Nostalgia & History > WP Wednesday - San Franncisco

Three views of Western Pacific SW1500 #1502 while tied up at the 25th St. Yard in San Francisco on April 2, 1984. I had just finished chasing the switch job around for an hour and took these as my final photos of the WP in San Francisco. The next time I visited, on November 11, 1984, all of the SW1500s had been repainted yellow. I chased UP 1501 for an hour or so on that date and that was the last time I shot WP trackage in The City.

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Nicce shots!

RC Lundgren
Elgin, TX

That M5 horn on 1501 must of sounded great moving around amonst the rail served buildings in SF.
Regards, Jim Evans

Interestingly, somehow UP missed pulling the 5-chimers off that unit. By 1984 all of the former WP units had the M5s pulled and replaced by UP's terrible sounding horns.

Great shots, Ken. Glad you took advantage of the WP in San Francisco when it was still around. You got some great pictures. 

I still recall the wise decision UP made to get rid of the sw1500~ the infamous trackmobile debacle.

Between poor service and increased rates, UP worked hard to run off the reamining customers in the city.

I find it interesting that from 1952 on every locomotive on the WP came with a M5 including the SW9s, yet the SW1500s came delivered with a single horn over the front windows. Then took the trouble to change it to a M5 with all trumpets facing forward under the cab lip only to finally put it on the roof like the other SWs.