Grassroots Railroad Sports?

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe 4-8-4 #2926 is set to make her first moves under power this weekend. Built by Baldwin for the AT&SF, it accumulated over one million miles of usage before its last revenue run on December 24, 1953. Equipped with the latest Timken roller-bearing tandem side-rods between 1946-1948, it was approved for 110-mph speeds with the Santa Fe's crack passenger train. In 1956, it was donated to the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico in recognition of the city's 250th anniversary, and placed in Coronado Park. It was then sold to the New Mexico Steam Locomotive and Railroad Historical Society (NMSL&RHS) on July 26, 1999 and in May 2002 the locomotive was moved by BNSF to its current location near the intersection of 8th Street and Haines Avenue, where it is has spent the last twenty years undergoing restoration to operating condition by the NMSL&RHS. Starting on May 6, 2023, #2926 will visit a nearby brewing company for a fundraiser, a distance of about four blocks.

There is still some work to be done, primarily to tracks. The siding out to the BNSF mainline is pretty spindly and needs overhauling to allow the #2926, which tips the scales at 974,000lbs fully loaded, to regularly enter and exit. The state of New Mexico owns the rail line between Albuquerque and Las Vegas, over which BNSF, Amtrak and the New Mexico Rail Runner operate, and apparently BNSF is open to allowing #2926 to run over that line to Las Vegas. Much of northern New Mexico, along the route of Amtrak’s Southwest Chief, has been granted a temporary PTC wavier because of the lack of traffic on the line. Las Vegas, NM is in this territory and is a perfect destination for #2926 excursions, but if #2926 is used for excursions to Winslow, AZ, for example, it must be equipped with PTC to operate on the BNSF Railway Southern Transcon.

The good news there is that the NMSL&RHS has received a $25,000 grant to install the LeaPTC system, which is what UP uses on #4014, and which is also being fitted to sister engine ATSF #3751, as well as Milwaukee Road #261 and NKP #765. The LeaPTC system utilizes computers and equipment in a trailing diesel that is linked to a terminal in the steam cab. As with the PTC application in diesels, the terminal displays a route map that is continuously updated with speed restrictions, signal indications, work zone locations and other information, while another installation enables the engineer to control accompanying diesels. In an emergency, LeaPTC can activate the train brakes on the steam locomotive. This approach eliminates the need to equip a locomotive with a complete PTC system and antennas, dramatically reducing the cost of complying with the Federal Railroad Administration’s PTC mandate. Interestingly, when it originally ran under ATSF, it was equipped with Automatic Train Stop, which applied the brakes on the train in the event that an engineer went through anything but a green clear signal. PTC is basically a more advanced version of that.

The other thing that I've heard is that Grand Canyon Railway, which is the old ATSF line to the Grand Canyon and the former territory of ATSF Northerns, has a standing agreement with both ATSF #2926 and ATSF #3751, that if either locomotive can make their way there, they are more than welcome to run on their rails.

ATSF #2908 at Olathe, Kansas with a freight train in 1950. Santa Fe had slowly been developing the 4-8-4 wheel arrangement with multiple small orders that incorporated various improvements, first the singleton 3751-class, then the revised 3752-class, then the 3762-class, the 37650-class and the finally 3776-class in 1941. Feedwater heaters, thermic syphons, roller bearings, disc drivers, oil-burning conversions, lightweight connecting rods, all were added into each new class and then retrofitted into the older classes. During WWII, Santa Fe needed additional motive power and received permission to order more 4-8-4s. Due to wartime restrictions, these had to be used in freight service during wartime (afterwards they were reassigned on the Scout and Grand Canyon Limited), and they also couldn't be constructed with the lighter weight materials used in the 3776-class. As a result, the weight of the already hefty 3776-class engines jumped by another 14,000 pounds for the new 2900-class engines, making the 2900-class Northerns the largest passenger locomotives in the US. Granted, they still saw some freight service after the war was over, particularly on high-speed perishable fruit trains and towards the end of their career when diesels displaced them off the name trains.

The #2926 herself roars down Cajon Pass with the westbound Grand Canyon in August 1948. The stack extension, an ATSF hallmark, is raised up. ATSF discovered that a taller smokestack helped with improved drafting, as well as reducing the amount of smoke blowing back into the cab, but the massive diameter of the boiler on the 3700/2900s meant that they couldn't put a taller stack on them, because they'd smash it off on every tunnel, overpass, terminal trainshed, and engine house door. ATSF came up with an air-actuated extendible smokestack. When approaching a bridge or tunnel, there would be a sign to lower it, and the engineer would drop it down, and then as soon as they were in the clear, they could raise it back up. Yes, there were signs along the right of way saying "Lower Stack Extension". Yes, engineers occasionally forgot to lower them and became quite popular with the shop forces afterwards.

