Nostalgia & History > Train Master on the Spot

Train Master 3031 "on the spot", Visitacion end of the Bayshore inbound lead. The day's protection engine for the Commute fleet.

Enjoy

Walter
Sanfranciscotrains.org



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/15 06:07 by drumwrencher.

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Quite simply, what a great looking machine.

PM fleet protection engine

FWIW, it's sitting on the inbound [freight] lead. In my day, the "protection engines" (and don't use that term on the radio!), usually consisted of a varying combination of road engines and switch engines, manned by the outside hostlers who then took them to 7th St after the fleet went by.

Drumwrencher, two great shots... and the hind three-quarters is the winner for sure. I remember seeing those huge canted fans in lazy motion at station stops when I was little. The TMs were also the first close-up Scarlet & Gray locomotives I'd ever "studied" -- those enormous and visible fans, the sheer bulk of the carbody and frame, and the raucous Opposed Piston snarl were powerful imprinting. Beasts, purely and simply.

EtoinShrdlu, if we promise not to, will you tell us why we should never say "protection engine" on the radio?

~ BZ

I really like the rear end view. Lots to study in this photo!

>So... does that mean it's not a "protection engine"?

It probably is a protection engine because they would sit on whichever lead wasn't going to be used for the duration. In other words, if an inbound [freight] train made it into BS just before the fleet, it would sit on the outbound because there wouldn't be enough time to run it out onto the main, cross over, and go back into the inbound lead. Other occasions it would cross over to the inbound.

>EtoinShrdlu, if we promise not to, will you tell us why we should never say "protection engine" on the radio?

Not precisely sure because I heard a Coast man mention this only in passing, but it had something to do with the SP not wanting to admit to the practice and have it become required by the P U Commission.

In the afternoon, the Millbrae Local also protected the Fleet from its namesake town. In the morning, a protection engine was stationed on a industrial track immediately north of Santa Clara tower.

-E.O.

Nice shot of the 3031. Thank you!

I'm still trying to figure out how to safely board that thing with all the crap we had to carry, without falling off or getting hurt.

It's got hand rails all the way up, what else you want, an escalator? :-)  (Or "eskeylator" as the old folks used to say to the young'ns when they were being nasty.)

Of course, once you are up that boarding ladder it looks like you have to walk the full length of the engine to get in, including the steps down and up, I don't see a door on the short hood end.

I wonder if there ar any of these things (or opposed piston machines in general) left somewhere.