railfan.net/sprsd05.html

Some long hood forward SP RSD-5's:

http://espee.railfan.net/nonindex/rsd05_photos/5298_sp-rsd5-yardclerk.jpg
http://espee.railfan.net/nonindex/rsd05_photos/5306_sp-rsd5-don_jewell.jpg

Weren't Utah Railway's RSD5's set-up for short hood front operation too?
Long hood forward seems to be a East Coast thing.

I'm and easterner and, to me, RS's and RSD's only look right when they operate LONG hood forward.

UPs RSC-2 and the RS-2 were long hood forward. wag216

The Southern Pacific assigned 3 dual control stand RSD5s
to the SD&AE back in the mid 50s for a short time.
I have a short film showing them on a train to El Centro
and back!
SP also had a series of RSD5s that were set up to run
short hood forward, 5445-5507.
Mike

SP, T&NO, and SSW had 63 units total. The first 45 units built in 1953 were all long hood forward. Three of these, as noted, were dual control but the long hood was still considered the front ("F" on that end). The remaining 18 units built in 1955-56 were short hood forward.

Mark

The stripes look silver on the lead unit and white on the other one, so what is the color ? Steve

Scoopcat Wrote:

> The stripes look silver on the lead unit and white
> on the other one, so what is the color ?

The color is probably "aluminum" on both units. A few Santa Fe zebra-striped switchers had white stripes, but I don't know of any documented cases of roadswitchers with white stripes.

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> Scoopcat Wrote:
>
> > The stripes look silver on the lead unit and
> white
> > on the other one, so what is the color ?
>
> The color is probably "aluminum" on both units. A
> few Santa Fe zebra-striped switchers had white
> stripes, but I don't know of any documented cases
> of roadswitchers with white stripes.


Something I just noticed. Note that the short hood of 2146 has the end chevrons pointing up. Yet the end chevrons on the long hood of the 2153 point down. Is this common? Or is it a relationship of the end chevrons matching the side sill stripe direction? Were all such units painted this way? This assumes that the chevron on the long hood of the 2146 points down, and the short hood of the 2153 points up.

Lee Hower - Sacramento



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/13/13 10:21 by mcfflyer.

Yes, Lee, they flipped the end chevrons - on everything:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2993381,2993381#2993381

http://www.trainorders.com/images2/index.php?category=0&search=santa+fe+zebra+stripes&description=on

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

ATSF100WEST Wrote:
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> Yes, Lee, they flipped the end chevrons - on
> everything:
>
> http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,
> 2993381,2993381#2993381
>
> http://www.trainorders.com/images2/index.php?categ
> ory=0&search=santa+fe+zebra+stripes&description=on
>
>
> Bob
>
> ATSF100WEST......Out

Well, I'll be darned! I never knew that! Thanks, Bob!

As I recall, 2146 was one of the "last of the Mohicans", being assigned to San Bernardino in 1969. 2110, 2128, 2140, 2135 and 2168 were in yard service, probably because they weren't reliable enough for main line operation anymore. A few of them lasted long enough to become 9100s at the same time the Alligators became 9800s.

mcfflyer Wrote:

> Something I just noticed. Note that the short
> hood of 2146 has the end chevrons pointing up.
> Yet the end chevrons on the long hood of the 2153
> point down. Is this common?

In general, in the post-1950 zebra scheme, the end with the stripes pointing up is the "front," and the end with the stripes pointing down is the rear. There were exceptions (DT-6-6-2000 2606 is one), but the pattern generally held, to the point that when Santa Fe re-designated the front of its lone RS-2 2099 from the long to short hood, they also reversed the direction of the zebra stripes.

And here are ATSF 2146 and 2128 near the "A" Yard office in San Bernarndino, some time around 1969. Who would have dreamed that this location would become a commuter train terminal with 42 trains going to and coming from Los Angeles, plus a suburb to suburb service going to Orange County.

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