Railworks America

Well as of today I have. Four units (3 Santa Fe switchers and 1 SP F7B) are being sent by rail from the California State Railroad Museum to the Museum of American Railroad in Frisco, TX. This morning at 6am, the Chief Mechanical Officer, two engineers, another brakeman and myself grabbed our two SW8s and headed out to where the flatcars and engines were stored on a siding. We picked them up with an SW8 on each end and headed to Milepost 1.5, where there is a parking lot for the nearby Marina and it was blocked off for the cranes to stage. We shoved each engine into place, the crane guys did their thing and we rolled the flatcar underneath and it was lowered on. The shops guys went to work welding chocks to hold one wheelset in place and then we moved the loaded flatcar out of the way. Once we loaded all four flatcars and the cranes had left, we reshuffled and spotted the train so the shop guys could continue to weld more chocks in place for all the wheels and eventually attach the cables. We took both engines back to town and put them away. It was a pretty successful day with no incidents or injuries.

The photos are too big to attach so here is a link to the google album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6RFYLQLqyocSWEP62

Disclaimer: I was not "working as a brakeman" today, but as a shop hand with railroad experience, thus the reason for the camera out between moves.

Neat stuff! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you very much for posting! Those will be a neat addition to the Frisco museum.

Cool!

i was curious why the units were sitting over on the siding near the bridge on B80 with flat car spacers a little while ago when i was in sactown. glad the units are getting to go to a good home.

GenericZack wrote:i was curious why the units were sitting over on the siding near the bridge on B80 with flat car spacers a little while ago when i was in sactown. glad the units are getting to go to a good home.

Yes it's very good for them. I posted some of the pictures on the SP facebook, mostly for pictures of the old days, but since the move involved an SP B unit I thought it be appropriate. But alot of people were hounding CSRM for getting rid of it and the switchers. They feel like the CSRM is failing in it's duties as a museum to properly take care of it's collection. I don't think they realize that the museum is owned and operated by the State of California with help from the Museum Foundation, a non-profit. But the fact remains, they can't pay for every little piece to be restored, even back to cosmetic. We also don't have a lot of space since the railyards are slowly shrinking in on us. That's just the way it is. So if another museum can use them in a way that benefits them, then so be it. It's better there than rotting away outside on a store track never to be seen by the general public, even if they paint the B unit to warbonnet which it never was.

Plus people dont realise that the CSRM Is more of a bias to Norcal stuff as well. I love the museum, and im usually there every year when i help bring a model train layout during the small train holiday event yall used to host. i dont even remember the new name it is this year. but non the less. whenever i go thru the musuem collection its mostly nor cal equipment. plus those units were too far gone for the museum to restore on their budget. plus what are they going to do with them? put em in the back shop that cant be publicly accessed? Its not worth the time or effort for the CSRM to restore them. but if someone else wants to do it. let them do it. let them go to a home that will take care of em.