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The "straight dope", as we used to say on the SP
Author: Dr Zarkoff
Date: 02-13-2017 - 13:01
>Second incident was in 1984 and there were pictures of the actual incident posted on trains magazine. About 6 miles east of the bridge is Lombard, a major junction and switching area with lines going north to Napa and south to Vallejo. The crew uncoupled the front two engines and tied them down and made a run with the third engine in the consist up to Kaiser steel in Napa.
The crew had three GPs and uncoupled the first one to go into Lombard yard to pick up two SW 1500s. The two GPs left on the Schellville main lost their air brakes and rolled away (it's mostly downhill between Lombard and Brazos).
>There are a total of four drawbridge's in a distance of 20 miles on this line and three of them were left open to river traffic at all times. The utility person would follow the train in his vehicle and close each bridge long enough for the train to cross.
There is only ONE drawbridge between Lombard and Schellville. All the others are on the NWP, which was a separate railroad at the time. The "bridge operator" for Brazos was the clerk at the Lombard yard office, who would drive to the bridge to operate it. He didn't operate any of the NWP's bridges.
>A rail fan was following the train that day taking pictures at each bridge as it passed. yes, he was all set up at Brazos when the two runaway engines appeared and went into the river with a big slash.
This is Geen Poon.
>SP borrowed a crane and barge from Santa FE, pulled the engines out of the salt water, put them on a barge and floated them all the way to the Richmond terminal where they were put back on the rails again.
The SP borrowed a crane and barge from the construction yard in Vallejo which was building an offshore drilling platform for somewhere in Alaska. I used to see the thing on the way to work, and it was huge. The engines were barged to the is yard and put on the rails there.
>Not sure if the two engines made it back into service again.
They did not.
The crew had three GPs and uncoupled the first one to go into Lombard yard to pick up two SW 1500s. The two GPs left on the Schellville main lost their air brakes and rolled away (it's mostly downhill between Lombard and Brazos).
>There are a total of four drawbridge's in a distance of 20 miles on this line and three of them were left open to river traffic at all times. The utility person would follow the train in his vehicle and close each bridge long enough for the train to cross.
There is only ONE drawbridge between Lombard and Schellville. All the others are on the NWP, which was a separate railroad at the time. The "bridge operator" for Brazos was the clerk at the Lombard yard office, who would drive to the bridge to operate it. He didn't operate any of the NWP's bridges.
>A rail fan was following the train that day taking pictures at each bridge as it passed. yes, he was all set up at Brazos when the two runaway engines appeared and went into the river with a big slash.
This is Geen Poon.
>SP borrowed a crane and barge from Santa FE, pulled the engines out of the salt water, put them on a barge and floated them all the way to the Richmond terminal where they were put back on the rails again.
The SP borrowed a crane and barge from the construction yard in Vallejo which was building an offshore drilling platform for somewhere in Alaska. I used to see the thing on the way to work, and it was huge. The engines were barged to the is yard and put on the rails there.
>Not sure if the two engines made it back into service again.
They did not.