Of the Santa Fe's 4-8-4s, David P. Morgan once wrote, “Few steam locomotives were so justifiably acclaimed as Santa Fe’s Northerns. Huge and tireless creatures, they could and did cover the 1,765 miles between Kansas City and L.A. without change, conquer Raton’s 3 percent, and exceed 100 miles per hour.”

Equal parts depressing and frustrating is the tale of ATSF #2925. When Santa Fe began retiring steam locomotives, and even some earlier diesels, they were pretty good about setting stuff aside. They saved 2-6-2 #1010, which had set a record-breaking run across Death Valley in 1905, and M-190, an unusual multi-car articulated doodlebug, as well as some early diesels and 2-10-4 #5021 and 4-8-4 #2925. They were all stored at various facilities around the Santa Fe system, with both #5021 and #2925 being stored indoors at Belen, NM after retirement.

Both had very few miles on them since their last major overhaul, were stored indoors in a warm and dry climate, and were kept lubricated and were moved around the yard once a month behind a diesel to keep everything freed up. In 1976, the #2925 was moved to Cleburne, Texas for evaluation for an operational restoration for the American Freedom Train, and was found to pretty much need oil and water poured in and the fires lit. The tubes had seen such little use that they planned to just file for a tube extension. The sheer size and weight of a 2900 made it less feasible though, and SP #4449 was chosen instead. ATSF still considered restoring it though for a corporate excursion program though, and ATSF employees were noted to have been scouring the MoW work trains for restorable heavyweight passenger cars to use.

Ultimately, ATSF passed on the idea, and #2926 was sent back to Belen. It was then moved to Albuquerque in the early '80s when ATSF began marshalling all their historical equipment there to try and find a home for them in advance of the SPSF merger.

Eventually ATSF decided that California State Railroad Museum was the right home for the collection, and part of the deal was that the collection would go to CSRM and, since SPSF planned on closing SP's Sacramento engine facilities, CSRM would also get the entire SP Sacramento shops as their new museum site. In 1986, all the historic equipment was moved to CSRM's existing site and parked outside on storage tracks, while they awaited the change in hands of their new facilities.

In 1989, the SPSF merger was struck down, and so SP was still going to be using the Sacramento shops that the museum had been promised. Since #2925 and #5021 were massive and heavy, they were left out in the back forty of their lot, outside of the area where the public could view them, and have sat their for 24 years since with little attention. There are those who say that for a long time, museum staff were also more SP-leaning and viewed the ATSF engines as "outsiders". Over the years, the CSRM has pared down the former ATSF collection, transferring ownership of locomotives to other museums, but #2925 and #5021 are still there, rusting, neglected and vandalized. Sad to think that they were once engines that were pretty much operations ready.

In reply to NickD :

What a sad story and sad looking picture. 

In reply to TheMagicRatchet :

Yeah. You can't entirely fault the CSRM. From what I've read, they didn't solicit for donation of the collection, ATSF just went and chose that museum and then said "Don't worry, we're giving you the entire SP Sacramento engine facilities to house it." Everyone was certain that the SPSF merger was definitely going to happen, so then when the merger got cancelled, CSRM got the rug pulled out from under their feet and suddenly had this huge collection on site but wasn't going to get any place to house it.

There have been a couple zero, or near-zero, mileage engines in preservation. PRR "#7002", it's really PRR #8063, was given a complete overhaul at Altoona leading up to the 1939-1940 World's Fair. Kelly Anderson at Strasburg said that it was obvious the engine had never been run after the overhaul, partially because there was a lot of stuff that was not set up or properly adjusted. He said it seemed like PRR got all the big work done to clean it up and make it operational, and then realized it wasn't going to be done in time and just decided to tow it out there instead. But all the bearings and tubes and cylinders still had all the tooling marks on it from when PRR had overhauled it. There are those who give Strasburg flak for operating the engine and wiping out all that history, but according to Anderson, Strasburg wasn't the one that came up with the idea to run it. Whoever was in charge at the RRMoPA, I want to say it was Bill Withuhn or George Hart, came over to Strasburg and went "Hey, we think it'd be aweome if you guys got the #7002 running and ran it with #1223." And according to Anderson, everyone at PRR hated running the #7002, it was just a miserable locomotive to run.

