A Festivus Miracle!

What a beauty!

Southwest Rails

You might recall a post from about 6 weeks ago that had an image of SP PA 6006 getting a bath. Click here to refresh your memory.

Since I posted it, I came across 2 more images of this same locomotive that were taken about 4-5 years apart in Ogden, UT. What struck me as an amazing coincidence, maybe even a Festivus miracle, was that the images were taken not only in the same town, but in virtually the exact same location at the SP’s Ogden roundhouse.

The first image shows the 6006 on October 3, 1958. It appears to have a recently replaced lead truck. Note the position of the unit relative to the utility pole in the background.

There’s no date on the second image, but we can narrow down the date to the 1962-1964 range. What’s my basis for this assertion?

The Southern Pacific adopted the lark…

View original post 131 more words

Advertisement

The Soo Line’s Sleek General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division F3 Streamlined Diesel Locomotive

Builder’s portrait of a Soo Line EMD F3 diesel locomotive. The EMD F3 was a 1,500-hp freight- and passenger-hauling diesel locomotive produced between July 1945 and February 1949 by General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division. Final assembly was at GM-EMD’s La Grange, Illinois plant. A total of 1,111 cab-equipped lead A units and 696 cabless booster B units were built. The F3 was the third model in GM-EMD’s highly successful F-unit series of cab unit diesel locomotives, and it was the second most produced of the series. The F3 essentially differed from the EMD F2 in that it used the “new” D12 generator to produce more power. As built, the only way to distinguish between the F2 and F3 was the nose number panels on the A units, which were small on the F2 and large on the F3. The Soo Line acquired 10 of the A units, numbered 200A, B – 204A, B.

AMTRAK EXHIBIT TRAIN VISITS CHEYENNE, WYOMING

“New York Central System’s GM Aerotrain: The Road to the Future”

A postcard depicting a General Motor’s Aerotrain. From the back of the card: The New York Central System “The Road to the Future.” A General Motors “Aerotrain” is shown on display here at Buffalo, New York in Feb. of 1956. The train failed in regular operation and was in service on the Central less than a year. It was part of a futile effort to upgrade passenger service. Similar units were used briefly on the Pennsylvania and the Union Pacific Railroads. By 1969 the Road to the Future had proved to be the Road to Ruin. The card was distributed in 1970 by Owen Davies, Bookseller.

“The City of Los Angeles: Union Pacific’s Top-of-the-Line Streamlined Passenger Train”

Postcard photo of the streamliner City of Los Angeles near Sterling, Illinois and traveling along the Rock River. The train is pulled by a EMC E2 locomotive. The City of Los Angeles was a streamlined passenger train between Chicago, Illinois, and Los Angeles, California via Omaha, Nebraska, and Ogden, Utah. Between Omaha and Los Angeles it ran on the Union Pacific Railroad; east of Omaha it ran on the Chicago and North Western Railway until October 1955 and on the Milwaukee Road thereafter. This train was the top-of-the-line for the Union Pacific, which marketed it as a competitor to the Super Chief, a streamlined passenger train on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, and the Golden State, a streamlined passenger train jointly operated by the Rock Island and Southern Pacific railroads. As with the City of Los Angeles, many of the train’s cars bore the names of locales in and around its namesake city. Circa late 1940s.

“ROUTE OF THE FLORIDA SUNBEAM”

THE FLORIDA SUNBEAM was operated by the New York Central System, the Southern Railway System, and the Seaboard Airline Railroad. On Jan. 1, 1936 the Florida Sunbeam was inaugurated as a winter-only train between Cincinnati and both coasts of Florida with through cars from Great Lakes cities. In 1949 it was replaced with the much faster, streamlined NEW ROYAL PALM on a changed routing. This linen postcard depicts an ALCO DL-109 diesel locomotive pulling the train. It was advertised as being diesel powered between Cincinnati, Ohio and Valdosta, Georgia.

“The Cincinnatian, The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s De Luxe All-Coach Passenger Streamliner”

The Cincinnatian was a named passenger train operated by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O). The B&O inaugurated service on January 19, 1947, with service between Baltimore, Maryland and Cincinnati, Ohio, essentially a truncated route of the B&O’s National Limited, which operated between Jersey City, New Jersey and St. Louis, Missouri. The Cincinnatian is most famed for its original dedicated equipment, rebuilt in the B&O Mount Clare Shops. The design work was done by Olive Dennis, a pioneering civil engineer employed by the railroad and appointed by Daniel Willard to special position in charge of such work for passenger service. The livery used the blue and gray scheme designed by Otto Kuhler, which Dennis laid on the engine and tender in a pattern of horizontal stripes and angled lines. In 1950, its route was changed to travel between Detroit and Cincinnati; the train kept this route until 1971, when Amtrak assumed passenger rail service.

“The Flying Yankee: An Early Streamlined Articulated Trainset”

The Flying Yankee was a diesel-powered streamliner built in 1935 for the Maine Central Railroad and the Boston and Maine Railroad by Budd Company and with mechanical and electrical equipment from Electro-Motive Corporation. It was also the name of a passenger train, the third streamliner train in North America after the Union Pacific Railroad’s M-10000 and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad’s Pioneer Zephyr; the Flying Yankee was, in fact, a virtual clone of the latter, except that it dispensed with the baggage/mail space to seat 142 in three articulated cars.

“Seaboard Streamlined Steam Locomotive at the Seaboard Railway Station, St. Petersburg”

Postcard depiction of one of the finest Seaboard Air Line Streamlined Steam Locomotives at the Seaboard Air Line Railway Station at St. Petersburg, Florida, “The Sunshine City.”
This is a linen type card that was popular circa 1930s to early 1950s. Streamlined locomotives and trains began in the early to mid 1930s with the lightweight diesel trains such as the Pioneer Zephyr. By the late 1940s to early 1950s, diesel powered locomotives were in common use for passenger service. This card is likely from the 1930s to 1940s.

Electric Blues: Show 209

You don’t want to miss this!

The Playhouse Classic Blues

Once again that Voice Vixen plays tribute to the electric blues on the Playhouse.

Question: what happens when a band friends B on WordPress and “LIKE”s her all up?  Well we all know she’s easy, but when it comes to the blues, she only plays the best.  Texas Johnny and the Night Owl Blues Band asked if B would play two of their new songs, she gave them a listen.  In her own words, “If I like it, I KNOW your gonna love it” 

Joining Texas Johnny on tonight’s show: Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker, BB King, Lightnin’ Hopkins and more…

Another show not to miss

View original post