Grassroots Railroad Sports?

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

On someone's last day as a dispatcher . . . 

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

Oooof. Good thing it was autoracks and not Amtrak Superliner's with passengers though. That is interesting, because I was under the impression railroad clearances were relatively standardized for this reason, since unlike in trucks, its not as easy to just take a different route to go around a low bridge. I wonder if that train got diverted onto a regional line or something that didn't usually handle autoracks

In reply to NickD :

It had to have been something like that. Autoracks are a Plate K car, requiring more clearance than even double-stacked containers...

One of the YouTube comments appears to have narrowed down the location. 

NickD said:

Bad preservation news: The Swanton Pacific Railroad, a small tourist line that operated the very unique 19" gauge live-steam Pacifics from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition, was essentially destroyed by the SCU Lightning Complex forest fire out in California. Most of the cars, buildings and 3 of the 5 steam locomotives (1 is on display at California State Railroad Museum, the other was in Cheyenne for boiler work) were severely fire-damaged or destroyed.

I've been doing reading on the Overfair Railway at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. What a weird and ill-fated operation. That equipment took a long, winding, perilous journey to even get to Swanton Pacific Ranch.

All the equipment was designed and built by a gentleman by the name of Louis Macdermot. The son of a wealthy industrialist, Macdermot was passionate about all things mechanical. In 1910, his widowed mother had given Louis sole ownership of the family's massive machine shop, much to the irritation of his two other siblings. Using that machine shop, Macdermot built a number of steam-powered boats and even a steam motorcycle, as well as manufacturing lightweight airplane engines. He even owned and flew his own biplane and had hoped to compete in the $50,000 Hearst prize for a coast-to-coast flight in under 30 days.

So when the Panama Pacific International Exhibition was being planned and the idea of a railroad line inside the fair was cooked up, the planning committee turned to Macdermot. He had the social connections, the financial funding from his mother, the mechanical know-how and the manufacturing capacity to build the proposed 10 locomotives and 75 passenger cars. Macdermot took on the challenge, designing and constructing the locomotives at home and building the passenger cars in a nearby building.

\

Almost immediately though, the Overfair Railway ran into trouble. The proposed line had been through the park, allowing riders to see the exhibits from the train and embark and disembark at various points. But the planning committee became nervous about pedestrian safety and instead, decided to route the line around the outer edges of the fair. Sensing that it would make the operation less economically viable, they cut the order back from 10 locomotives to 3, as well as reducing the orders for passenger cars.

Macdermot was already cranking up production at this time. He had built an 0-6-0 saddle tank, #1500, and several freight cars to be used for the construction of the railroad line.

Then, for the actual operation, he had finished 3 and was in the process of building a 4th Pacific. These engine all used an unusual 19" gauge track (18" was a somewhat common industrial gauge, while 24" and 36" were your normal narrow gauge). These tiny Pacifics were designed as a scaled-down version of a Southern Pacific P-6 Pacific and were supposed to represent progress. Macdermot was not interested in building the usual park locomotives, which tended to be either styled after Civil War antiques or plantation locomotives.

The three completed locomotives were numbered #1912, #1913 and #1914. The incomplete engine, #1915, would never see fire. In addition, they built 60 four-axle, 20' passenger coaches, 2 six-axle 24' passenger coaches and 5 freight cars. The golden spike was driven on October 16th, 1914 and when the exhibition opened, Macdermot's Overfair Railway was ready to go. But in addition to the change in routing, construction costs had ballooned when the planning board insisted that the trestle that went behind the California Building out over the waterfront had to be constructed to Class 1 specifications, despite the smaller size and lighter weight of the equipment.

The fair was a success. The Overfair Railway was not. By skirting the edge of the fair, its relevance was strongly diminished. Also, on days with special occasions, the fair management frequently ordered the railway shut down. Competition from F.B. Faegol's Auto Trains (car-based trams), which were allowed to roam the fairgrounds hammered another nail in. And while a street car or the Auto Trains had a 5 cent fair, the Overfair Railway was charging a dime. Also, after the post Civil War railroad fever, the public fascination with trains had died down (especially with the arrival of the automobile and airplane) and would not be recaptured until the streamlined trains of the '30s. 

