Nostalgia & History > Santa Fe U23B leads eight engine consist

In this rescan, a northbound is ready to head in to the yard at the Santa Fe shop/yards in Cleburne,Tx. 
March 76

Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/20 12:08 by gcm.

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Funny, brakeman has required cowboy hat. Nice consist. Look again, I count eight units.
JB

I counted eight as well, nice image.

What a great lashup!
Bob

If there is any doubt , I  usually  count fuel tanks .  ( They show up better ) .

With the signal ending in 7, does that mean it was the 4th signal between milepost 317 and 318?

3rdswitch Wrote:
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> Funny, brakeman has required cowboy hat. Nice
> consist. Look again, I count eight units.
> JB

I originally titled it with eight then I wasn't so sure but eight it is.
I'll change the title.
Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/20 12:09 by gcm.

Nice shot!

Randy Lundgren
Elgin, TX

ble692 Wrote:
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> With the signal ending in 7, does that mean it was
> the 4th signal between milepost 317 and 318?

That is milemarker 317.7 (miles from Galveston).
Gary

Nice catch.  Eight units is a big consist.  Also, plenty of added interest.
Back in the day, railroaders preferred derby hats to cowboy hats.  Small brims worked better than big brims around railroad equipmnet.
Thanks for the interesting photo post.
ALLEN
 

Nice photo of the consist--nice to remember how big consists could be at times back then.
Brian Stevens

ble692 Wrote:

> With the signal ending in 7, does that mean it was
> the 4th signal between milepost 317 and 318?

A 1992 track chart and other photos by gcm suggest that it was.  In order from south to north (timetable west to east), mile 317 in Cleburne contained:

- A pair of mast-mounted signals (3171/3172) just past MP 317 at the west switch of the Dallas Sub wye,
- A pair of dwarves (3173/3174) at the east switch of the wye just south of Shaffer St.,
- A second pair of dwarves (3175/3176) north of the depot but south of Chambers St.,
- A third pair of dwarves (3177/3178) at Wellingham St. where the photo above was taken. 

The wye for the Dallas Sub, some crossovers, and the yard throat account for the quantity of signaling.  The second photo by gcm in this old thread shows the 3175 dwarf in the foreground with the 3173/3174 pair of dwarves and 3171/3172 mast-mounted signals visible beyond.  The third photo shows the 3173/3174 dwarves, the mast-mounted 3171/3172 signals, and a semaphore on the Dallas District:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4170743

The fifth photo in this thread shows mast-mounted signals 3171/3172:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4754226,4754229#4754229

The origin of ble692's question about the quantity of signals is that the final digit on Santa Fe signal number plates wasn't a decimal distance from the previous milepost but just a sequential signal number within that milepost.  That is why a lot of Santa Fe signal number plates end in 1 or 2, but finding one that ends in a number as high as 7 is very, very rare.  Westbound signals had odd numbers as their final number plate digit (1, 3, 5, 7), while eastbound signals had even numbers.

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> A 1992 track chart and other photos by gcm suggest
> that it was.  In order from south to north
> (timetable west to east), mile 317 in Cleburne
> contained:

Thanks for the detailed info on the signals and milemarkers.
Gary