Nostalgia & History > mundo: Some interesting Santa Fe rolling stock

Mundo in the subject line means the following photos were taken by Trainorders user mundo.

Here are a few interesting pieces of Santa Fe equipment Ed photographed over the years.  Some maintanance of way equipment in black and white:

1) American Ditcher 18 riding on what appears to be flatcar 191105.  The plaque on the side of the ditcher is just barely legible, but appears to list the maximum safe loads for various geometries.

2) Orton pile driver 199484, built in 1939, works on a bridge-replacement project at Temescal Wash just east of Corona, CA in December 1949. The 1918-vintage Industrial Works pile driver 199473 seen in this old thread was also assigned to the project, driving piles on the east end of the span while 199484 worked on the west end:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4424789,4424793#4424793

Tender 189830 was originally built for service behind 4-4-2 #1415.  It was just under 30 feet long and held 8500 gallons of water and around 3200 gallons of oil.

3) Not technically a Santa Fe piece of equipment, but this contract spray car was working on Santa Fe trackage tied to a Santa Fe tank car. The spray rig belongs to the W.T. Cox Company of Santa Ana, CA, whose Hykil Weed Oil No.6 probably wouldn't be allowed today, but was hopefully better than the arsenic compounds Santa Fe was spraying back in 1917: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3788741
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/19 01:52 by Evan_Werkema.

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Some revenue equipment in color:

4) Nothing particularly unusual about this Sk-3 class stock car, but given that Santa Fe's last stock cars vanished from the roster 46 years ago, it's nice to come across a color photo of one.  The car was nearly "new" in this photo, rebuilt in 1950 from a 1923-vintage Bx-3 class wooden boxcar in the company shops (a photo of a Bx-3 can be found in this old thread: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1335290 ).

5) Santa Fe's Bx-11 class boxcars were destined to undergo many modifications over their service lives.  Built as single wood-sheath, outside-braced cars in 1929 by a variety of builders, many Bx-11's such as 20090 in the photo had their roofs raised to bring the interior height to 10 feet.  When this photo was taken in October 1956, the car was just a few years from being rebuilt with steel sides (with the bracework on the inside).  Why this particular car was spotted at Corona with several slats removed and replaced with screening, though, is not known.

6) Believe it or not, that thing on the right is an auto parts car.  It was on an eastbound freight that came through Frost, CA west of Victorville during a photo stop on the February 15, 1964 Orange Empire Trolley Museum excursion from LA to Barstow and back. The excursion train featured two PA-1's pulling three cars, and you can see the lead PA stopped on the flyover at the left edge of the frame (more of Ed's photos of this excursion are here: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4209458 ).  The unusual freight car is ATSF 90060, the one-and-only member of Santa Fe's Ft-23 class.  It was an 87-foot Pullman Standard flat car built in 1962 and fitted with an aluminum box fitted with two large doors per side and internal racks intended to carry auto parts.  Like a lot of Santa Fe's "innovative" freight car designs (see also Super Hoppers, three-piece articulated autoracks, A-stack containers, etc.), this one never advanced beyond the prototype.  The box was removed in 1967 and the flatcar was refitted for piggyback service.

Thanks as always to Ed for sharing his photos with us!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/19 02:26 by Evan_Werkema.

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Thanks, Evan for posting and Ed for taking the shots.  

I always thought the Santa Fe willing to try lots of different ideas to move freight and the experimental auto parts car in the last shot is yet another example.  
Think about the five pack grain cars, or the ten platform fuel foiler piggyback cars, that led to the three and five pack spine cars.  I guess this is just another
example of Santa Fe trying to improve how they handled freight.  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

Wonderful.  Thanks again to Evan and Ed.
I am guessing, but the Bx-11 may have been a demonstration car to show how proper (or improper) bracing worked during rough couplings.
I once saw a training film that showed examples of freight being knocked loose during handling.
 

That silver auto parts box car is sure interesting!

SPDRGWfan Wrote:
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> That silver auto parts box car is sure
> interesting!

Complete with a PA in the background on the bridge. 

Wonder what the Ford folks at Pico Rivera thought of the auto parts car since it didn't match anything else.