Canadian National 2-8-2 #3377 and Canadian National 4-6-2 #5288 were also very low-mileage engines, both of which were purchased by Nelson Blount for his Steamtown USA. From what I've read, #3377 was vandalized during the move to North Walpole, with thieves stealing a lot of the plumbing and gauges and controls out of the cab, and so Blount never ran it. After Steamtown moved to Scranton and traded off CPR #1278 for CNR #3254, the Steamtown gang sadly swapped a lot of parts off of #3377 to the #3254 to keep it running, which was kind of foolish since the #3254 had irreparable frame damage that caused all sorts of issues and ultimately resulted in it being indefinitely retired. There were rumors that Steamtown, after getting B&M #3713, was going to swap everything from #3254 over to #3377 to make it run again, and preliminary investigations showed that the boiler sheets are like-new and the cross-hatching is still visible on the cylinder walls and bearing crowns from it's last overhaul. With Steamtown having pretty much halted work on the #3713, I would expect work to begin on #3377 somewhere around, oh, 2185. CNR 4-6-2 #5288 also was stated to have around 5000 miles on it since it's last major overhaul, and Steamtown looked at restoring it for Vermont's bicentennial and found it was pretty much ready to run, but settled on CPR #2317, only for Vermont to scrub the plans on the bicentennial train anways.The #5288 hung around until 2001, then was sold off to TVRM in hopes of it being rebuilt into a 7/8ths-scale Southern Ps-4, which also never happened, and is now coming back north to the Colebrookdale Railroad.

NKP #759, also a Steamtown locomotive, was truly a zero mileage engine. It was the very last steam locomotive overhauled in NKP's Conneaut shops, finishing it's rebuild in 1959 and never turning a wheel. NKP had dieselized by then, but thought that future traffic surges might warrant reactivating steam locomotives. After the #759's overhaul, it was put in storage by NKP and then ultimately sold off to Nelson Blount. In 1968 it was restored by Ross Rowland, used for the Golden Spike Limited, hauled some High Iron Co. excursions until mid-1971, then was sent back to Steamtown due to strained relations with management. Steamtown ran it for one excursion, it was too big and heavy for their Rutland trackage, and then it sat around until 1973, when an ill-fated attempt at an excursion over the D&H, and a subsequent argument between D&H and Steamtown management, resulted in the NKP #759 suffering freeze damage. D&H repaired the freeze damage at their expense but it never ran again.

ATSF #3751 in her as-built configuration with train number 13, north of Littleton Colorado, on March 12th, 1932. Ordered as just a single locomotive in 1927, ATSF then followed it up with another nine of almost identical configuration, the 3752-class of engines, in 1928, with just some minor changes in the boiler package. An additional four, the 3761-class, were then delivered in 1929. As built, these early engines, often just all referred to collectively as the 3751-class, were designed to burn soft coal, had 73" drivers, fabricated frames, and 210psi boilers. They weren't bad engines, but they lacked the performance that ATSF had hoped for, largely due to the 15" piston valves that they had. They struggled to fully exhaust the main cylinders at higher speeds, leading to backpressure and loss of efficiency.

In 1938, ATSF ordered the 3765-class engines, which were drastic departure from the fourteen earlier engines, designed as oil-burners with 300psi nickel-steel boilers, 80" drivers, roller bearing axles, roller bearing rods, new piston dimensions with a smaller diameter but a longer stroke to fix the backpressure issues, and thermic syphons in the firebox. These new engines performed so well, that ATSF ran the original fourteen 4-8-4s through their shops for a comprehensive rebuild that added most of these improvements. They did not receive new nickel-steel boilers, and so their boiler pressure was only bumped to 230psi, instead of the full 300psi of the 3765s, but they did receive new frames, new cylinders, new 80" drive wheels and oil-burning conversions, among other improvements. 

ATSF then went back and ordered another batch to the 3765 design in 1941, referred to as the 3776-class, which also had the nickel-steel 300psi boilers. Then, during WWII, ATSF ordered the 2900-class, which were the 3765 design but with a 300psi carbon steel boiler and lacking the lightweight roller bearing rods, due to material restrictions. ATSF also pursued the idea of taking the boilers from the eight secondhand N&W Y3s that they purchased during WWII and mating them with new 3765-class running gears, but the rapid development of diesels put the brakes on that idea and they instead just sold off the Y3s.

