ClassicTrainsMag.com 79uncommon lines of the hydraulics stood
out. When one compares the speed and
ease with which information flows today
with how word got around in the 1960s,
the differences are remarkable. At the
time, there were few newsletters or maga-
zines devoted exclusively to my main
interest, diesel locomotives, though
information was not impossible to come
by. My father often brought trade maga-
zines home, many of which contained
material on new locomotives. Although
Trains was dabbling with all-diesel
issues, it seemed to me that a longing for
steam-era railroading dominated most
issues. Diesels were not fully accepted by
many contemporary rail enthusiasts; the
die-hard steam fans considered them
interlopers, and the new generation of
fans had not yet matured.
Surprise sighting
Nurtured by my father, a traction and
steam fan (in that order) who neverthe-
less had come to accept die-
sels, we often took trips to
photograph local operations
when we lived in the Bay
Area. One such adventure
took us toward San Jose on
January 30, 1965. More
than 50 years later, I don’t
recall exactly what Dad
photographed that day,
though I believe we were
less than excited over the
scant results.
As our expedition
neared its end, we drove
north on U.S. 101, the Bayshore Freeway,
and crossed under the railroad overpass
leading from the Southern Pacific’s cross-
bay Dumbarton Bridge. At that moment,
miraculously, a train appeared. Because
of the angle and speed of both our car
and the train, I could not make out the
locomotive consist, but upon looking
back through the rear window of our
1961 Oldsmobile Fiesta 88 station wagon,
I thought I saw the image of a yellow die-
sel-hydraulic.
I was not quite 11 years old, and I’m
fairly certain my dad was skeptical when
I began screaming, “Yellow diesel-hydrau-
lic! Yellow diesel-hydraulic!”
Two factors probably supported that
healthy cynicism on his part: I was fairly
young, and if I did see a diesel-hydraulic,
why would it have been yellow?
Nevertheless, we continued north sev-
eral miles and waited at Millbrae for this
mystery train. After about 20 minutes,
and near the end of our agreed-to time
window, a headlight appeared to the
south. And indeed, the approaching loco-
motive seemed to be yellow as it closed in
on us. Could this really be a yellow die-
sel-hydraulic? And if so, what was it
doing on the SP’s Coast Line?
What passed by was even more aston-
ishing to us. Although painted in Rio
Grande gold (which looked yellow to an
excited kid), the locomotive carried
Southern Pacific markings on its nose
and sides, announcing a transaction
about which, at the time, we were
unaware. Subsequently, we would learn
that the Rio Grande had decided to aban-
don its diesel-hydraulic experiment and
had sold its three Krauss-Maffei units to
the SP, which was still committed to
exploring the concept. Author Joe Stra-
pac’s excellent book, Southern Pacific His-
toric Diesels, Volume 2, Diesel-Hydraulic
Locomotives, pinpoints the transaction
date of February 6, 1964, nearly a full
year before my dad and I encountered
evidence of it. Apparently,
we had been living in a
bubble...
The initial objective of
heavy-haul mountain ser-
vice did not materialize for
either of the two U.S. roads
that tried hydraulics (reali-
ty: wheels and axles, which
because they were mechani-
cally linked together were
not supposed to slip, did).
But the SP made good use
of its units until mechanical
idiosyncrasies caused them
to be too costly to operate, and the
national competition began to pick up
the pace in the horsepower wars.
Ultimately, SP operated 24 diesel-hy-
draulics: 6 of the original carbody design
(the 3 it bought new from Krauss-Maffei
plus the 3 it got from the Rio Grande), 15
road-switcher-type units built by K-M in
1963, and 3 built domestically by Alco in
’64 with identical German transmissions.
They frequently plied the rails in Califor-
nia’s Central Valley, and occasionally made
it to the San Francisco area with freight
from Roseville, Stockton, or Oakland.
For a boy who looked forward to
traveling with his railfan father, the
Southern Pacific’s Krauss-Maffei units
were a quarry which we sought, and,
judging from his slide collection, more
than occasionally found. But probably
none of the encounters was as unexpect-
ed or satisfying as that day we saw the
yellow diesel-hydraulic.
— Gordon Lloyd Jr.Finally, a head-
light appeared
to the south.
And indeed, the
approaching
locomotive
seemed to be
yellow as it
closed in on us.CITY OF SANFRANCISCO:star-crossed
streamliner p. 16pparade around Horseshoe Curve lPenn Central on us p. 74seat on the Reading Front row p. 80Upper Michigan the Soo Line across John Gruber rides p. 86Donner Pass snowshedsUn-driving the p. 42
Golden Spike p. 36
Big Boysmight have beenp. 28 that
Double diesels, turbines, and hydraulics p. 62Photo gallery: 1,770 miles of UP and SP action p. 50OVERLAND ROUTEAmerica’s first transcontinental railroad in the classic eraSPECIAL 150 TH ANNIVERSARY SECTIONBONUS!EXPANDED ISSUE
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