Portola Railroad Museum

This is where I and seven other family members, including five and ten year old nephews rented and drove the two locomotives described below.


SP 2873
GP9E
Builder #22897
Road switcher
125 tons
Biult December 1956
16 cylinders, 567 C.I.D per
cylinder, 2 cycle
1750hp

This unit was built for Southern Pacific's subsidiary, Texas and New Orleans as No. 443 by General Motors. This versatile unit was upgraded and renumbered to 3565and then to 3798 and finally to 2873. It is painted in the paint scheme that would have become standard if the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe merger had been approved. FRRS bought the 2873 from a scrap yard in 1992.




WP 608
NW-2u
Switcher
125 tons
Built May 1940
12 cylinders, 2 cycle,
567 C.I.D. per cylinder
1200 hp.

This locomotive was built for Union Pacific as their second diesel switcher, and it spent most of its service in Seattle. It attained the nickname "the magnet." because it had so many collisions with automobiles. Unior. Pacific sold it to Stockton Terminal & Eastern who traded it to Western Pacific. WP rebuilt it and used it in San Jose and Stockton. The Union Pacific donated this locomotive to FRRS.

Last updated 8/22/99

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