The retention of the carbon steel boilers on the rebuilt 3751s and the use of new carbon-steel boilers on the 2900s ended up being a blessing in disguise. In the post-war era, many railroads began having issues with the carbon steel boilers cracking, partially due to the way that the rivet holes were being punched in the boiler sheets and partially due to caustic embrittlement, and many new top-tier steam locomotives were parked as a result (The tale of the PRR engine foreman at Fort Wayne panickedly phoning headquarters to tell them that all 26 Q2 Duplexes were laid up overnight by boiler leaks comes to mind.) So while the 3765s and 3776s were having boiler issues, the old 3751s and the "war baby" 2900s were able to soldier on. There are those who swear that ATSF bought brand-new carbon steel boilers to retrofit to the 3765s and 3776s, that were ultimately never installed and sat outside one of the shops in the weeds for years before being scrapped.

ATSF #5021, the 2-10-4 at CSRM, looking equally sad. I'd love to see a 5011-class Texas be unleashed upon the rails one day, but its highly unlikely. The sheer size and weight of them, they are largest and heaviest 2-cylinder non-articulated engines ever built, would pound all but the most well-kept roadbed into oblivion. Their 74" drivers, the largest fitted to a 10-coupled locomotive, meant they could manage 60+mph, but the size of the connecting rods needed to chain 5500hp together across 5 axles, meant they imparted some serious hammer blows on the rails when run hard.

ATSF #2925 being moved out of the Belen, NM roundhouse in 1973 for it's monthly move to keep everything freed up and lubricated. It appears it is being towed by a GP30, judging by the roofline.

ATSF #2925 while at Cleburne, Texas for evaluation for return to operation for excursions. Pretty amazing that she'd been cold for almost 22 years but still looked like brand new. The employees really cared about the old gal.

ATSF #5021 being moved out of the Belen, NM roundhouse for it's monthly move. Not nearly as nice and shiny as the #2925 but still a damn sight better than it is today.

At Albuquerque, NM, being prepared for the move to Sacramento in 1986. In addition to the #2925, #5021, #1010, and M-190, there was an F7A, an Alco RSD-15, an Alco S-2, a Fairbanks-Morse H12-44TS and others. 

ATSF 2-6-2 #1010 at the Redondo Roundhouse in 1973, which was where it was stored before being donated to CSRM with the rest. No clue what the tender is ahead of it, but it's old.

A photo that ATSF was probably not happy about Otto Perry taking: EMC pioneer box-cab diesel-electrics #1 and #1A were having issues while handling the Super Chief, and so ATSF 2-6-2 #1105, a 35 year old Burnham, Williams & Co. product, has been called up to lend an assist.

ATSF 2-6-2 #1848 leaving La Junta, Colorado with a livestock train. Hard to tell if the brakeman is swinging up onto the train after they got moving, is preparing to drop down and throw a switch, or is getting ready to snag orders on the fly.

ATSF 2-6-2 #1873 at Dodge City, Kansas. The ATSF 1857-class Prairies, were amongst the largest of that wheel arrangement, although slightly lighter than the ATSF 1800-class that were built a year earlier. Constructed by Burnham, Williams & Co. (which became Baldwin) they had 69" drivers and were originally configured as Vauclain Compounds, which were all the rage at the time. When new, ATSF assigned their Prairies on passenger service when new, as well as running them in light fast freight service. The Prairie wheel arrangement was noted to have balancing issues that led to severe oscillation when operated at higher speeds, but apparently this wasn't a major issue for the Santa Fe. Perhaps the Vauclain Compound configuration helped mitigate this issue. The arrival of newer, more powerful passenger engines, like Pacifics and Mountains and Northerns, ended up busting the Prairies down into local passenger service and light freight, and by the time this photo was taken in 37, both the 1800 and 1857 classes had been converted to single expansion, after it was determined that the Vauclain Compound setup offset it's fuel savings with considerable more maintenance expenses.

ATSF #1210 is a particularly odd beast. For whatever reason, between 1929 and 1932, the Santa Fe rebuilt four 1903-era Pacifics into Prairie types, which proceeded to remain in operation until around 1941, serving various branch lines.

Edit:  It's only about 40 miles from me.  Cut a deal and I can get it into the truck, hold it for you.

Not worthy of a for sale thread, but for train people .....

NMNA  - -  $230.  Could be a cool go-kart.

ATSF #2926 made her short four block move this weekend. She looks great and I can't wait to see what the future holds for her. The rumored trips are Albuquerque to Las Vegas, which seems like a solid trip, since both of those are destinations. 

In reply to 914Driver :

Oh man, that would make neat yard art. I'd plug the roof and paint it in NYC or NYO&W colors. Trying to resist the urge.

