Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality
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When I saw this picture, I thought that locomotive looked familiar. We have one of the last working ones of its kind, the 3751, parked here in Los Angeles at the Redondo Junction Round House.
But I found the 3785 (pictured above) mentioned in this article from the 3751 web site (
http://www.sbrhs.org/history.html):
The original 4-8-4s had been handling the Grand Canyon Limited between Los Angeles and Wellington, Kansas (1,534 miles) since January 1940; upon completion of its rebuilding, No. 3751 entered this pool. Operating requirements sometimes saw No. 3751 on a La Junta-bound train out of Los Angeles, but after delivery of the 10 newest 4-8-4s, Nos. 3776-3785, in the summer of 1941, this became less frequent. Effective May 23, 1942, the original 4-8-4s started running through from Los Angeles to Kansas City via Amarillo, a distance of 1,789 miles, setting a new record for through steam locomotive runs. During World War II, these engines handled both the Scout and the Grand Canyon Limited. On-time performance was not the best with the long stops to work heavy mail and express, but seldom was one of these engines cut out at an intermediate terminal due to failure. During the typical month of August 1943, the 14 engines averaged 18,435 miles per locomotive with a repair cost of 23 cents per mile, at a time when 3,600-horsepower diesels handling lightweight trains cost 32.4 cents a mile for repairs.