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Diesel Locomotives Of The Western Pacific By Joseph A. Strapac Hard Cover WP
Diesel Locomotives Of The Western Pacific By Joseph A. Strapac
Hardbound
208 pages
Copyright 2009
CONTENTS
Chapter SubjectPage
1Introduction 3
2Diesel Switchers 8
3FT Carbody Freight Units 28
4F3 and FP7 Carbody Passenger Units 44
5F7 Carbody Freight Units 60
6GP7 and GP9 Hood Units 82
7GP20 Hood Units 98
8GP35 Hood Units 110
9U3OB and U23B Hood Units 126
10GP40 and GP40-2 Hood Units 146
11The Union Pacific Era and Graduates 170
12The Roster 186
INTRODUCTION
The original Western Pacific Railway was incorporated by the Gould interests, working through the Denver & Rio Grande Railway, on March 3, 1903. It was planned as a Pacific Coast extension of the Grande-which took responsibility for the WP's debts. The rail line, 921.4 miles between the harbor at Oakland and Rio Grande rails in Utah, was constructed on many fronts utilizing the relatively low crossing of the Sierra afforded by the Feather River Canyon and Beckwourth Pass into Nevada. Ultimately, however, this low-grade alignment meant that the WP would measure almost 150 miles longer than the competitive SP line between Oakland and Ogden.
Rails met on the bridge at Spanish Creek, near Keddie, on November 1, 1909, but it took some time after that before the railroad was ready for regular service. Through freight trains began operating in January 1910, but passenger service was not inaugurated until August 22, 1910.
One hundred thirteen new steam locomotives originally equipped the Western Pacific: sixty-five 2-8-0s, thirty-six 4-6-Os and a dozen 0-6-0 switchers. Two older 4-6-0s were added with the purchase of the Alameda & San Joaquin Railway near Tracy. Design details of the ten-wheelers and the 0-6-0s were shared with identical engines delivered to the Grande. The first twenty 2-8-0s (with specifications roughly comparable to Southern Pacific class C-8 locomotives) were built in 1906 by Baldwin, but the remaining engines were all Alco products delivered in 1908-09 as the railroad neared completion.
Construction costs were far higher than the original budget allowed, while the railroad itself passed through undeveloped territory that provided no on-line traffic. Interest on the enormous construction debt load, intense competition from the SP and opening of the Panama Canal drove the Western Pacific into bankruptcy on March 1, 1915, followed by its parent, the Rio Grande.
A successor organization, the Western Pacific Railroad, was incorporated on June 29, 1916. This new company gradually acquired a system of feeder lines, notably the Sacramento Northern and the Tidewater Southern. In the depths of the Great Depression, the WP spent over nine million dollars building the 112-mile Northern California Extension to connect with the Great Northern, which had built south from Oregon. The NCE was opened on November 10, 1931.
Bankruptcy again struck the WP on August 2, 1935, but this time the courts were more lenient, allowing management to retain day-to-day control of the railroad without a reorganization. Court approval was required for capital investments, but diesel locomotive purchases were routinely approved (merchant bankers considered locomotive equipment trusts to be blue-chip investments). On December 31, 1944, the railroad was returned to its stockholders-in better shape than when it entered receivership.
Once World War II was over in 1945, management began investing in improvements, immediately ordering diesel locomotives and lightweight Budd passenger equipment to provide its share of the planned California Zephyr, which finally
debuted in March 1949. Line improvements and installation of centralized traffic control enhanced the physical plant.
Between 1945 and 1950, the Western Pacific enlarged its fleet of diesel switchers (the most obvious target for cost reduction), but the freight main line was still powered by a mix of 2-8-2s, 2-8-0s and 2-8-8-2s in California and coal-fueled 4-6-6-4s east of Winnemucca, Nevada and in Utah, supplemented by twelve four-unit FT diesel locomotives that normally worked the most difficult sections of the railroad.
All this changed in 1950-51, when the WP invested about $7.9 million in a dozen four-unit sets of F7 diesels from Electro-Motive. The F7s released older FT diesels from California assignments, cascading their more intense use to trains east of Portola. WP retired its coal-fired locomotives and supplanted them with FT diesels, eliminating fuel and ash facilities as well as reducing roundhouse forces on the East End. In California, diesels took over much of the freight service powered by steam between Oroville and Oakland. By the end of 1951, diesels powered 87.4% of freight-train miles, 99.7% of passenger train miles and provided 82.5% of yard service hours.
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