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(click on image for PDF from Shasta Division Archives)
In mid-1933, less than a year and a half after Angus McDonald suddenly replaced Paul Shoup as president of SP, a set of elevations for variations of steam loco proposed 90 mph pocket streamliner appeared, seemingly out of the ether. Although they bear no SP markings, we figure that they were produced for McDonald for a couple of reasons. First, J. R. Signor found them at SP's old Orient warehouse in San Francisco, and second, McDonald had a great interest in the light weight mini reamliners then under early development at Burlington and UP. (SP inter-office communications re streamliners will soon appear on Wx4).
SP was then experiencing dependability woes with its Winton-powered gas electrics (see docs in Motor Car Madness). This likely influenced SP executives' early deliberative process, but soon thereafter queried Brill about streamlining its gas electric cars (Brill essentially replied "no-can-do").
So, what we have here are proposals for a 90 mph, 90"-drivers loco in 4-4-2T, 4-4-4T, 4-4-0 and 4-4-2 variations. One wonders where SP execs expected to run these locos and their paltry 75 ton, three car trains at a time when passenger trains were generally limited to 50 mph, with exceptions like the 65 mph Cal-P.
McDonald, at least, did not quite understand the nature of the infrastructure work required to upgrade a right of way to 90 mph. For example, he following year he queried about the superelevation required to send a 90 mph train over a curve currently limiting conventional steam locos to 25 mph, only to find that the high speed equipment would be required to have a one inch center of gravity above the rail.
The proposal apparently found little of no support, given that it is otherwise absent from the known record. One would suppose that this was not the type of thing upon which somebody would want to hang his hat. Ultimately, while scouting the new Burlington Pioneer Zephyr and UP M-10000 of the next year, SP execs found little to love in the trains' cramped configurations, save the air conditioning.
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