Nostalgia & History > Last Santa Fe passenger run with PA's

Santa Fe PA's 67 & 58 lead a special train at Collier, California for the last Santa Fe passenger train hauled by PA's on March 3,1968.

Robert Morris
Dunsmuir, CA
Robert Morris Photography

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Pacific Locomotive Association excursion Richmond to Stockton and return.

Regards, Jim Evans

 

An "A+" image to honor an American beauty.
Bob

It really doesn't get better than that...

I think I read somewhere that one of the two failed on this trip and the other unit pulled the rest of the trip solo...

B

A nice "PA angle."  Thanks!

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ

I will never forget the sound of those things idling.  It sound like pistons were swapping holes.

The b units on rg, sp, and SF  disappeared  first  from what you guys say.

Great photo.  Love the warbonnet PA's.

Scott Griggs
Louisville, KY

Beautiful.  I can't imagine anyone not liking a Santa Fe PA.   Too bad the pair didn't go straight to a good museum at the end of the day.   Sad to see what happened to almost all the rest of them.  I saw bunches of both Santa Fe and GM&O PAs traded in to EMD at LaGrange sometime in the 60s.   I'd guess those were all scrapped.

Craig Hanson
Vay, Idaho

Love those heads poking out of every orifice in the cars behind the PA’s

tomstp Wrote:
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> I will never forget the sound of those things
> idling.  It sound like pistons were swapping
> holes.

I'm not really sure what that sounds like, but would like to.

When the Santa Fe introduced the Texas Chief in 1948 I was an 11-year-old kid.  But I recognized the beauty of the brand new PA's on that train as being somethintg special.  They were pristine..........no ladders for the windshield washers, only a pair of single "blat" horns (one pointed in each direction), no access holes on the nose, and no radio antenna.  Originally, I think they used an A-B pair but the train grew to around 15 cars fairly soon and an A-B-A set was used after that, until the F-7's came along and replaced them.  Many years later........about 1962.......they were still running on the San Francisco Chief over Tehachapi.  And the mail train, Nos. 7-8, used them in sets of 4 for years.  The beauty, the sound, and the smoke of the Alco PA's really made a mark on locomotive history.

Beautiful shot, as usual, from a very familiar place.

Thanks

Gary

Posted from iPhone

EMD's policy for scrapping trade-in locomotives was pretty strict. There weren't any PAs that escaped. GE, on the other hand, allowed D&H to buy back an ex-NH PA that was stripped for parts in order to keep their other four operating.

Best paint scheme ever put on a PA. Beautiful shot showing both power and grace.

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

Didn't the Santa Fe also have some DL109s in this paint scheme ?   Just out of curiosity, how different were the PAs from the DL series locomotives.  I'm sure the PAs would win the vote for looks, compared to a DL, but were the guts under the body shell the same, or similar ?   I know the Milwaukee Road, in an effort to make their DL110s conform to their EMD style locomotives, chopped the noses off their "Old Maud", and put an F or E unit nose on one, or both of them.   They lived on, but OH MY, what a wasted effort.

Craig Hanson
Vay, Idaho

Roadjob Wrote:
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> Best paint scheme ever put on a PA. Beautiful shot
> showing both power and grace.

Best paint scheme on anything, even a bread box!

RRBaron Wrote:
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> Roadjob Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Best paint scheme ever put on a PA. Beautiful
> shot
> > showing both power and grace.
>
> Best paint scheme on anything, even a bread box!

Amen!

and thanks Bob for posting.

BB

hawkinsun Wrote:
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> Didn't the Santa Fe also have some DL109s in this
> paint scheme ?   Just out of curiosity, how
> different were the PAs from the DL series
> locomotives.  I'm sure the PAs would win the vote
> for looks, compared to a DL, but were the guts
> under the body shell the same, or similar ?   I
> know the Milwaukee Road, in an effort to make
> their DL110s conform to their EMD style
> locomotives, chopped the noses off their "Old
> Maud", and put an F or E unit nose on one, or both
> of them.   They lived on, but OH MY, what a
> wasted effort.
>
> Craig Hanson
> Vay, Idaho

Craig

The PA had a single 16-244 prime mover vs two 8-539's in the DL-109.
There are plenty of other differences, but the basic answer is that the two model were not similar internally (or externally) at all.