Fantastic photograph Mr. Krone. Railway Express Agency (REA) trailers, old automobiles, and warbonnets. Thanks for sharing!
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Looks like selective colors to me... and by that, I mean, the AT&SF certainly did an awesome job selecting those color and that livery. Thanks for sharing this gem, Bob!
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Man, those Warbonnets are a splash of color in a gray world! If only trains and locomotives looked that good today!
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To take Joe's comments a step further, the green "section" flags being displayed are an awesome catch in addition to all the other great things documented by this photo!
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To clarify the section flags--in the era of train orders on most roads, green flags by day and green lights by night were displayed on all sections except the last. If an order was written to a train and no section number was given, it was delivered to all sections and all sections had to observe the order. it was possible that sections could be separated by other, non-sectioned trains depending on various timing conditions. This was more common with freight than passenger trains.
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As Bob noted, 30C has been retrofitted with a 48" dynamic brake fan (more typical of F9s, as well as late F7s). It also received, over the course of the years since it was built in the late 1940s, the lower headlight (and the upper light was converted to a Mars signal light), F9-style vertical louvers, the skirts were removed, lift lugs were added to the nose, a Leslie 5-chime horn replaced the pair of single-chime horns and additional grabirons were installed (such as those above the cab windshields).
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Absolutely beautiful! That war bonnet paint scheme sure stands out among the grays of the station and surrounding skyline. Good job!
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Why can't we have passenger diesels that look even remotely close to this today? Outstanding photo.
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In my mind, the only diesels that can rival steam locomotives in appearance and excitement are ATSF warbonnet Fs or PAs (of course I'm not talking about thermal energy efficiency, ease of maintenance, range between service stops, ease of operation, dynamic braking, mu operation, crew comfort, etc.). This shot has a lot of interesting things: the warbonnet F units; the depot; the REA vans; and the US Mail vans backed up against what appears to be a mail dock. Its hard to tell, but it looks line there are head-end rail cars spotted behind the mail dock. When I started with the SP in 1965, both the mail dock in West Oakland and REA operations were still going. The mail was protected by US Postal Inspectors and SP RR Police, and thefts from REA were investigated by the FBI' TFIS squad and SP RR Police. I know that REA had their own special agents but I never ran across them in Oakland. Bob - I'm really interested in REA rail cars, trucks, etc., and if you have any more photos of REA, please share them with us. Great photo; PCA and Favorite from me.
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Bob
What a great photo! I have been looking for a picture of 30C for years and this is by far the best that I have found. As a kid in the early 70's I used to stand at the bus stop in Arcadia, Ca and as we waited for the bus the train coming in from Chicago to Los Angeles would pass by. Not being too interested in heading to school I dreamed of being on that train. The unit 30C always passed by and I never forgot it. Later in the evening I would run back up to the tracks and wait for 30C as it returned back to Chicago. This went on for years until we moved to Chicago and of course we took the train by choice. And you guessed it...it was 30C that pulled us to Chicago. GREAT memories and you brought them back with this picture.
Thanks, Mark
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Beautiful shot Bob. I bought some of your duplicate slides many years ago. Outstanding collection. Thanks for posting.
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