Nostalgia & History > I Saw My First Alligator on a Family Vacation to Arizon

Not Florida, but the Santa Fe kind, Alco RSD15s. I don't remember Alligators ever getting near home in Chicagoland.

Top: Vaughn, NM along Route 66 on July 15, 1962.

Bottom: Flagstaff, AZ on a side trip to the Grand Canyon, July 19, 1962.

The first time to see Alligators and the Grand Canyon on the same trip! The Grand Canyon is still there but the Alligators aren't. (See correction below!)

Marty Bernard



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/13 20:21 by MartyBernard.

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Theres an Alligator at IRM.

tacobell Wrote:
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> Theres an Alligator at IRM.


And according to the Illinois Railway Museum website, their alligator is the 841 pictured in this thread!!!!

Surprise! I never noticed it because it's painted red and yellow in Green Bay Western colors. They used my picture on their web site with credit to me, the one above on this thread. Surprise! Surprise!

Marty Bernard

MartyBernard Wrote:
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> Surprise! I never noticed it because it's painted
> red and yellow in Green Bay Western colors. They
> used my picture on their web site with credit to
> me, the one above on this thread. Surprise!
> Surprise!
>
> Marty Bernard

Hi Marty, that was really via LS & I.???? Don't think GB & W ever did much with them except let them sit behind the shops?

Bob Jordan

robj Wrote:

> Hi Marty, that was really via LS & I.???? Don't
> think GB & W ever did much with them except let
> them sit behind the shops?

Via LS&I (their red paint job), then Fox River Valley (their road number), then GBW (their initials on the hood). Everybody left their mark.

RSD-15's pretty much roamed the system in the 60's and early 70's. I think the only places the RSD-15's didn't go, was where six axle engines where prohibited. I like the photo of them doing landscape work around the depot; something rarely seen today.

There's another "Alligator" in tourist service in Texas (substituting for a disabled steam engine).

EMD enthusiasts tended to vilify the ALCOs in general as being unreliable. "A nickel part breaks and the whole locomotive goes down". However my source with the SF say the crews liked the 1500's and when the 800's were retired, they were pretty well worn out. Good, Bad, or Ugly they earned their keep!

There is also an Alligator in the collection of the Utah State Railroad Museum at Union Station in Ogden, UT.

It was built as ATSF 823 and eventually found its way to the Utah Railway as their 401. Currently on static display, in blue with Santa Fe showing through the Utah paint.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/13 12:26 by up421.

The night superintendent at the San Bernardino Shops (this was around 1970) knew that I was a railfan, and commented on how he couldn't figure out why the fans thought the 800s were "cool". He said, "They're crap! Give me an EMD any day." And this was from someone who had to keep them running until ATSF finally got rid of them. One could note that while SP bought the next version of Alcos (the Century series) Santa Fe never bought another after 849 went into service.

TomPlatten Wrote:

> However my
> source with the SF say the crews liked the 1500's
> and when the 800's were retired, they were pretty
> well worn out.

...after all of 15 years of service. Evidently there was more life to be squeezed out of them - Squaw Creek Coal, Utah Railway, and Lake Superior & Ishpeming all bought used Santa Fe RSD-15's. The five preserved RSD-15's are all ex-ATSF:

ATSF 9820 at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, CA (not displayed, was never anything but AT&SF)
ATSF 9823 at the Utah State Railroad Museum's Spencer S. Eccles Rail Center in Ogden, UT (as Utah Railway 401, unrestored)
ATSF 9841 at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, IL (in LS&I/FRV/GBW red, operational).
ATSF 9842 at the Austin Steam Train Association/Austin & Texas Central in Cedar Park, TX, (via Squaw Creek Coal, Indiana Hi-Rail, Wabash & Ohio, Maumee & Western. Operational and painted SP black widow, lettered as ATCX 442).
ATSF 9843 at the Arkansas Railroad Museum in Pine Bluff, AR (same background as 9842, now displayed as ATSF 843 in blue and yellow).

The 9841 was one of only a handful of RSD-15's that got blue and yellow warbonnet before retirement:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2250524