While Macdermot had complete 3 trainsets of equipment, it was very rare that all were in service. Most days only saw two of the locomotives in operation. Macdermot absorbed most of the costs out of his own pocket, his mother having passed in 1914 and left him essentially everything. While the Auto Trains raked in $307,000 in revenue over the fair's 12 months, the Overfair only saw $22,000.

After the fair, Macdermot brought all the equipment back to the estate and parked it about the property. In 1916, his siblings waged a court battle against him to gain access to their parent's estate. Louis lost and ended up with essentially just the estate and a fraction of the money. His mother had also made a number of bad loans that he would try to collect on without any success. Macdermot became increasingly erratic and reclusive and the home and Overfair equipment began to deteriorate as it sat outside. There was hopes that Macdermot could be convinced to bring the equipment out for the 1939-1940 Golden Gate International Exhibition but nothing came of it.

In late 1940, Macdermot cut a deal with today's Oakland Zoo to run the trains on the zoo property as the Mountain Lion Railway. Three of the locomotives were moved onto the Zoo, the best of the passenger cars were selected and a new line was built. The only engine to operate was #1913, which had lost its boiler jacketing and its lead truck, becoming an 0-6-2. The Mountain Lion Railway was a very short-lived operation, as Macdermot's erratic behaviors irritated the zoo management and they almost immediately evicted him and his equipment. 

While Macdermot had hoped to put the equipment into operation again, no other plans materialized, both because of his fallen status and because of his lack of funding. One plan was that Macdermot wished to aqcuire the 76-mile long North Pacific Coast Railway 36" gauge short line, which was in the process of abandonment, and shoved one rail over the 17" the entire length of the line to make it compatible with his equipment. Macdermot never actually contacted the NPCRwy with his plans though, and they had no knowledge of it when they dismantled the line. In 1945, Macdermot disassembled all the equipment and stashed it away. Macdermot died in 1948, penniless.

Enter Billy Jones. A retired Southern Pacific engineer, in 1943 he had opened Billy Jones' Wildcat Railroad, an 18" gauge tourist line in Los Gatos using an Ocean Park & Playa Del Rey Railroad live steam engine. Jones had befriended Macdermot and let him store the old Overfair equipment on his property, as well as having Macdermot help set up the line. He had also purchased a couple Overfair passenger cars and modified them to run on the 1" narrower gauge. When Macdermot passed away, Jones bought up all the equipment from Madermot's trustee for $5200, saving them from a certain doom. He then restored the surviving fleet of equipment while converting them to oil-fired and adding mechanical lubricators and modifying them to work on the 18" gauge track.

The Wildcat Railroad was not the home that the Overfair equipment was looking for either. The Overfair Pacifics were constructed much differently from the average park or industrial narrow gage engine, and were too rigid and had too long of a wheelbase. As a result, none of the Pacifics were well-suited for the Wildcat's line, and were never operated on the line. The 0-6-0 #1500 was the only engine to ever attempt the line and even that was not a success. Jones widened the gauge by an inch to the proper 19", but this didn't help much either. So, the engines were relegated to display status and at some point in the early 1960s, Jones sold off #1914, the still-unoperated #1915 and the #1500 to a southern California buyer for a planned amusement park that never opened. 

Billy Jones passed away in 1968, and Richard Maxfield purchased the two remaining Overfair Pacifics, #1912 and #1913, and 3 Overfair passenger cars and moved them to the upper Napa Valley. Maxfield had the long-inoperative #1912 and #1913 restored again and in 1975 opened the Calistoga Steam Railroad. The line offered a 2 mile ride up a 3% grade as it scaled Mount Washington, offering views of vineyards and mountains. Within 3 years, the Calistoga was shut down and all the equipment up for sale again.

