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SP's Cahill St. Depot Goat
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Fairbanks-Morse H12-44 #1582 (later #2380, retired in 1975) shoves a harriman coach onto to the rear of the westbound #91 Coast Mail on Track #5, after making 'the San Jose setout" of two postal storage cars. The balance of #91 will shortly head for Oakland. Early 1964. - Wx4 photo
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| The race is on! The afternoon goat pulls #124's equipment out past the San Carlos St. overpass. As soon as the southbound Del Monte passes on the main track, the Park Avenue herder will line the movement across for shove into the field. July 1968. Alco S-4 was retired in 1975. - Wx4 photo |
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When not rearranging commuter cars, the depot jobs performed freight switching on the Vasona Branch as far away as Campbell. Here, from the San Carlos overpass, we see a FM spotting cars at Del Monte cannery. I recall that the vacant tracks to the right were used to store commute equipment in the 1950's. July, 1968. - Wx4 photo |
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| In the summer of 1968, S-6 #1275 showed why Alcos are famous for their black smoke, caused by rapidly opening the throttle, before the revs catch-up enough for the turbocharger to cut-in. This resultis in poor combustion during the lag period. EMD's load more slowly, thus giving the engine time to rev up. In 1965 I recall driving across Nevada thinking that I was following a steam engine, for all of the smoke. Nope - it was three Alco PA's on the head end of the Overland Mail. Sometimes Alco's smoke no matter what the engineer does. - Wx4 photo |
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After engaging in a little pre-Fleet switching, the afternoon depot job is seen here readying to drag an empty corn syrup car to College Park Yard, probably. I kinda remember them pulling the car out of Del Monte, but it could very well have originated at one of the Vasona Branch's other two large canneries: Contadina or U.S. Products Corp., which were located across the branch tracks from each other between Lincoln Avenue and Race Street. Vasona Branch junction switch, August, 1971. - Wx4 photo |
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| NEW 10-25-26 Old Goats: As near as Wx4 Staff can tell, SP 0-6-0 #1221 finally relinquised her assigned duties as the San Jose depot switcher in 1953, after 25 years in the role. After retirement, she found herself deposited in a lonely corner of Deming, NM, as seen here in 1984. At least two 2-8-0's served as replacements until a diesel arrived. The smart money says that #2709 came first, but a smart dyslexic's bet might be #2706. The photos of them here are no help on that score, as both are undated. No. 2706 appears to have been recorded through a car window by a commuter possibly on train #153 sitting on track #4. |
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SW1500 #2689, c1978: I cut my teeth as a switchman on this engine, here shown at its accustomed parking spot on the east end of depot #6. This engine held the depot goat assignment for several years on either side of 1980. I still vividly recall the many nights that old-head engineer Butch Nesbitt looked down at me and screamed epithets over my rookie mistakes. I always have had a soft spot for her, but sadly never ran her as an engineer. She was sitting in a Desert Yard, Oakland dead line in 1984, the last time that I saw her. She left the roster in the early 1990's. - photographer unknown, Wx4 Collection |
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