General Info

Coal Usage

1. When the SP purchased the EP&SW in 1924 they retained the usage of coal as fuel because they had a contract. They assumed responsibility for all existing contracts, which is a normal legal procedure. So the SP was obligated to purchase a certain  amount of coal.  A condition of the sale of the EP&SW was that SP buy coal from the mine at Dawson for 25 years. What they did with the coal, was up to the SP. But they had to buy it, so why not use it?  
   

2. Mike Smith
   

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4. SP was the only significant or one and only purchaser of the Dawson coal. The day the contract expired, SP stopped buying Dawson coal and the mine shut down.
   

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6. A retired engineer by the name of Amie Lauderdale talked about the coal burners. He said there was a bucket crane in Phoenix for the occasional coal burner sent up there. He remembered the crane loading of the tender was such a time-consuming process they only took on enough coal to make it back to Tucson. Delays caused them to run out of coal by Rillito siding and they had to be patched with another loco. Amie also remembered taking a coal burner down the Nogales branch with the cinders putting a wooden trestle on fire.
   

7. Randy K. Curtin
   

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9. There were coal towers in Arizona but some say they never saw a coal burner in Arizona. A Sanborn map of Douglas showing the round house and related structures. There is no coaling structure evident, but there is a 55,000 bbl fuel oil tank.
   

10. Logan J. Bertolette
    

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12. During WW11, coal burning engines worked into Lordsburg NM on the North Line. 
    

13. Mike Smith
    

SP Coal Burning Locomotives

1. Here is a list of SP Coal Burning Locomotives, 1938 & 1943, from SP sources.
   

On 1/1/38:

2-8-0 (13 engines)

    3400    3401    3402    3403    3409    3410

    3411    3415    3419    3420    3421    3424

    3425    (3419 Scrapped 6/23/39)

2-10-2 (21 engines)

    3655    3656    3659    3664    3665    3682

    3683    3686    3687    3691    3692    3694

    3699    3700    3702    3704    3705    3710

    3714    3716    3717

2-8-2 (note)

    (3315 converted to coal 6/14/40; 3320 converted to coal 7/13/40

34 engines total 1/1/38

On 3/1/43:

2-8-0 (12 engines)

    3400    3401    3402    3403    3409    3410

    3411    3415    3420    3421    3424    3425

2-8-2 (2 engines)

    3315    3320

2-10-2 (4 engines)

    3656    3659    3665    3686

2-8-8-4 (12 engines)

    3800 - 3811

30 engines total 3/1/43

1. This list may not be 100 percent accurate, but it's close. Engines were changed between coal and oil often and would reflect traffic levels.
   

Specific Coal Burners

2-8-8-4 AC-9

1. #3900
   

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3. They did continue using coal with the new AC-9s. The AC-9s weren't built until 1939. An El Paso men who fired the AC9 into Lordsburg, commented that an AC9 had to stop in Deming, NM both directions to take on coal. The AC-9s consumed enough coal by themselves to fullfill the coal contract (per the roundhouse foreman at Carrizozo). The AC-9s were converted to oil once the El Paso to Tucumcari segment was dieselized.
   

1. Before the AC-9's were built a lot more 2-10-2's burned coal.
   

Modeling  2-8-8-4  AC-9

Key

1. Key made the AC-9 from the Custom Series #110 set. It was limited to 150 locos. It had Excellent Back-Head Detail, Opening Tender Hatches with a Coasting Drive.
   

Lettering & Numbering

1. It is factory painted #3800 with 'Lines' on the tender.
   

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4-6-2 P-12s

1. SP's utilized the heavy 4-6-2 P-12s. The first four were converted to oil at Bayshore in 1925 and transferred to the Coast Division. The remainder were converted in 1929-30. The 1924 EP&SW list of equipment states the P-12s on the Eastern Division, i.e. El Paso to Tucumcari. The P-12s were a critical source of power on the Golden State Limited. The MT-2s would have replaced them in 1924 to a great extent.
   

2. Terry Johnson