3 Responses to 4-6-0 514

  1. Tom Galbraith says:
    October 23, 2017 at 1:59 AM

    Anybody know why these old engines were stationed at Chaffe in the late 1930′? Awaiting scrapping? Stored serviceable? Or other reason?

    Thanks, Tom G.

  2. Christopher Abernathy says:
    October 23, 2017 at 9:17 AM

    Tom –
    From what I recall reading by Joe Collias in “Frisco Power,” many of the these lower-numbered ten-wheelers were typically stored serviceable at Chaffee until the springtime strawberry harvest, when they were fired up and utilized throughout the River Division. Collias refers to them as “berry pickers.”

    While there weren’t nearly as many of them around by 1935, there were still enough to get the work done. This photo appears to show an uncapped stack and, while the track in the foreground is pretty weedy, the presence of a presumably active 2-8-2 just behind #514 might point to the 4-6-0 being on a ready track or roundhouse lead. That’s just a guess.

    Best Regards,

  3. Karl Brand says:
    October 24, 2017 at 6:17 AM

    Retired April 1936 at Chaffee.

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