Super Chief re-fueling, Albuquerque, NM

Just came through there Monday on the Chief and the engines are refueled from a truck now.

That is beautiful.

Thanks for sharing.

Wow! So many great details in this picture. And so much activity.  A real gem.

I'm guessing that the headlight shield is a wartime addition.

That is the photo our Munoz Lines station was built around.

I will try to find our build photos.

We attempted to capture that scene.

Fantastic photo.

It sure would be interesting to see the same location as it appears today.

There is one thing that stuck out in the photo, and it may just be my eyesight.  It looks to me that the train looks pretty dirty.  If that is the case it would surprise me in that I would think the SantaFe would have kept the Super Chief in glistening condition.  

Ed

Glad you enjoyed it. Those Delano shots are something else. There are also photos of Chicago Proviso yard from around the same period. Maybe the whole idea of wartime austerity may have something to do with the slight shabbiness- the pic is from 1943, as are many of the others.

It looks to me that the train looks pretty dirty.  If that is the case it would surprise me in that I would think the SantaFe would have kept the Super Chief in glistening condition. 

Two items are worthy of consideration with regard to the cleanliness of the Super Chief in this photo.

First, you are looking down on the top of the locomotives and cars.  Most of the dirt is in fact diesel exhaust on top of the locomotives and the front of the first head end car.  Viewed from ground level she is likely clean looking.

Second, the photo was taken in March of 1943.  That is right in the middle of WW II.  The Russians had just won a great victory over the Axis at Stalingrad, the US and British Armies along with Free French were fighting the German and Italian forces in Tunisia and in the Pacific Guadalcanal had just been secured.  The US military was still expanding with millions of young men joining or being drafted into the service and in the civilian workforce manpower was short.  If ever the Super Chief wore a little road grime on her flanks it was then.

I'm guessing that the headlight shield is a wartime addition.

Absolutely.  You wouldn't want any Japanese ships or planes off the west coast to spot the Super Chief.

Wow! So many great details in this picture. And so much activity.  A real gem.

I have seen this photo several times before, but never at this size.  The first tank car, ATSF 100563, holds 12070 gallons.  But gallons of what?  Twelve thousand gallons of water makes for a 50 ton load.  An air hose looks to be connected to the dome to pressurize the car for offloading.  The hose attached to the end of the tank car and the front of the locomotive looks to be a canvas fire hose with brass couplings and leaking heavily onto the ground by the blue flag.  Are the first and third hoses water for the train heating boilers from the first tank car and the second and fourth hoses fuel from the second tank car?

It looks like a crew change is also in progress.  Just above the father and son is an older man in blue denim with a red necktie on under his work clothes.  He appears to be a high seniority passenger engineer with his grip is in his right hand headed for the cab of the E6.  Could that be a young fireman trailing behind him?

Great find. Thanks for posting.

The hose connected at the front side of the E6A and the one connected to the front side of the E6B are water hoses, so the leak onto the platform is just water.  The fuel hoses are connected at the center of each unit.

And I'm sure you are correct about the crew change.  The Las Vegas Engineer and Fireman changed with a Gallup Engineer and Fireman at Albuquerque on passenger trains.

Thanks for sharing. This one picture, filled with details, and waiting to tell a thousand different stories.

Wonderful shot.  I was talking with forum member DGJones yesterday, as we watched a small steamer pull a train around his garden RR, about the Superchief and the contrast between reality (slightly chalky red paint faded a bit to flat, dirty roofs, slightly dull "silver") and models such as the MTH E-8s (gleaming red paint, mirror-shiny silver).  I love the models and would not want them any way, but this picture brings back memories of how it really was.  My family took the Super Chief several times when I was about the size of the kid with his fathe in that photo.  I recall being very impressed with how "hard working" the locomotives looked, and the people at the stations were. 

Thank you.  Just a wonderful picture. 

Really cool picture. Thanks for posting. 

Really interesting photo.  Just studying the vehicles, the REA truck backed up to the

platform on the left, the number of different ones in the parking, in spite of the

gas rationing, etc., and that is just one detail.  A boxcar at the platform on the left

and those platforms serving other tracks to the right, have several empty and loaded handtrucks about.  How times change.

So much history from a single picture, truly worth more than a thousand words.  What are those steps or what appears to be steps on both sides of the very front of the nose at ground level?

In a word....WOW !    Thanks !

Each time I have seen this photo I have wondered if the soot and grime was left on the equipment for the same reason as the headlight shield. A sparkling stainless car roof in moonlight would be a tempting target.

Maybe this is the photo they used when making the famous black warbonnet in the Lionel catalog!   LOL

Look at the back of the tank car, on the left side next to the wheel. It's hanging off the train.

This scene is the essence of what made/makes railroading so captivating!  Wouldn't you have loved to join the other station platform loafers, gawking at all the activity?!!  And I believe that's about 25% of DieCast Direct's 1:43 1930's and '40's car offerings parked by the station!

That's the thing, isn't it? Do we grab a scene like this and try to re-create it, figures and all? It almost gives a nod to the Brits and their layouts depicting a single station and its surroundings, and the trains come and go like stage-performers.

Well, here's the same area, but a lot less interesting. No wonder we like to re-create history.

Captivating! Worth 10,000 words!! Thanks!

Regarding the dirt - could they have been using a slightly lower grade of diesel during WWII?

Yes, that's the flag.  Santa Fe resisted using a metal blue flag on a rod that could be hung from a grab iron or railing high enough for the Engineer to see it well.

Tom never fired anyone at Barstow for leaving after the air brake test was complete but before the car men had come back and removed the cloth blue flag which was attached under the frame of the Engine, and easy to overlook.  When ol' Tom was an Engineer, he himself had to, on a few occasions when departing Barstow, retrieve the blue flag or lantern and ditch it in the Mojave River as he crossed the bridge.  

Jimmy T, I noticed those little steps, as you called them, also.  I would think they are foot boards for the brakeman to stand on when making a move.  You can see grab irons right above them, just below where the red paint starts.  The one on the right side is a little easier to see.  I have never noticed them on any other engine before.  Pretty cool.  

Thanks for posting,  Rick

Looks like the off going crew is having some words, mid-platform, just above the fuel hose to the B unit, with the junior fireman holding his grip.

Just above them you can see what looks like two Pullman porters at each end of the first car.  Can anyone confirm this would have been a Pullman car?

Stepping off the platform, between the tank and baggage cars is a fellow with a white railroader's hat.  Is this perhaps a supervisor?

Finally, the kid shuffling along, hands in pockets past the engines.  Perhaps very interested in the activity, but wanting to appear teenage cool and outwardly un-interested.

Bob

What a great picture.  Does the round red sign next to the engine cab tell the engineer where to stop?

Yep, I can see a toy train style scene with Wile E. Coyote pushing a crate marked Acme Atomic Bomb Co.

So, who is the guy to the right of the engine carrying a ____ case on his shoulder?

Homeland Security 1943? Looks like a rifle case.

What is in all of those white bags to right of the engine? There's a man bringing more.

This photo shows so much. There's a story everywhere you look.

The front most fueler's coveralls look black from the fuel. Must have been tough to get new during wartime.

Absolutely.  I am planning a new train station: an ATSF station, too, and this has given me lots of ideas about how and what and who and such.  Just a great, great photo.