Their showpiece engine, here at Stockton, 1/1/54:

http://abpr2.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi? ... 6/wp94.jpg

Under steam at Oakland, 8/27/60, last year the RR operated it:

http://abpr2.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi? ... /wp94a.jpg

Still in good cosmetic condition and and under cover at Rio Vista, though it hasn't operated since the 1980s. It pulled one of the first passenger trains over the WP when the line was completed.

Was this engine "back-dated" by the WP, or is this the way she looked when in regular service at the end?

I know that 2-8-2 #334 still exists, but didn't the WP also save one of the locomotives from their original order of Consolidations?

Les

The engine you speak of, WP #26 is at Traveltown in Los Angeles far from the former rails of the Western Pacific. This 2-8-0 is actually just a little older than the more famous ten-wheeler. The only other extant WP steamers are 2 0-6-0s. Of these, the 165 is being worked on at Portola.

For the WP's 50th Anniversary and later movie work, the striping and lettering were re-done in gold, and the pilot was changed to an old-fashioned pointed one made of wood.

During its stay at WRM the gold striping and lettering were re-done in brass leaf. Since the brass leaf has deteriorated, it is being re-lettered and re-striped in white as when the locomotive was in regular service.

There are currently no plans to replace the pilot.

FYI: When we repainted it in the 80's we used gold leaf for the lettering and composition leaf on the running boards and tires. The locomotive did indeed wear this paint scheme while in "regular" service early on, in fact the lettering re-applied at RVJ was more "authentic" than the lettering applied by the WP at the end for the 50th anniversary of the railroad.

Chris Allan

The WP 94 is now in the new Car Barn Three at the Western Railway Museum. It is at the head of a passenger train of WP Baggage Car 128 Coach 302
and Parlor car 653.

This barn is insulated, has a fire supression system and later the WP 334 (2-8-2) will join her with steam ern freight cars.

There is a WP locomotive perhaps 2-8-0 at Travel Town Park. The last time I saw her there was no lettering or striping at all. Has she been moved into their display building? Or gotten any lettering?

Ted Miles

White paint is underneath the gold and composition leaf lettering on WP 94. The metal leaf was in very poor condition and looked bad. The locomotive is part of a static display of a Western Pacific heavyweight passenger train. At the time represented by the train cars, the locomotive would have been lettered in white paint. The new white paint exactly replicates the earlier WP white lettering.

The train and locomotive are stored indoors in a building with a fire sprinkler system. They should survive for a long time.

The white paint referenced should actually be primer. The tender wrapper was strongly sandblasted during the 80's repainting to remove all traces of the "Watertown & Eastern" lettering applied by Disney artists for the filming of "Pollyanna" in 1960 on the then Southern Pacific Calistoga branch, today known as the route of the Napa Valley Wine Train. The new lettering was based on details found and documented during the repainting process.

Unfortunately, the gold leaf applied for lettering during the restoration was overtly mentioned to the public during various operational events including several Spring Railway Festivals. Many visitors had a bad habit of picking at it to see if it was real gold. It was something of a challenge to discourage them at times.

The WP performed a fair amount of work on the 94 in 1949 for the Ruby Jubilee events at the Keddie wye. In 1953, the work was mostly cosmetic including the new wooden pilot and the gold lettering and striping.

From stories I've heard, the crew at the Oakland roundhouse performed more than occasional miracles to get the locomotive ready for "just one more trip" - the last being in the summer of 1960 from a roundtrip from Oakland to Niles, returning on the point of train #17, the "California Zephyr" for the 50th anniversary of passenger service on the WP.

Here she is in Oct '06



Roger

Ted - As an interesting sidenote, the ORIGINAL Western Pacific coach 302 is now at our museum. This was from the original order made by the Denver & Rio Grande in 1910 to the Pullman Company to provide passenger equipment for the WP. When it turned out that the WP had TOO much equipment for its passenger loads, these original day coaches started going back to the D&RG. Original coach 302 has had a long, and interesting career, serving the D&RG (later the D&RGW), the Algoma Central, the Michigan Northern, the Boyne City Railroad and the Kalamazoo, Lake Shore & Chicago. Unlike some of its sisters that were air-conditioned by the Denver & Rio Grande Western, the original 302 has remained an open window coach as originally built by Pullman 97 years ago.

Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, Indiana)

Actually the consist is WP94, WP128 (Baggage), WP653 (parlor observation), and Circumnavigators Club (Pullman/buffet/observation).

WP coach 302 is in pretty rough shape and has been moved to Car House 2
pending future restoration.

Ultimately we want to have 653 on the rear with its platform on the
north end, but turning long cars on our tight loop is quite difficult.

There are stories that suggest that 94 was the dog of the class... She appearently was disliked by crews and the shop, so was allways the first engine stored when bussiness died off, and the last brought out of storage.
As a result she had the fewest miles and was therefore preserved.

On the other hand the Mikado, No 334 was well liked and given special attention by the shop, and therefore was in good condition and saved.

In either case, I suspect that as museum artifacts, running or not, it doesn't really mater.