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Friday, April 22, 2011

Choosing a 1953 locomotive roster

My primary desire in all aspects of my layout is to reproduce actual operating practices and equipment for 1953, and many prior posts on this blog have dealt with that. Today’s post addresses steam (and to some extent diesel) locomotives as part of that goal.
     One reason I chose to model the year 1953 is that it was the last year in which steam was the predominant motive power on the Coast Line. The previous year, 1952, had seen for the first time approximately equal locomotive miles worked by steam and diesel power over the entire system (see the graph in my previous post, at:  http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2011/04/choosing-and-modeling-era.html). But this was a system-wide fact, and the best-performing steam locomotives had been migrating west into California and Oregon throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s as diesel power was primarily applied in desert regions of the SP. This is why steam in 1953 could be a minority of system-wide power but still dominant on the Coast Line.
     Turning now to the Coast Division, I have looked at several of the booklets issued quarterly by SP, entitled “Locomotive Assignments,” which list each division’s assigned power. Although it does not differentiate, for example on the Coast Division, between assignments in San Francisco, San Jose, Watsonville Junction, or San Luis Obispo, it still considerably narrows the entire motive power fleet.
     Reproduced below is the Coast Division page for July 1, 1952. It lists 24 diesel switchers in the topmost grouping, and 23 steam switchers (the following group). Diesel switchers included nos. 1019 (an Alco S-1), 1028-1031 (Alco S-3s), 1331-1367 and 1388-1392 (Alco S-2s), all wartime-built switchers, and also nine switchers among 1444-1461 (Baldwin S-12s), built in 1951. The only other diesels are the three 5200-series Baldwin AS-616s, and a series of EMD F7 cab units, 12 A and 12 B units. In the usual A-B-B-A formation, this is only six locomotives, but on the Coast three-unit and two-unit sets were also photographed with shorter trains, so the effective number was larger than six.


      I won’t say more here about diesel power, since I’ve pretty much already summarized my conclusions in a post about diesel locomotive chronology. It’s at: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2011/03/modeling-diesel-locomotive-chronology.html.
     Of the 172 total locomotives listed, 121 were steam, vs. 51 diesels. Many of these steam engines were assigned in the San Francisco-San Jose commute pool, particularly the large numbers of Pacifics and Mountains. But the dominance of steam on the Coast Division at this time is clear.
     Because this divisional listing cannot identify locomotives which primarily served at one terminal or another, I have turned to roundhouse and yard photographs for approximately 1953 at San Luis Obispo, many of which were published in John Signor’s and my books about the Coast, entitled Southern Pacific’s Coast Line and Southern Pacific’s  Coast Line Pictorial, Signature Press, 1995 and 2000.
     I will just present a single example photo, a Mac Gaddis image from 1953 of the right or northern side of the San Luis roundhouse, where the smaller power was stabled in stalls 1 through 10. (In this instance, a 2-10-2 is in stall 10.)


     Here is a list of steam locomotives one sees again and again in photos taken at San Luis Obispo, some of which are visible in the photo above: Ten-wheeler 2344; Consolidations 2534, 2592, 2762, 2791, 2803, 2829, 2836, and SD&AE 103; Mikados 3251 and 3264;  and 2-10-2 “Decks” 3661, 3666, 3672, 3679, 3688, 3699, 3703, 3711, 3715. I don’t list power which often operated on through trains, arriving at San Luis directly from Los Angeles or the Bay Area and then returning, particularly Mountains, cab-forwards, and GS engines, since a wide variety of locomotive numbers of these types were seen in photos at San Luis Obispo.
     Checking my list of numbers seen in photos against the assignment sheet above will reveal a number of discrepancies. This can be for several reasons: power was only passing through San Luis at the time of a photo, rather than assigned there; power was photographed at a time different from the date of the assignment sheet above (assignments did change all the time); or power may have been temporarily assigned at San Luis, and photographed, and not ever shown in a quarterly assignment.
     I have chosen model locomotive classes, and individual locomotive numbers, from the combination of assignment sheet information and period photographs, but I do regard the photo as the ultimate authority that an engine did serve, even if briefly, at San Luis Obispo.
Tony Thompson

11 comments:

  1. Congratulations on having the "ultimate authority." If anyone wants to argue the steam locos, then they will have to product the second "ultimate authority" and hopefully you will then both photos. Historical study provides so many delights as you are able to base your decisions on what has been documented at the time. Again thanks for providing a reasonable and logical matrix for decision making.

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  2. I am always on the lookout for engine assignments from your era, since it is my era of interest as well. Besides photos and the locomotive assignment sheets you spoke of, there are some other good sources for this information that I have come across. Conductor's books, employee time books and dispatcher sheets all list engines in use, the only problem is locating these for the division and period you are interested in.

    Conductor books and employee time books will typically list the engines on trains handled by the employee filling out the book. With these you get the engine assignments for only trains they handle, but you get this history over many days/months for those operating regularly. For those only operating seasonally or sporadically, due to lack of seniority or some other constraint, the book may actually cover years of engine assignments and may cover other divisions as well. I have seen time books for San Joaquin Division employees that show Coast and LA Division assignments as well those on their home division.

