I grew up in Spokane. My dad used to take my older brother over to Trent and Fancher to watch them turn steam locomotives on the table at the engine house in that yard. Your father filmed some great railroad history. Thank you for posting these and your sister for having them digitized.
The 910 usually ran in reverse on the outbound trip. It could be turned at Parkwater but not at Scribner and using the wye at nearby Marshall was impractical. There was only one assigned crew on the 7-days-per-week job which nearly always made 2 round trips per day and often 3 trips in those 16 HOS days. During my early '60s high school years I saw little of my father who was either working the job or sleeping. The 2 (often 3) pay starts per day made it the highest paying SP&S engineer's job.
The 910 seen running in reverse here was in service on the SP&S Scribner Turn which operated out of NP Parkwater to SP&S Scribner and return to make connections for the NP traffic waybilled SP&S to Portland which the SP&S crews operating westward out of GN Hillyard would pick up at Scribner. It's possible that my father could have been the hogger in the film as he sometimes caught the job from the SP&S Hillyard pool. Just a few years later he became the regular Scribner Turn engineer.
This Spokane Portland & Seattle engine #700 is the only surviving 4-8-4 Northern-type engine from the original "Hill Lines." It is of Northern Pacific design, yet no NP Northerns survive. Here is footage of it when it was in revenue service, along with some other SP&S locos.
Plus it carries on the memory of the northern pacific A3 4-8-4's! The SP&S E-1's and the Northern Pacific A3 northerns look very Similar. Sp&a 700 would dress as a northern pacific 4-8-4 at one point in time
@snickpickle Oops! I thought I had shared this on my Facebook account! Sorry about that! (At least the info here can be used by those who might not know this!)
My friend, Keith Wiles, grew up in Wishram too. His dad was an engineer there as well. My dad hired out in Wishram in 1944 as a fireman. He moved us to Spokane in 1959 when he could hold the fireman job on trains 1&2 or 3&4 - J.P. Wesolowski (John) was his name. He took promotion to engineer in 1960 an retired from BN in 1977. I still live in Spokane.
I grew up in Spokane. My dad used to take my older brother over to Trent and Fancher to watch them turn steam locomotives on the table at the engine house in that yard.
Your father filmed some great railroad history.
Thank you for posting these and your sister for having them digitized.
Thanks!
The 910 usually ran in reverse on the outbound trip. It could be turned at Parkwater but not at Scribner and using the wye at nearby Marshall was impractical. There was only one assigned crew on the 7-days-per-week job which nearly always made 2 round trips per day and often 3 trips in those 16 HOS days. During my early '60s high school years I saw little of my father who was either working the job or sleeping. The 2 (often 3) pay starts per day made it the highest paying SP&S engineer's job.
Wow! What an awesome story.
-I remember laying in bed and listening to the trains go in and out of the yard in Wishram. Was like a lullaby.
The 910 seen running in reverse here was in service on the SP&S Scribner Turn which operated out of NP Parkwater to SP&S Scribner and return to make connections for the NP traffic waybilled SP&S to Portland which the SP&S crews operating westward out of GN Hillyard would pick up at Scribner. It's possible that my father could have been the hogger in the film as he sometimes caught the job from the SP&S Hillyard pool. Just a few years later he became the regular Scribner Turn engineer.
Oh, what I would give to be at Marshall in the 1950's! Thanks again for sharing these!
It's cool to see SP&S 700 on her last run before she was put on display in Oaks Park.
Outstanding!
I would give a testicle to have audio on this - especially at 2:10.
...and LOVE the footage from Marshall Canyon... my old stomping ground.
Thank you, Dave!.
This Spokane Portland & Seattle engine #700 is the only surviving 4-8-4 Northern-type engine from the original "Hill Lines." It is of Northern Pacific design, yet no NP Northerns survive. Here is footage of it when it was in revenue service, along with some other SP&S locos.
Plus it carries on the memory of the northern pacific A3 4-8-4's! The SP&S E-1's and the Northern Pacific A3 northerns look very Similar.
Sp&a 700 would dress as a northern pacific 4-8-4 at one point in time
There is CB&Q Northern In some town in Wyoming though
thank you to you and your father for recordingg these wonderful trains!
9:42 SP&S 910 running Southern Style.
May 20th, 1956.
Thanks!
she still lives in the Portland Oregon roundhouse, though for this year she is undergoing the federal mandatory boiler inspection!
Thanks for the info!
With the challenger in Reverse, Why didn't SP&S just buy a cab-forward?
I need to know, can I use this in a documentary about the original railroads in the PNW if i credit you?
Yes you may. Please credit the estate of Dave Wilkie.
Excellent, hogger running cool and smoke free reversed. Sorta like running long hood forward. Same visibility.
@snickpickle Oops! I thought I had shared this on my Facebook account! Sorry about that! (At least the info here can be used by those who might not know this!)
-My dad was a hog head out of Wishram. Retired 1975.
+Tsagiglalal so was mine, until "85
+john72ss -My dad was Wayne Rhue. Yours?
My friend, Keith Wiles, grew up in Wishram too. His dad was an engineer there as well.
My dad hired out in Wishram in 1944 as a fireman. He moved us to Spokane in 1959 when he could hold the fireman job on trains 1&2 or 3&4 - J.P. Wesolowski (John) was his name. He took promotion to engineer in 1960 an retired from BN in 1977. I still live in Spokane.
Yeah, but I wish her sisters could've been saved. :(