Page 7 - lw3536
P. 7
C. W. Witbeck
Texas & New Orleans no. 420 at Schreiver, La.,
in 1948 is supplied by a long, low tender with
a round-topped oil bunker.
Number 458 arrives in Austin with train
254 in 1947, sporting a cut-down smoke-
stack and a short Vanderbilt tender.
"whaleback" types. The 428 was pho-
tographed in 1948 with a "clear-vision"
Vanderbilt tank of the sort usually seen
with 0-6-0 switchers (Diebert and Stra- Bruce Wilson
pac, page 369).
A lingering demise
Few M-4s left the roster before 1929,
but depression and newer power led to
many of the class being scrapped in the
1930s. World War II brought a stay of
execution, as the SP needed every loco-
motive that could turn a wheel. Scrap-
pings resumed after the war, and by
1950 there were only 18 M-4s on the SP
roster, and only 23 still serving the
T &NO. All but two of the Pacific Lines
engines were gone by 1954, as were the
last T&NO engines a year later. Number
1673 was donated to Tucson, Ariz., for
display in 1955, and Gene Autry pur-
chased no. 1629 in 195 7. That engine
was placed on display in Saugus, Calif.,
in 1981. With over a half-century's ser-
vice from almost a third of the number
built, the M-4s repaid the Southern Paci-
fic's long faith in the 2-6-0 Mogul type.
M-4 models
Pacific Fast Mail imported HO brass
models of the M-4 2-6-0 between 1966
and 1977. Currently IHC offers a plastic Both photos, F. J. Peterson
HO scale M-4, reviewed in the June MR. Two M-4s at Los Angeles, the 1644 in 1939 and the 1658 in 1940. The latter's
It's a very credible replica, and could "haystack" or "whaleback" tender is an obvious difference between them, but also
tie requipped with Model Die Casting's notice the variations in piping on two essentially similar engines. Both Moguls were
SP Vanderbilt tender. 0 among the two dozen Pacific Lines M-4s to be superheated.
MODEL RAILROADER 77