Now Al Smith enters the picture. Smith had worked for the Southern Pacific but had lost his leg in a railroading accident. Using the compensation from the railroad accident, Smith purchased a plot of land in Swanton, CA that would become the foundation of the Swanton Pacific Ranch. After losing his leg, Smith had gone back to college and become an agricultural teacher and then opened a large hardware store (Orchard Hardware Supply) in San Jose. After selling off the OHS and retiring comfortably in 1979, he became aware of Overfair Railway #1912 and #1913 going up for sale. He purchased the two engines and cars from Maxfield as well as a turntable from Calistoga Steam Railroad, moved them to the Ranch and began laying rail from Swanton south (actually overlaying the old right of way from the abandoned Ocean Shore Railroad) eventually building a roundhouse, car shop and maintenance facilities as well.

In 1983, Los Angeles County public administrator auctioned off the two other Pacifics, #1914 and the #1915, and the tank engine #1500. Smith won both Pacifics for a total of $7700, while a friend of Smiths bought the #1500. This brought all four Pacifics back under the same roof, but they wouldn't stay that way, because in 1991 Smith donated the never-operated #1915 to the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. In 1985, the Swanton Pacific began operation using #1913, which was the favorite engine of Macdermot, and in 1987, the #1912 was operated for the first time since the close of the fair in 1915. #1914 was returned to operation in 1990. Al Smith passed in 1993 and the entire ranch and railroad was endowed to Cal Poly's College Of Agriculture, where he had been educated after his accident on the railroad. In 1995, the #1500 was purchased by the Swanton Pacific from Wildcat Railroad, where it gone back to ater the 1983 auction, bringing 4 of the 5 locomotives back together. 

Cal Poly also constructed a diesel engine that resembled a miniature GE U25B diesel as well.

At the time of the fire, the #1912 was in Cheyenne for boiler work, but all the other engines were in the roundhouse and all severely fire damaged.

Scrap thieves broke into the Reading Railroad Museum, operated by the Reading Company Technical & Historical Society, and stole parts off of their roster of diesel locomotives that they have on display. "As the victims go through the equipment that's down, there they're finding thousands, actually closer to hundreds of thousands, of dollars worth of damage as a result of individuals in there stealing scrap metal from them." Three suspects have been arrested and police believe there is a fourth involved.

https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/berks/3-arrested-after-metal-stolen-from-train-museum-in-hamburg/article_044d5836-f705-11ea-9c9a-e309de997aba.html

To balance that out, a little more good news. Age of Steam Roundhouse has fired up McCloud River #19. A tiny little standard-gauge logging Mikado (48" drivers, 90 ton engine weight, 36,000lb tractive effort) built in 1915 by Baldwin, this engine has gotten around. It was built as Caddo & Choctaw Railroad #4; to Choctaw River Lumber Company; to Cia de Real del Monte y Pachuca #105, Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico; reported to have also been United Mining & Smelter Company #2069 while in Mexico; to McCloud River January 1923. Purchase price $23,149.51, plus $2,109.83 freight and $439.16 conditioning. Placed in service August 1923. Sold 8 June 1953 to Yreka Western Railroad #19, tender swapped with the #16:2 on its way off the property. Leased to Oregon, Pacific & Eastern #19, Cottage Grove, Oregon, from 1970-1988, then returned to Yreka. Operated on the YW 1989-2008, somewhat sporadically in the final years. Sold 10/6/2016 at a sheriff's auction to Age of Steam Roundhouse, Sugar Creek, Ohio. Age of Steam repainted the #19 to the OP&E scheme it wore in the movie Emperor of the North Pole by early 2018

While I still do not really understand Age Of Steam Roundhouse and its goal/purpose, its cool to see them making progress and getting things fired up. Now, if only they had a place to really operate these engines and were fully open to the public.

Every railfan has their favorite locomotives. For some, it's a modern GE or EMD leading a fast freight cross-country. For others, it's an enormous steam locomotive pulling a heavy drag freight. 
 

Mine are the branchline locomotives: 2-8-0s, 4-6-0s, and the soft spot for a particular type of switcher- 0-4-0 and 0-6-0 tank engines. Among the most interesting are those built by the H.K. Porter company. Porter built locomotives for nearly 100 years, from 1866-1950. They were noted for building small, yet powerful switchers in numerous gauges and configurations, including several unique types that used a steam reservoir in lieu of a boiler for use in hazardous locations. The H.K. Porter company no longer manufactures locomotives, but they remain in business to this day as a manufacturer of industrial equipment. 
 

