El Paso & Southwestern No. 1

FLO · **Joined:** Tue Jan 25, 2011 2:07 am **Posts:** 328

I suppose everyone on this forum is familiar with this locomotive. It was built in 1857 and is on display in El Paso, Texas.

While reading old articles on the locomotive, I found it interesting that as far back as the teens and 20's it was already considered a piece of history. But heck, that should be no surprise. After all, the locomotive was already 60 years old by 1917!

Something else that's interesting. Notice how the attached article (below) from 1916 mentions how unusual it was in those days to have a locomotive preserved as a monument. I suppose that means EP&SW No.1 was one of the earliest display engines in the US?

Last of all, if you are interested, I found this 30-minute interview of the person who led the latest restoration of EP&SW No.1. The interview was part of a local history series produced by El Paso Community College. It's very good. And it's also a good demonstration of how a locomotive expert can make a very technical subject accessible and interesting to a general audience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky4uIEhhtHU

FLO · **Joined:** Tue Jan 25, 2011 2:07 am **Posts:** 328

Article attached:

FLO · **Joined:** Tue Jan 25, 2011 2:07 am **Posts:** 328

From Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, 1922:

FLO · **Joined:** Tue Jan 25, 2011 2:07 am **Posts:** 328

Drive Wheel On Old Number One by Birdman of El Paso, on Flickr

Guide Wheel Truck & Piston Assembly by Birdman of El Paso, on Flickr

tomgears · **Posted:** Tue Aug 27, 2013 7:16 am

There is a nice slide show of her being moved, restored, and moved again.

http://webcontent.utep.edu/tour/locomot ... how00.html

Robby Peartree · **Joined:** Wed Aug 25, 2004 11:16 am **Posts:** 767

Dear Flo,
Hear are some tid bits for you. The wait and bake building placed over #1 was a response to Mr. John White and his pushing to see the locomotive better protected. The Grant that funded the restoration was written by a Mr. Gary Williams. When Mr. Conrad did the restoration at Southwestern Crane and Rigging a lot of us were interested to know what he was going to find particularly in the paint colors. His restoration report is an interesting read.

Today the firebox has a six inch crack in it. I believe it acquired this during the movie filming. When Mr. Conrad did his initial inspection of #1 he told me he was surprised to see the engine well lubed and the cylinder head bolts were loose. We had noticed the lubrication when we pulled the cylinder heads in 1985 when the idea for running it for the Texas Sesquicentennial (a celebration of 150 years of dead Armadillos in Texas was approaching) was proposed. There was to be a celebration train pulled by T&P 610 and there were discussions of taking #1 with it and operating it on rare occasions at reduced pressure. None of this came to fruition.

In 2003 I was talking to a deputy regional inspector in Santa Fe at a C&TS commission meeting (where he was trying to get the C&TS to adopt UP welding standard for locomotive boilers) and we discussed that this locomotive never went through an ICC inspection under the boiler act. He stated he have to get the local MP&E inspector to show him the thing.

In research a friend has done it looks like #1 did its fair share of ore hauling early on the Arizona & Southeastern. There is an article on it operating on a work train in 1904. . In the Altman Collection at the El Paso Public Library there is a photo of the locomotive next to one of the 2-10-0’s of the EP&SW

Robby

FLO · **Joined:** Tue Jan 25, 2011 2:07 am **Posts:** 328

Thanks for the additional info, Robby.

As an off-topic note on El Paso, I noticed that $5 Million has just been allotted by the city for design of a new streetcar line. It sounds like the project will include the old PCC cars that are in storage. How many PCC cars are in storage? Five or six?

Seem to be a lot of plans to redevelop the downtown. The City Hall building was recently demolished to make room for a new baseball park for a triple-A team. So I'll be interested to see where the EP&SW No.1 ends up after all the dust settles downtown. (The No.1 inside a shared structure with SP 3420 would of course be nice!)

Railway Age wrote:

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

The El Paso, Tex. City Council has voted to pay for streetcar design through a $68 million bond package, contingent on the lack of funding expected from the Texas Department of Transportation.

