AT&SF 4-6-2 No. 3415 finished out its 15 years of service on the Abilene & Smokey Valley railroad in Abilene Kansas this past weekend (October 1 & 2, 2022).

The railroad is planning to perform the 1472 day inspection and return the locomotive to service in the future.

Photos are at the station in Abilene on October 2.

Jason Midyette

What is the green car behind the tender? Looks European.

(Comment deleted for new info below)

At a guess - it's one of those boxcar "kits" to European loading gauge that the US Army had for use in Europe in wartime (Post WW2). Looks like its mounted on trucks rather than a 4-wheel underframe.

The green boxcar is indeed one of the US Army's "Knockdown Fleet" cars built in the 1950's for potential service worldwide in the "next" war. They were built as kits that could be assembled into several different types of cars using the same frame.

Thankfully, the cars were not needed for their intended purpose and were surplused, many of them ending up at various government facilities. The A&SV's car was used at the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant in Johnson County Kansas. The A&SV uses it to house a generator and I believe an air conditioning unit for the lightweight passenger car just behind the boxcar.

Jason Midyette

Jason -

Thanks for the explanation of the green ex-U. S. Army boxcar, and also for the photos of # 3415 on her "last day" of service. Hopefully, the folks there in Abilene will be able to perform the necessary work to put the good looking 4-6-2 back into service.

Les

Good looking locomotive. Any idea why the smoke box isn't painted with graphite? I think Santa Fe once did that.

More commonly modern ATSF power had the smokebox painted a color called Tarpon Gray. I'm sure there are those here who can give you specifics on the paint.

Nice looking pacific. shame it doesn't have a place like the R&N etc where it can run more than 10 mph

The smokebox itself is jacketed and is painted the same as the boiler jacket. The smokebox front would be painted in some sort of graphite and oil mixture which commonly came out in various shades of gray to nearly black.

I'm sure if its owners can find a way to get that to the Grand Canyon Railway, it'd be VERY welcome to work for a spell and get a chance to work faster.........

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say that #3415's owners aren't trying to find a way to get her out to Grand Canyon.

Seven years ago I stopped in Abilene while moving parts of my engine from Indiana to Colorado, on a day they weren't running. One word to the waitress in the beanery was all it took to get their CMO Joe to meet me and open up the shop so they could show off the #3415. What I was told during that visit was they had wanted to run her on the point of AMTRAK over the Santa Fe to celebrate "an anniversary" (can't recall OF WHAT), but the idea was nixed because of the friction bearings, and also because it was felt that an engine that gave no trouble at 10mph would need some trials and breaking in before making track speed moves with an occupied passenger train.

IMHO, the only way #3415 will ever get rolling faster than 10mph, would be if they can upgrade the line over which she has been running. While I can't speak for the owners, it is quite likely that they've thought of this already, and will do it if and when they can afford it. (Corrections welcome...)

VIVA AT&SF #3415 !!!!

Why are you "sure" of that?
The vast majority of locos like this are run and maintained by volunteers who have real lives and family or jobs where the loco is.
Most wouldn't want to turn over their pride and joy to someone else or spend weeks or months in another state so a handful of foamers have interesting photos later.

With all due respect to Sammy and others there is a HUGE difference in the demands on the physical condition of a steam locomotive that is set up to operate at low speed ( under 40 mph) and one that is set up to operate at track speed ( 79mph).

For that Pacific to be a reliable runner at 79 mph will require an in depth going over of the complete locomotive and highly likely the need to do extensive ( and expensive) upgrades especially to the running gear.

My WAG is that to do a 1472 day drill on her will require an absolute minimum $ 1M investment and a good many years if done there with essentially volunteer labor.

IMHO-Ross Rowland

Precedent: ATSF 3751. Twice.

See also: N&W 611 at Strasburg, MILW 261 at Steamtown, lot of locos all over the UK.

The people who would be making the decisions at the Arizona end are all what we would call "card-carrying railfans," and I think I'm safe in describing one of their corporate superiors as somewhere between a railfan and a "foamer," and HIS superior as a hardcore railfan. I have had at least one say to me "2926 is welcome out here if they can get out of Albuquerque!"

The contingent words are "if its owners can find a way to get that to the Grand Canyon Railway"................. This is never going to happen unless 3415's owners make any adaptations deemed necessary by GCRY and/or BNSF. Roller bearings, oil firing, PTC, diesel controls, whatever.

And, hey, since "Send it to Strasburg!" has become the foamers' default response for repairing any steam locomotive in North America, why shouldn't "send it to the GCRY!" be the reflex response for any Santa Fe locomotive restored to service and looking for a place to stretch its legs?