    Dispatcher sheets typically provide a 24-hour record of all road engine assignments on a particular subdivision. These would include all engines assigned to scheduled and extra trains operated for that day. This means that engines assigned exclusively to yard service, those out of service for maintenance, and those not needed that day would not appear on the dispatcher sheet.

    If you can’t locate dispatcher sheets or copies of these for your locale and era all is not lost. Almost as good as the dispatcher sheets, and in some cases better, are SIX AM SITUATION reports and Power Summary reports provided daily to the Division Superintendent and other “Big Wheels” in the operating department.

    The SIX AM SITUATION reports were typically telegrams detailing the 6:00AM train status situation for the division and included the status of all trains in operation including the engines assigned. Buried in these telegram copies for the Coast Division I have found what are called power reports, which detail engines assigned to SLO helper duties, SLO local freights and SLO yard assignments as of 12:01AM for that particular day.

    The Power Summary reports are telegrams providing a detailed record of engine dispositions for a particular place and time. I have a copy for San Luis Obispo for February 1, 1947 and it details Coast Division power east of Santa Barbara and enroute, AC power now at SLO, AC power delivered to LA Division at Santa Barbara and enroute, AC Power received from LA Division at Santa a Barbara and enroute and all other power at SLO and the assignments, if any, for each engine. This report concludes with a summary of engines enroute to SLO and the expected time of arrival and the tonnage and car counts of the trains involved. I presume this information helped for planning helper placement and assignments.

    Hope this provides some insight into other places to get engine assignment details.

    Greg

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  3. Thank you, Greg, for some excellent and detailed information. I have heard of the "Situation Reports" but have never seen one. They would sure be terrific information for a researcher in the subjects we are discussing. I would really like to find more time books, not only for locomotive information but also for freight train consists. I am pursuing a couple of sources for engineers' and firemen's time books, even though they don't have train consists, because they identify locomotives and also train symbols and times of day, interesting to compare to photos and to SP employee timetables.

    Dispatcher sheets would be great too, but I understand that at least some Coast Division records of that sort were archived at the PE building, 6th and Main in Los Angeles, and all went into the dumpster when SP moved out of that building. I keep hoping to run across one of the railfans who were reportedly rescuing "stuff" from those dumpsters.

    Perhaps the most important point Greg makes is that there were a lot of different sources for some of the information we want, and it's wise to be aware of them and keep one's eyes open.
    Tony Thompson

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  4. Here is a link to see the first page of a SIX AM SITUATION REPORT. This will give you some idea what they look like:


    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5828518/AssetsPDF%27s/6AM_Situation_Report_SLO_010947.pdf

    Cut and Paste the entire link in your browser address window to download and view the file.

    This one is for San Luis Obispo on January 9, 1947. They typically ran multiple pages when copied onto letter size paper.

    Greg

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  5. Greg, thanks very much. This is a superb chunk of data. I would sure like to have a series of these for 1953! but we take what comes along. I will study this for insights.

    I had an e-mail query as to why I used an assignment sheet for July 1952 in this post. I don't have any for 1953 which include ALL locomotives. But I do have the steam side, tabulated by Fred Stindt. In January 1953, for example, there were 124 steam locos assigned--actually MORE than the July 1952 assignment! But as I say, I don't have the diesel side for that time. I'm pursuing a couple of sources.
    Tony Thompson

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  6. I promise this is my last comment for this particular topic. Here is the link for a Power Summary Report for January 9, 1947:

    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5828518/AssetsPDF%27s/Power_Summary_Report_SLO_010947.pdf

    Step 1 Cut and Paste the entire link in your browser address window to download and view the file.

    Step 2 Enjoy!

    Greg

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  7. Great stuff again, Greg, and thanks again for your generosity in showing these. Terrific to see all the locos listed.
    Tony Thompson

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  8. To improve the reliability of the two links mentioned in my comments above I have moved the two files. The new links are now:

    6 AM Situation Report Summary Sample

    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5828518/6AM_Situation_Report_SLO_010947.pdf


    Power Summary Report Sample

    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5828518/Power_Summary_Report_SLO_010947.pdf

    Use these to view the two samples.

    It turns out Dropbox does not like folders within the Public folder.

    Greg

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  9. The Mac Gaddis photo shows a surprise. What the heck is 103? A T&NO S-8 class 0-6-0? I always thought SLO had a 2-8-0 assigned for switching. An 0-6-0? From T&NO??

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  10. Reviewing this again, OK... 103 is one of the SD&AE engines reassigned to the Coast Line. I thought the GS-5s (4458 and 4459) were assigned to the Coast Daylight. Where they and the GS-4s protecting the Coast Daylight assigned to the Los Angeles Division?

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  11. Most of the GS-4s with Daylight or Lark duty were assigned at Los Angeles or San Francisco (latter in Coast Division), with LA the dominant terminal for those engines.
    Tony Thompson

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