Last year, the City Council approved the project's design phase, expecting $90 million in TexDOT funding, but TexDOT so far has not delivered the funds. The streetcar project would tap $5 million of the $68 million.

The Council's backup bond plan would be sold to investors next month. "That debt will continue and it will be financed now," Carmen Arrieta-Candelaria, El Paso's CFO, told local media. "Now, we're basically issuing the debt associated with the project."

Plans call for restored Presidents' Conference Committee (PCC) streetcars, once a mainstay in El Paso (photo above). As well, El Paso and Juarez, Mexico, were linked by streetcar service until the early 1970s, with both cities hopeful of re-establishing some kind of cross-border rail link.

http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/pas ... snafu.html

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Thu Aug 29, 2013 9:26 pm

I've been told there are five in El Paso, with the Baltimore Streetcar Museum still retaining El Paso 1503/San Diego 503, partway through a conversion to a "handicapped access" PCC.......

locopilot750 · **Joined:** Sun Mar 17, 2013 10:15 am **Posts:** 44

In my collection of RR stuff, I used to have a clear etched 5-3/8" Corning style EP&SW lantern globe. Too good to keep, I traded it off years ago, but can't remember now what for. (or why) I still have a switch key.

Rainier Rails · **Posted:** Sun Sep 01, 2013 8:21 pm

FLO wrote:

As an off-topic note on El Paso, I noticed that $5 Million has just been allotted by the city for design of a new streetcar line. It sounds like the project will include the old PCC cars that are in storage. How many PCC cars are in storage? Five or six?

Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:

I've been told there are five in El Paso, with the Baltimore Streetcar Museum still retaining El Paso 1503/San Diego 503, partway through a conversion to a "handicapped access" PCC.......

Checking the Hicks-Hakner database, there are a total of 10 El Paso (ex-San Diego) PCC streetcars listed as still being in El Paso:

9 are listed as being owned by "Paso del Norte Streetcar Preservation Society," which according to the database is the group that has been pushing for the return of streetcar service to El Paso, and stores their 9 PCC cars (and 1 StLCC-built El Paso car from 1912) at the airport.

#1504 (ex-SD #509), #1506 (ex-SD #512), #1508 (ex-SD #514), #1511 (ex-SD #518), #1512 (ex-SD #519), #1513 (ex-SD #520), #1514 (ex-SD #523), #1515 (ex-SD #524) & #1517 (ex-SD #501) are owned by Paso del Norte. They also own El Paso #90 built by St. Louis Car Company for the El Paso Electric Railway in 1912.

In addition to the 9 PCC cars above, #1510 (ex-SD #517) is owned by a private individual in El Paso.

Checked the APTA Streetcar site and found an article on the proposed El Paso service that discusses the refurbishment of the PCC cars and the length of the proposed line: http://www.heritagetrolley.org/planElPasoNews04.htm

FLO · **Joined:** Tue Jan 25, 2011 2:07 am **Posts:** 328

Robby Peartree wrote:

...In the Altman Collection at the El Paso Public Library there is a photo of the locomotive next to one of the 2-10-0’s of the EP&SW

Robby

Here is 2-10-0 No.27. Interesting looking loco.

Frank Hicks · **Posted:** Tue Sep 03, 2013 1:09 pm

Rainier Rails wrote:

9 are listed as being owned by "Paso del Norte Streetcar Preservation Society," which according to the database is the group that has been pushing for the return of streetcar service to El Paso, and stores their 9 PCC cars (and 1 StLCC-built El Paso car from 1912) at the airport.

For what it's worth, I've been unable to find much information recently on the 1912 El Paso car but it is not stored at the airport. As of 6-8 years ago it was located on private property outside of El Paso, I believe, but I'm not sure what its current status is. All nine of the PDNSPS PCC cars have been moved to the airport as of 2010; photos taken last year are at:

http://photos.cityrails.net/show/?order=byposter&page=1&key=hicksco2 (pages 2-10).