In a writers group I belong to, a member said,that he read,an article that claims, that the AT&SF had a Sterling powered diesel (His words) and that it is or was stored in the Santa Fe yards..... I live close to S.F. and have never seen it. I asked for the article, hope he sends something. Any one out there ever hear something like this? Kevin
I vaguely recall the Santa Fe once had a collection of older diesels and steam engines. But seems like these were donated, and moved about 20 years ago. I wonder if this could be related? I believe Pentrex had this move on a "Best of 198_ video tape? Boxcab E50
Yes Santa fe did donate a number of their locomotives to the California State Railroad Museum. Don't remember a "Sterling" one. Saw alot of them in the ABQ roundhouse back in '70s. Too bad the museum hasn't taken better care of them. They are "stored" outside and are ... well let's just say it's not pretty.
Could it be the the original informants source somehow confused Sterling w/ Caterpillar? Santa Fe did rebuild some SDs w/ Cats
That is true, but "Sterling" could also refer to a locomotive powered by an engine based on the Sterling Heat Cycle. http://science.howstuffworks.com/stirling-engine1.htm It's possible the Santa Fe sponsored an experiment to determine the practicality of incorporating an engine based on the Sterling Heat Cycle into locomotives....? As an aside...gasoline engines operate on the Otto Heat Cycle and diesel engines operate on the Diesel Heat Cycle. There are many other heat cycle engines that have been documented over the years, but most are so impractical they have never been developed as general use power sources.
Which Units are being poorly kept at the CSRRM? When I went last year I saw very few items outside and everything looked very well maintained.
What you saw were the locos out front for public display e.g. ATSF 347C. There are a whole bunch of locos (including the ones donated by Santa Fe) are kept "out back" out of public view. These are the ones in a sorry state of preservation. It's all the RR equipment back there, not just the Santa Fe. A few months back there were discussions about preserving a Santa Fe SD45-2 Centennial. When CSRM was mentioned, the outcries against them were horrendous!
Given the amont of equipment they have, I'm not surprised it all can't be well kept. The Illinois Railroad museum has tons of stuff outside over winter. Even more inside. The fact that it's in a museum's hands at all is the important part. The California State Railroad museum is an impressive collection and an impressive museum.
If the object of museums is to conserve, then most are failing miserably. None of the museums mentioned for taking the Santa Fe Centenial unit passed muster. The big problem they all have is a severe money shortage. We all care about this problem. But are we a big enough group to get anything done about it?
The object of Museums is not just to preserve, but also to educate. I've seen plenty of Rolling stock collections that I could walk through and photograph and some are being restored. That nice, but ultimatly dumb. Without any education, then they will lose all support as the people that were alive to see these things in action die. The Chicago Museum of science and industry hasn't added a locomotive to their collection in over 50 years, yet they still tell more important and compelling stories about railroading then any of a dozen well maintained steam engines. It's why Friends of the 4449 is looking for exhibt space. It sucks that the California Railroad museum can't keep it's entire collection covered, but at least an organization with the preservation and education intention has control of them.
