Western Pacific 4-6-0 No. 94
Western Pacific steam engine No. 94 is unique to the Western Pacific in that it is the sole surviving operable example of that railroad's steam locomotive fleet. The engine was built in 1909 by Alco-Brooks and survives to this day as an operable locomotive at the Western Railway Museum at Rio Vista Junction, California. Unfortunately, as of 2014  No. 94 is in need of work before it can be steamed up again.  (All photos by James Wren unless otherwise noted)
(click photos to enlarge)
By the early 1960s WP 94 was the sole surviving working steam locomotive on the WP. These views by the late Jim Wren caught No. 94 at the Oakland with an unknown excursion  Here No. 94 and train pause at the Third Street station to pick up passengers. Here the excursion is seen leaving Oakland  While the event is lost to history, the date is January 16, 1962.

 

 
 

A tender-first view while loading passengers on Third Street.

WP retired and donated No. 94 to the city of San Francisco for static display at the Maritime Museum on October 31, 1964. However, the engine never left the Oakland Roundhouse. 

 

It's Go Time for No. 94 as she hostles to pick up her train.

In 1949 Gil Kneiss who was the head of WP's marketing department, wrote a letter to upper management  suggesting No. 94 be kept for historical purposes. 

Early on the morning of January 16, 1962 Jim Wren shot a few color photos of No. 94 prior to the excursion departure. 

The silver and orange steam tender in the background was converted from an ex-Florida East Coast 4-8-2 and was used to hold additional diesel fuel and boiler water for use behind F3A diesels on WP's all-stops passenger train, the Royal Gorge, which by this date had been long ago discontinued

No. 94 was kept on the active roster by management as the company's steam ambassador. To that end it was the preferred power for railfan excursions up through the early 1960s. 

Such was the case at Land for a fan trip over the Feather River Railway in October of 1954. Land is now under Lake Oroville (Guy Dunscomb -  Rattenne Collection)

(Listen to No. 94 at the Western Railway Mueum in 1980)  (mp3)

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