The 3070 was ordered at the same time car 3071, a similar smoothside lightweight car that was ordered from St. Louis Car Co. for evaluation. Budd won out and many subsequent light weight cars were ordered from them. It floated around the system on many of the lesser named trains until it was retired and sold to the NJ Transit. It lost its fender skirts over the wheels soon after delivery when testing some new air suspension trucks. They were never replaced but the rest of the skirting was still on when it was sold.
May 16, 1937: The beautiful new streamlined Super Chief, in the return leg of its triumphal demonstration run, runs the 202 miles from La Junta to Dodge City in 139 minutes. May 17: The beautiful new streamlined Super Chief arrives at Dearborn St. 36 hours and 49 minutes after leaving L.A, a new record. Perhaps as a result of this exuberance, the beautiful brand new E-1s have burned out a traction motor, which is a problem, as they're due to enter revenue service the next day. May 19: 1 and EMC demonstrator 512, mechanically similar to 1 and 1A but bodied by ACF, rather than St. Louis Car (and devoid of eyebrows, and less prone to overheating), approach Trinidad, Colorado on the first revenue run of the Super. 512 has worn aluminum paint for some time as she and sister 511 were often found on the Burlington while they worked out the Twin Zephyr's and Denver Zephyr's bugs. Number One has just been repainted silver with scarlet stripes. Leaving Raton, New Mexico later that day.
Budd's patented shotwelding technique not only allowed them to make cars out of stainless, they came out very light. The Santa Fe switched to Pullman-Standard sleepers, because Pullman still serviced sleepers nationwide, and balked at servicing cars they didn't build (like the Budd cars of the first Super). But all other ATSF prewar streamlined cars came from Budd except for their single Pendulum car, a less successful experiment. 3071 was later shadow-lined, and I think it got some corrugated, er I mean fluted, stainless panels tacked onto the sides at some point.
She doesn't quite look at home handling varnish. But she does look at home climbing up to Raton Pass, a stretch that no train covered quickly.
That. Here she is in 1920, no longer a tandem compound but still wearing the valves. Originally the class engine of the 915 Class, she lost that status when the 900 Class Mikados were renumbered to the 885 Class to make room in the 900 series numbers for more of these. So, she became a member of the 900 Class, even though she was a couple of years older than the 900. In other words, this is the world's first 2-10-2.
The Santa Fe would use just about anything for helpers on Cajon Pass, even Fairbanks Morse H16-44s. 1952. Nolan Black photo. Bryan Black collection.
Gas-electric Brill car M-160 works the Carlsbad line, 1933. About thirty years later, she has a new EMD diesel inside, a Budd observation behind, and a new look. No change of scenery, though. She's back on the Carlsbad run. She outlived the Budd obs, by the way. Has to make do with Texas scenery now.
I was thinking that was a lumber door. BTW, seeing all those Santa Fe cabooses gives me a nice nostalgic feeling. A lot of them went to the Grand trunk Western around 1971 or so and wound up being retired in the 90's. I seem to recall that you could buy one for $2500, so most of them didn't wind up in a scrapyard. Now it seems like almost every little town along the GTW has one on the grounds of their historical museum.
The caption at the Denver Library site is incorrect. It was a portable steam generator. Had to be towed to where they needed steam. Such as a round house to be used if the permanent steam plant was down. A friend had one custom built for him.
I didn't think "weed burner" made any sense. Why would you need a boiler to burn weeds. Scald them to death? Doug
