Santa Fe 3751 Steam Locomotive leaving Los Angeles for San Diego

The Central Coast Railway Club and the Pacific Locomotive Association's San Diego Steam Special-II, powered by former Santa Fe 4-8-4 3751. Leaving Los Angeles Union Station, mid-morning, Saturday, May 1st 2010
For my stills,
http://picasaweb.google.com/MichaelWHKelly/SantaFe3751#

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Steam
• Locomotive
• train
• angeles
• excursion
• vintage
• Nikon
• d300s
• at&sf

[FlierFrank172]

I wonder if all the locomotive drivers who see one of these is jealous.

[mwhkelly]

@FlierFrank172 Judging by the grin on the face of the engineer of the diesel behind the steam locomotive, I'd bet they all are!

[CaptainChaos]

So was the steam loc pulling the train on its own, or was the diesel loc helping?

[mwhkelly]

I'd like to think it was only in the consist for insurance. You can't have a vintage machine on a mainline without backup in case it breaks. A blocked mainline could be very expensive. That being said, I'm no expert but it does sound like it's on the first notch.

[AmbBob]

Reason #2 for the diesel is to provide electrical power for the lights and air conditioning of the passenger cars

Reason #3 is to provide dynamic braking power for the train.

[mwhkelly]

Thanks, I new there were other reasons :)

Although I forgot about the dynamic braking assist.

[drigin1234]

that loco is beutiful

[atsf3751fan]

@CaptainChaos Also, the diesel was idling, from the sound of it, so it was just helping with the electricity.

[hoppercar]

its there for electrical power generation to run the air conditioning

[CaptainChaos]

Now THAT is what a steam locomotive is supposed to look like!!!