Pretty big news: Everett Railroad has acquired Lehigh & New England business car #100, the last known surviving L&NE passenger car.

It was built by American Car & Foundry in 1925, and it reportedly did not not have a traditional floor plan. According to AC&F builder’s photos in the Delaware Public Archives, it appears that the car was configured with four or five small compartments, each equipped with an upper and lower berth. There was a small kitchen, one restroom, and an observation room that may have doubled as a dining area. The car originally featured stained-glass panels in the clerestory (they’re intact), a carpeted floor and walnut paneling. Soon after the car arrived on L&NE, the Reading Company offered to buy and merge the entire railroad, and as part of its plans for integrating the L&NE into its own operations, the Reading proposed taking the L&NE’s brand-new car #100 and reconfiguring it with a more conventional layout, including two stateroom. The Interstate Commerce Commission turned down the acquisition and the car retained its original floor plan for the rest of its service life on the railroad.

In 1961, the L&NE filed for, and received, permission to abandon, and in 1964, the office car was as sold in 1964 to become part of the “Paoli Local” restaurant at Strafford, PA, on the Pennsylvania Railroad main line, route of the PRR’s Philadelphia commuter-train fleet of that same name. The owner painted and lettered it in Pennsylvania Railroad livery and gave it the number 605. Sadly at that point both the interior and exterior were heavily modified, according to Everett Railroad President Alan Maples, with the insides being "tunnelled" and converted to a restaurant dining area, and two holes were cut in one side to provide access from and to the restaurant’s main building. The business changed names and owners several times and finally in 1993, the owner no longer needed the car and sold it to Ed Metka, owner of the Vintage Electric Streetcar Co. in Windber, PA.

Metka stored the car in a building that was once a freight-car repair shop for the Berwind-White Coal Mining Co., a shipper that once fielded a fleet of hundreds of private-owner hoppers. Most of Metka’s inventory consisted of retired trolley cars that he hoped to market to cities or agencies contemplating a renaissance of streetcar service. He did find some buyers, but many pieces of rolling stock remained, including L&NE #100. Metka sold the building and all of his collection off early this year, and I hear a lot of the stuff is being scrapped, but thankfully Alan Maples managed to get the L&NE #100 off of Metka before he sold out.

Sadly, it won’t be possible to restore the car’s original interior arrangement and furnishings, in part because no floor-plan blueprints have been located. But it will still look great paired with the rest of their passenger cars, which includes several old CNJ commuter cars and an ex-B&LE combine, and they have a couple more heavyweight cars awaiting restoration.

While Lehigh & New England #100 is the sole surviving L&NE passenger car, L&NE #611, an Alco S2 switcher, is the sole surviving L&NE diesel locomotive. After the L&NE threw in the towel on October 31st, 1961, the #611 went to Ford Motor Co.’s River Rouge steel mill complex in Michigan; then to the Toledo, Lake Erie & Western Railway and Museum, before ending up at the former Emporia Grain mill in Emporia. It was replaced by an ex-BNSF Geep in 2015, and the Lehigh New England Preservation Society and the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society brought #611 back to Pennsylvania in 2016. It is currently at the Allentown & Auburn Railroad undergoing a complete restoration, which will restore it to it's original L&NE livery.

The Lehigh & New England Railroad, like the similarly named neighboring Lehigh & Hudson River, remains one of the more forgotten anthracite roads. The New York, Ontario & Western has a strong following due to it's underdog status and the fact that it was the first major railroad to be abandoned in nearly it's entirety in 1957, and the larger Reading Company, Lehigh Valley, Erie and DL&W had larger followings and hung on into the 1970s. But the L&NE was an odd one. It paralleled the L&HR and failed to serve any large markets, toiling in relative obscurity, it ended passenger operations in 1938, and was abandoned on October 31st, 1961. The L&NE was still profitable at that point, but management had seen that the rapid decline of the anthracite coal business was on the horizon and the made the decision to quit while the quitting was good. The Central Railroad of New Jersey took over segments of it, operating them under the paper railroad Lehigh and New England Railway. All that remains today of active L&NE trackage is what is now known as the NS Cement Secondary, a 22.6 mile branch line between Bethlehem and Uhlers, PA. The line still meanders through the "cement belt" of Northampton County, PA, but many of the large cement plants along the line no longer ship by rail. Interestingly, NS does not have an L&NE heritage unit, but since they acquired the trackage through the CNJ, I guess they figured the CNJ heritage unit is good enough.