Nostalgia & History > Not what you would expect to find

West bound thru Texico, Tx dog ugly GE's of Conrail are a surprise coming from Lubbock Tx going to Clovis on this part of the Santa Fe's Gulf lines. John McCall photo Sept 1985.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/17 17:19 by tomstp.

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To see 6619 in color, go down to "04/19/17 10:09
Re: If Conrail Bought a fleet of AC4400CW locomotives".

Amazing how the thing got around, my shot was on an SP train and we did see Conrail power in West
Colton, just not on Tehachapi. Wasn't real common on the Santa Fe.

Out

Conrail's C32-8's, the first two NS C39-8's, BN's B32-8's, and Santa Fe's B39-8's were all pre-production units that acted as demonstrators for their first few years of life. They were long-term leased to the roads for which they were painted, but all spent time demonstrating on other railroads in 1984-85. I think Conrail and NS ultimately bought their demos, but Santa Fe and BN let the 9-year leases expire on their 4-axle versions and turned them back to GE.

By the way, Texico was on Santa Fe's Western Lines, and the Texas-based subsidiary that owned the track was the Panhandle & Santa Fe, not the Gulf Colorado & Santa Fe. The Gulf Lines started some 200+ miles away at Sweetwater, TX. No part of the "transcon" was ever part of the Gulf Lines/GC&SF.

A lot of us here in the east miss those Camels.....one however, survives in Pennsylvania....

You are correct, thanks for correcting me.

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> Conrail's C32-8's, the first two NS C39-8's, BN's
> B32-8's, and Santa Fe's B39-8's were all
> pre-production units that acted as demonstrators
> for their first few years of life. They were
> long-term leased to the roads for which they were
> painted, but all spent time demonstrating on other
> railroads in 1984-85. I think Conrail and NS
> ultimately bought their demos, but Santa Fe and BN
> let the 9-year leases expire on their 4-axle
> versions and turned them back to GE.
>
> By the way, Texico was on Santa Fe's Western
> Lines, and the Texas-based subsidiary that owned
> the track was the Panhandle & Santa Fe, not the
> Gulf Colorado & Santa Fe. The Gulf Lines started
> some 200+ miles away at Sweetwater, TX. No part
> of the "transcon" was ever part of the Gulf
> Lines/GC&SF.

Yes, but when did that depot go??? It wasn't there in 1991 IIRC,
and for sure wasn't there in 1995.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

ntharalson Wrote:

> Yes, but when did that depot go???

Demolished in 1987 about the same time the Clovis roundhouse and freight depot were torn down. That was a bad year for Santa Fe structures in New Mexico.

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ntharalson Wrote:
>
> > Yes, but when did that depot go???
>
> Demolished in 1987 about the same time the Clovis
> roundhouse and freight depot were torn down. That
> was a bad year for Santa Fe structures in New
> Mexico.

Thanks, Evan. That was a bad time for Santa Fe structures everywhere.
Stephen Priest once told a story about a Santa Fe vice president, un-named
who decided all the excess structures, especially roundhouses, must
go, and I believe the mid-80's was the time frame.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

I wonder how the Las Vegas NM roundhouse got saved?