WAF Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> OPRRMS Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Poplar Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > J Wrote:
> > >
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> >
> > > -----
> > > > Need to back a little further in time. The
> > 7200
> > > > has already lost its headlight package to a
> > > wimpy
> > > > flasher.
> > >
> > >
> > > I arrived in Oakland in 89. So it can't be
> > farther
> > > back than that.
> >
> > SP began to replace their signal lights with
> Prime
> > Model 8911 beacons in 1986, due to the
> influence
> > of Santa Fe's Chief Mechanical Officer (think
> SPSF
> > merger). Santa Fe used that type of light at
> the
> > time. The stated reason was cost; however,
> over
> > time the beacons became just as expensive to
> > maintain as the signal lights due to the cost
> of
> > replacing burnt-out bulbs, plus concerns about
> > injury payments since it required climbing on
> the
> > cab roof.
> >
> > The first new units delivered with them were
> the
> > GP60s and B39-8s, althought many existing units
> > had already been converted by then.
> >
> > As an aside, SP tested Prime beacons on
> > approximately a dozen units starting in
> 1971/1972.
> > Units 1808, 2407, 4004 and 9150, come to mind
> > offhand.
>
>
> There was a local Oregon law that in some towns,I
> think Salem, that beacons were required on
> locomotives. Pictures of S-12s and SW1500s with
> beacons

Wes, who was the CMO I'm thinking of? Henry Chidgey, maybe?

And in the Small World department, my "boss" at the Oakland Animal Shelter happens to be the daughter of the late J.G. Bell. Remember when he was Terminal Superintendent at Oakland in the early '80s?