SPRR Cab-Forward Engine No. 4113 at Saugus Depot

Saugus, California

Click image to enlarge | Download archival scan

"Don't They Know East From West?"

In the Santa Clarita Valley, westbound trains don't really run in a geographically westward direction. Often, they travel northwest or north. In Soledad Canyon, they run due east. In SoCal rail parlance, "westbound" means "toward San Francisco." It's the same for eastbound trains, only in reverse, in the direction of Yuma. Click map to enlarge.

August 23, 1936, 6:00PM — The westbound (geographically northbound) Southern Pacific cab-forward engine No. 4113, pulling a train of 46 cars, stops in front of the SPRR Saugus Depot.

8x10 glossy print from a photographic negative by railroad historian Ralph E. Melching of Pasadena. Melching (1917-2005) was curator of the Pacific Railroad Museum in San Dimas.

Melching's hand-written description on the back of this print reads:

S.P. Extra 4113 westbound at Saugus — 6:00 p.m., 8-23-36.

Consist: Locomotive 4113, 46 cars, loco. 3724, 32 cars, caboose 846.

The reference to the second locomotive and the caboose probably relates to the locomotive and caboose that are barely visible on the siding at right (geographically west).

Note that the depot's freight room is enclosed at this time.

Engine No. 4113 was one of 16 Class AC-5 cab forwards with a 4-8-8-0 wheel configuration built in 1929 by Baldwin Locomotive Works of Pennsylvania.

No. 4113 can also be seen in this color home movie from the early 1940s.

CN3601: 9600 dpi jpeg from original photograph in SCV Historical Society collection, courtesy of Cynthia Neal-Harris.

SPRR Saugus Depot