1653 on Arrowhead Water Duty
Paul Koehler Collection
Pacific Electric freight locomotive no. 1653 pauses at Highland as Arrowhead Water Company tank cars are filled at the source, prior to the long journey back to the bottling facility in Los Angeles. An undated photo.
Paul Koehler Collection
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what a great shot with the snow on the ground as well.
I wonder if this picture was taken in Jan. 1949. That year an unusal cold front moved through Southern California leaving the Los Angeles Basin under a blanket of snow. The 1653 was a General Electric 44 Ton diesel electric locomotive. The trolley pole was used to actuate crossing signals when the locomotive was under trolley wire. Due to heavy grades on the line to Arrowhead Springs the locomotive was operated on the downhill side of the train to prevent runaways.
Last time I went up that road, there was still a place for Arrowhead trucks to fill up.
Anybody have any clue what the story behind those hatch covers on top of the hoods on these locomotives? At first glance the look like vent hatches to keep the engines cool and breathing.
The hatches were for access to the top of the engine. This lid might have been open to defrost the window. Both the 44 tonner and the 80 tonner I ran had poor heaters.
This was snow territory. Maybe these hatches were deflectors for winter? As to trucks filling up in later years, I recall a very rusty looking pipe sticking out of the hills, presumably at this location. Hope the Arrowhead Puritas people had a good filtering system at the bottling plant! Where are all those old dispensers we knew so well?
A link to an older modeler’s discussion of proto-types that includes PE 1650’s (GE 44-ton) [links made for research only, never to promote anything]: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/13/t/143731.aspx
Note that “Narrow Bridge” sign on right…you can barely see the side fence-rails around the curve on left.
Reference (page 10, right column) to construction of new Arrowhead bottling plant: https://books.google.com/books?id=XoQ9AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA15-PA10&lpg=RA15-PA10&dq=edward+l.+koster+los+angeles&source=bl&ots=tgiatGmI4I&sig=ACfU3U0tew97C29ZW5xBnYIvrUyVNslCUA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwid29npgJnoAhVkHzQIHdz1BYsQ6AEwAnoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=edward%20l.%20koster%20los%20angeles&f=false