In reply to Recon1342 :

I got to ride in the cab of this Alco when I was a kid. It's been out of service since 1988 though. 
 

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

Pretty sure my love affair with switchers began when a friend gave me a little die-cast Mantua 0-4-0t for my HO scale layout. That little locomotive assembled a lot of trains...

In reply to Recon1342 :

Youngstown Steel Heritage has one of the old Jones & Laughlin Steel Company 0-4-0 Porters that they are pretty sure is the densest locomotive around. It's a weird little 23" gauge industrial locomotive that looks like a brick, and due to it's weight they call the #58 "The Rolling Ingot". The owner also found two more of the J&L Porters up in Canada and recently had them trucked south to restore.

I like the "Littlest Boy" chalked on the smokebox as a stab at the UP Big Boy (UP was going to call them a Wasatch and then some joker at the Alco factory chalked Big Boy on the smoke box and the name stuck)

In reply to NickD :

Porters were small, but universally known to punch well above their weight in regards to tractive effort. 
 

This one, a 6 ton 40.5" gauge "Fireless", was built in 1906 and eventually found its way to the Toronto Railway Historical Association. It was originally used in a cordage (rope) manufacturing plant; instead of a boiler, the tank in its place was filled with compressed air. 
 

NickD said:

I discovered some very interesting facts regarding No. 58: She is a representation of a special class of Locomotive- The heaviest (by axle loading) two-foot gauge locomotives ever fielded in North America, with a ready-to-go weight of 93,000 lbs. This enabled a tractive effort of over 16,000 lbs; she was able to move trains of over 1,000 tons solo, and did so on a regular basis. Apparently, she's the Y6b of the switcher world...

The guy who restored and operates J&L #58, Rick Rowlands, has found two more of the J&L Porters in Canada and is raising money to ship them back to Youngstown and eventually restore a second to operation. One of them is #57, the other one has no visible numbers, so he is not sure which one it is. He knows it is not #57, #58, or #59. That one was cut up at Benkart Rigging in the 1990s and the boiler, drivers, pistons , heads, piston valves and side rods were saved by Rowlnads and he actually used the #59's drivers under the #58. He also says that #60 and #61 are believed to be gone, meaning it is most likely #62.

A Baltimore & Ohio EM-1 Yellowstone 2-8-8-4 and a "Big Six" 2-10-2 doublehead a freight train through the Potomac River narrows on their way to Pittsburgh

B&O "Big Six" #6143 leaves Shenandoah Junction

A Baltimore & Ohio "Big Six" shoves hard on one of the B&O's distinctive wagontop cabooses. The Big Sixes, so named for their 6000-series number block, were the B&O's largest non-articulated steam locomotives and the largest 2-10-2s built in the US. With over 80,000lbs of tractive effort, the 156 Santa Fes were workhorses of the B&O fleet, although often overshadowed by the big EM-1 2-8-8-4 Yellowstones.

Showing off it's Vanderbilt tender, a Big Six in helper service assists a train over Sand Patch. 

The Big Sixes lived relatively long lives, the first being purchased in 1914, and the last leaving service in 1959. There were a few casualties along the way, with two being rebuilt into 4-8-2 Mountains in 1925, another two had their lead and trailing trucks removed and their boilers shortened to become 0-10-0 switchers in 1926 and  another 15 were retired in scrapped in 1938. By the the end, they were bumped down to just hump yard switching and helper service and were renumbered to the 500-series number block, losing the reason for their name. None were saved for preservation, although one was supposedly set aside with a EM-1 Yellowstone and a T-3 Mountain and then was scrapped due to a communication error.

A couple more switchers from the sugar factory. One is a GE 44-tonner, the other is, I believe, a GE 24 ton "critter". Neither is idle for long...

Tripleheaded B&O EM-1 2-8-8-4s on a coal drag on the Fairport branch. Yes, that is 48 drive wheels, over 3 million pounds of weight, and 345,000lbs of tractive effort.