Nostalgia & History > Western Pacific

.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/15 06:37 by drumwrencher.

Here is one on display in Elko, Nevada if you ever get in the area. Locomotive and a caboose as well as some old semaphore signals are located downtown.

---

---

---

More info? Why yes! I have more info....

WP 709 was the last numbered locomotive in the Wobbly's first order of roadswitchers, WP 701-709. She was a GP7 built in October 1952. Her builder number was 17057, order number 5197.

(An interesting note: none of the WP's GP7s (they received a second order of 4 about 6 months later, WP 710-713) were built at the La Grange plant, but were instead built in Cleveland at EMD plant #3, a facility that mostly built switchers and operated from 1948 to 1954. Reportedly, EMD originally intended for all production GP7s to be built at Cleveland, but the model was so popular that GP7 production ended up split almost evenly between La Grange and Cleveland.)

She was delivered in the silver and orange paint with black stripes. She lost the black stripes in the early 1960s and got single scotchlite stripes as seen in the photos above. By the mid-1970s, she was repainted green and orange and mainly assigned to local trains and switching service.

At the UP merger, only two WP / SN GP7s were renumbered or repainted: SN (ex-WP) 711 (which was shipped out of North Platte in new paint with no engine oil and was destroyed when a crew fired her up on Sherman Hill for extra power) and WP 709, which was renumbered as UP second 110. The 709 did not last long, however. She renumbered in September 1984 and retired in December of the same year. She was sold to St. Louis Auto Shredding for scrap about 11 months later.

Several of her sisters survive. WP 705, 707 (operational and repainted into silver and orange) and 708 from her order are all in Portola at the WP Museum, along with SN (ex-WP) 712 from the second order, and WP 713 is operating in Niles Canyon at the Pacific Locomotive Association.

WP 706 hung around until recently, derelict back east, but reportedly was scrapped in the last couple of years.

Of WP's high hood geeps, only 5 others survive: GP9s 725 and 731 in Portola; GP9 727 on display in Elko, Nevada; GP20 2001 in Portola, and GP20 2002 (now Relco 2001) in lease service in the midwest. GP20 2002 is the only WP high nose geep still in regular revenue service.


Z



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/29/15 09:17 by zephyrus.

Nice broadside shot showing the big single bulb headlights on either end.

BSB

Im surprised some foamer hasn't stolen that M5 horn...yet.

I can relate to that noisy WP diamond at Melrose where the spur went into Melrose Lumber. The diamond for the joint WP-SP drill track was only about 100 feet away or so, but it was the lumber spur diamond that made the loud banging noise. That short little spur was once part of the IER line than ran down Bancroft Ave back in the day. Interestingly, there was a short section of very light rail that existed right next to that diamond. It was set in some concrete and It looked dated back to some construction operation. The segment I remember that remained was about 10 feet long. Was there until at least the late 70's.

At night, many times I tried to count the number of wheel sets that banged over that diamond. Once UP started running double stacks into Oakland, it was easy to tell if it was a stack train or not.

Gary

Posted from iPhone

Wow, this discussion has brought back some memories. I used to live on Fernside Blvd in Alameda and remember hearing the trains crossing that diamond on a still night. Probably just hear gunfire from that area where the crossing was nowadays.

tacobell Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Im surprised some foamer hasn't stolen that M5
> horn...yet.

What makes you think a "foamer" would steal the horn?
There's a lot of big rigs out there that sound a LOT like a train when they blow their horn...
Just sayin'

Thanks for the info on the SN 711. I always wondered why it got repainted and then stricken from the roster immediately...
I also wondered why they even bothered to repaint it as it was in good shape having been repainted into the new image scheme in 1980 or so. It seems like there were lots of other WP GP7's that needed a repaint much worse than the 711!

SP4436 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for the info on the SN 711. I always
> wondered why it got repainted and then stricken
> from the roster immediately...
> I also wondered why they even bothered to repaint
> it as it was in good shape having been repainted
> into the new image scheme in 1980 or so. It seems
> like there were lots of other WP GP7's that needed
> a repaint much worse than the 711!

I am running off memory, so I may have some details wrong, but as I recall the SN 711 was in pretty good shape mechanically, so UP decided to repaint her and I heard even did some minor repair work so she was running well. The decision was made to ship her "dry" for set up in either Salt Lake or Stockton (can't recall which). But the train she was on was having trouble making Sherman, so the crew decided to start her without checking the fluids. Kerblooey.

If someone knows more, or has corrections, please jump in. I seem to remember a thread on this subject years ago, but can't find it right now.

Z

I did a search for SN 711 and found lots of threads from you Zephyus! I'm glad you liked the 711 too and I appreciate what you add to the posts here.

I am pretty sure the story of the old SN 711 was correct. I remember hearing about it soon after it happened. That is the exact story I heard.


Gary