Absolutely WONDERFUL specimen of a locomotive! She may look like a junk pile on the outside, but that almost complete lack of smoke when she digs in, that means she's in PRIME CONDITION within! She's been lovingly looked after and maintained and KEPT IN TUNE, so she's cheerfully ready each morning to shove and pull and get trains built and broken up and do it smoothly and on-time!
It's amazing how some locomotives last forever whereas others are ready for the scrapheap at ten years. This one is a shining example of how well-cared for old equipment can still deliver revenue service after sixty-six years. The smoke you see is just what happens when you give it a hard acceleration, like in an average diesel pickup. No real fogger like the old Alcos were at 15 years. I can hear the Roots blower as well. I would be in Heaven if I were in the operator's seat with a Thermos jug full of my best coffee on that wintry day, makin' up freights in that yard. Southern Pacific had such locomotives, and nicknamed them "Cadillacs," probably because they were made by EMD--a General Motors division.
Not only did Southern Pacific have such locomotives, they had this one specifically... you can tell by the gyra lights and ladders, remnants of her SP days.
Great video. I spent a couple of hours in Albany back in May 2010 & April 2011 shooting this SD7, a great loco and very PNWR crews. My favourite railroad! Ill post up some footage soon.
No, just one set of controls. In fact, I have the original control stand from 1501. It was worn out so P&W's roundhouse built a new control stand using a more modern throttle and reverser. By the way, it is a great locomotive to run...
Wow! Nice! Do they ever turn that locomotive loose on a main line somewhere? Would like to see some footage of that, either high stepping a fast local or slugging it out with a long hill. Great video, thanks for the share!
My guess is that, as it is being used for a switcher, they didn't need the second fuel tank. I've seen them equipped with two tanks side by side, and I'm guessing that they used those locomotives for road service. These are road/switchers. This one isn't using enough diesel fuel to need it, and if fuel just sat in the one tank they didn't use, it would go bad.
John Tapp no it was originally for steam heating coaches since SD7s were used in commuter/mail trains in the 50s the snall tank removed in the 70/80s since it was useless
traingp7 because when SP bought it in 1953, they had 2 tanks originally 1 for fuel and the other for steam heating for coaches at the time (since HEP didn’t exist) so when SP rebuilt many of their SD7/9 fleet into SD7Rs and SD9Es they took out the steam tank as it served no purpose
