Nostalgia & History > Did ATSF PA's ever pull freight? Yes

Pictured here at Riverbank, CA. in 1968 is a southbound freight powered by PA #67 and 3 sister units. I remember these as regulars on the San Francisco Chief until replaced by F7's. At the end of Santa Fe passenger service they powered the Golden Gates.

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Rear unit on these four PA's was the Santa Fe's #72.

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I've seen what may be these same units pulling freight while in D&H dress.

They surely did haul freight & more notably in late 1968 due to a power shortage.

rdg484 Wrote:
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> I've seen what may be these same units pulling
> freight while in D&H dress.

Four different units, actually.

ATSF 59L, 60L, 62L, and 66L became D&H 16, 17, 18, and 19 in 1967, a year before these photos were taken.

The photos attest that this happened briefly in 1968. I doubt that the units went east of Barstow. Bob

At least they kep a matched set. didn't stick any E's or F's in.

bnsfbob Wrote:
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> I doubt that the units went east of Barstow.

Right. Bakersfield to Richmond. When moving between Barstow and Bakersfield, they were m.u.ed trailing regular freight units.

As I recall, they were operated in 3- and 4-unit consists, and that a total of 7 or 8 units were involved.

The PAs were removed from regular passenger service in the Fall of 1967 when most of the mail contract were not renewed and Santa Fe dropped mail trains 7 & 8 and reduced the size of other trains including the Grand Canyon and trains 3 & 4, the southern route mail train that did carry passengers. The Santa took steps to remove several trains that eventual resulted in the discontinuance of the Chief and 3 & 4 to name a couple. However the winter of 67-68 found the Santa Fe short on passenger power when holiday travel increased train size and proposed discontinuance where working their was through the ICC and other agencies. A group of PAs were placed into service on the Grand Canyon for a period of time. After that short period of service they were stored and sometimes used in some power shortages on the flat Valley Division in California and at least one fan trip.
When the Santa Fe operated the PAs in passenger service, they rarely, if ever?, MUed EMDs with ALCOs. I saw cases where PAs and Fs were in the same consist but with seperate crews. An exception was about 1965 when PA A-B-A 51L 51A 51C set that were re-engined with EMD prime movers would be mixed with the other PAs. There was a time that Santa Fe did not mix B-B and C-C power and turbocharged units with non-turbocharged unit. They were very conservative at times.
The Golden Gate named passenger trains were discontinued in April of 1965.

MyfordBrowning Wrote:
> ...The Golden Gate named passenger trains were
> discontinued in April of 1965.

Right you are! I was thinking the Golden Gates lasted until Amtrak began, but they were gone several years earlier. One of these days I'll post a picture of the Golden Gate after it was assigned a PA unit. I only had a basic box camera in those days, so my pictures are just that - pretty basic.

Topper wrote that when the PA's were moved between Barstow and Bakersfield, "they were m.u.ed trailing regular freight units."

Actually, in the summer of 1968, seven PAs were taken out of storage at Barstow and placed on the front of a Bakersfield-bound freight with no other type of engines in the consist, at least not when they came into Bakersfield (I saw the train along Edison Highway). By the time the PA's hauled their first northbound freight train from Bakersfield a day or two later, only three were operable, the others having conked out coming from Barstow (apparently, based on "Westbound's" photo, one of the engines was subsequently repaired).

JohnSweetser Wrote:
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> Topper wrote that when the PA's were moved between
> Barstow and Bakersfield, "they were m.u.ed
> trailing regular freight units."
>
> Actually, in the summer of 1968, seven PAs were
> taken out of storage at Barstow and placed on the
> front of a Bakersfield-bound freight with no other
> type of engines in the consist, at least not when
> they came into Bakersfield (I saw the train along
> Edison Highway

My error.

My understanding was that they were only to be used as trailing units between Barstow and Bakersfield due to the lack of Pressure Maintaining and Extended Range Dynamic Braking.

My only personal experience was watching two depart Barstow beind two SD45s.

Thanks for the correction.

Westbound Wrote:
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> MyfordBrowning Wrote:
> > ...The Golden Gate named passenger trains
> were
> > discontinued in April of 1965.
>
> Right you are! I was thinking the Golden Gates
> lasted until Amtrak began, but they were gone
> several years earlier. One of these days I'll post
> a picture of the Golden Gate after it was assigned
> a PA unit. I only had a basic box camera in those
> days, so my pictures are just that - pretty basic.
>
>

Apparently, despite having excellent service, Santa Fe felt a need to cut the Golden Gate trains long before service on other parts of the system. Indeed, they cut one pair of Gates in 1958 and then the rest of them by 1965. Even for the last Bay Area train, the SF Chief, Santa Fe considered re-routing it to Los Angeles in the year preceding Amtrak.

Santa Fe was very positive about passenger trains until about 1967 when ridership declines and cancelled mail contracts caused them to act otherwise. Bob