The "Son of Satchel" Story

September 16, 2012

After finding and photographing "The Satchel" I was fairly convinced the surviving Gorre & Daphetid locomotives which had made it through the fire had been found at last.  But, as time has gone by though, there were some rumors floating around of another cache somewhere in Northern California.  Some pointed to the San Jose area while others indicated a more northerly location.  A couple of friends told me they had seen some burned engines in a hobby shop many years ago which they thought might have belonged to John Allen, or might have been others.  Information was vague at best.

A conversation a year or so ago indicated a retired dealer might have some artifacts in his storage locker in the vicinity of Healdsburg.  While I have never had a conversation directly with him, my friend mentioned to him the interest in the G&D Reminisce project and he agreed to see if he could locate the engines he remembered having at one time.  Since he had recently moved and placed a lot of possessions in boxes it was a big job to find such an eclectic item after so many years and multiple relocations.

Time passed but recently I had a call that some engines had been located.  I was thrilled to hear it and a transfer of three pieces of G&D history has been made.  I have taken pictures of each item and these will appear on the G&D website soon.

The first locomotive out of the box is G&D #12, a 0-6-0 switcher with a tender.  You can review the pictures of her from all angles and see the damage the fire caused. Curiously, the bell still swings and it has a working clapper in it!  You will note the tender appears to be in pretty good shape.  It is the cast metal Roundhouse slope back tender that came in the kit with the engine.  Its cleanliness stems from an attempt to salvage it some time ago when all the soot was removed.  The coal boards were in disarray and I braced them as best I could for the photos.  This appears to have been an oil tender originally as were most of the Roundhouse kits.  The trucks are intact and have the signature John Allen rail sliders on both. The engine also has a pair of sliders.   And, of course, there are the Baker couplers.  An interesting thing about this tender.  It was extremely heavy when I lifted it from the box.  It weighs 9.7 ounces!  The locomotive to which it was attached weighs 13.3 ounces so the tender is almost as heavy as the engine.  Being a curious sort, and since the tender was clean and the screws accessible, I opened it up.  It is filled to capacity with lead or cerrobend metal.  I cannot figure why John would do this unless he wanted to limit the pulling power of the switcher.  When I was the yardmaster at Great Divide, I never used this switcher in the freight yard.  I preferred a 2-8-0 to pull cuts of cars out of the yard.  The switching lead was on a grade and I could pull a pretty good string of cars while shuffling cars around for the next outbound freight.  I can't recall #12 being used in the engine terminal either.  We used a 0-4-0T to move cars in and out of both the roundhouse service tracks.  I guess it is a mystery unless someone has a definitive answer to the purpose of the lead.

The next prize out of the box was G&D #25, a 2-6-0.  Appearance wise, it is very similar to #12 as they both began as Roundhouse switchers.  John did some major work on #25 to turn her into a mogul and she shows his efforts.  Unfortunately, the extended pilot frame didn't survive, though the pilot itself did.  And, once again, the coal boards on the tender, a coal tender this time, were detached and beyond salvage.  The bits of the wood boards were glued to a very thin sheet of foil, some of which had melted.  This tender is much lighter also.  John had changed a number of things on the engine such as the stack and added a window in the fireman's side of the cab.

Then, there is poor old #60, the well known and loved gas electric car.  She suffered immensely in the fire, losing her entire superstructure save the roof.  The roof shows where the vents once were, but they have melted into just blobs.  One half of her headlight remains and there is a curious strip of vertical corrugated metal in front where the radiator shutters once were.  I have no idea what it was for.  Backing material perhaps?  In the rear of the passenger compartment is one humongous light bulb.  It's mounted in a screw socket and supports the rear of the roof. It may have been a ballast bulb for the interior lighting.  There are several GOW bulbs among the wires, probably for interior lighting.  It's hard to understand the big bulb in the rear.  She also has her bell mounted on the roof as well as some of the engine fittings.  The drive unit is intact, but will never run again.  It has a large flywheel on it.
And now you know the continuing saga of fire damaged locomotives.  There are still some unaccounted for.  Wonder where they are?

Rod Smith (Great Divide Yardmaster, 1963-64)

(Salvage is our middle name)