12-28-2009, 07:11 PM
On the U.P. the Northern and the Challenger were never taken off the roster. They aren't used in regular service, but when they are shopped for service, the U.P. will put them on a freight in the midwest for shakedown runs before they are put back into excursion service. I think the Norfolk & Western was the last class 1 railroad to dieselize, but I don't know what year they did it or when the last steam left the rails except for excursion service. The U.P used Big Boys for helper service on Sherman Hill after they had dieselized the rest of the railroad, but again I don't know when that usage ceased. Santa Fe was pretty well dieselized by 1950 except in 1952 California had such a huge agricultural crop that they had to pull a bunch of steam out of "moth balls" during the summer to handle the extra freight. Since their main reason for dieselizing the Santa Fe so soon was the bad water in the desert, I'm not sure if any steam left California. They may have used steam in the agricultural Central Valley that year and put diesels on everything going East to avoid having to haul water into the desert for the steamers.