Cab Ride Southern Pacific SW1 1006 At Perris, California

Built by Electro-Motive Corporation (EMC) in November 1939, SW1 1006 was only the 7th, diesel locomotive bought by the Southern Pacific Railroad. Electro-Motive Corporation became the Electro-Motive Division (EMD) of General Motors in 1941.
In early 2019, the Southern California Railway Museum completed a multi-year restoration that saw this now 83-year-old locomotive returned to her as built appearance. Including going so far as cutting down her exhaust stack to its factory-built height. Most railroads (including Southern Pacific) quickly modified their early EMC/EMD switchers short exhaust stacks to a taller cab-height version to carry the fumes and oil droplets in the exhaust higher above the cabs. This modification was later adopted by EMD as a standard feature on their switcher models.
As part of 1006's backdating, she was also repainted into her all black with white pinstripe EMC demonstrator scheme, which Southern Pacific adopted as their diesel switcher scheme in the early years. The railroad just simply painted Southern Pacific Lines on the hood and called it good.
1006 is powered by a "small" 6-567 (3402 cubic inch) 600-horsepower roots-blown V6, the smallest of the 567-series 2-stroke diesels placed in locomotives.
By first generation diesel locomotive standards, where a locomotive was usually sold for scrap or used as trade-in credit by their 15th birthday -- the 14 SW1's owned by SP had very long careers. Most were still on the SP's roster into the mid-1970's with a few hanging on into the 1980's. 1006 was, I believe, sold to a west coast steel plant in the 1970's and later sold for scrap. The museum bought the locomotive from the scrap dealer, and it has been here in the museum in Perris since then. And as we see now, is beautifully restored and well cared for.
Thanks to engineer Carson and the Southern California Railway Museum, I was able to get my second ever cab ride. For an extra $10, in addition to the $5 all-day train ride fee, they offer cab rides in the engines too, so heck yeah, I was all in for that!
Southern California Railway Museum website www.socalrailway.org
Please remember to 👍. Thank you, enjoy.

[@evad1]

Excellent sound! The Milwaukee Road actually had MU on a few of their SW1s for use on light rail Minnesota branch lines. I can only imagine how 4 or 5 of these MUed together would have sounded pulling 40 cars on some of those grades or switching 40ft boxcars at all the grain elevators along the way.

[@espeescotty]

Man, that would have been quite an experience. Even those "little" V-6's sound awesome.

[@threepea1151]

Carson actually supervised me when I got to drive the 1006 and 108, I’m 15 and by the 2nd time around, he was like “have at it.” Lol

[@espeescotty]

That's pretty sweet! Next time I go, I hope they'll have the 3100 or the 108 running. I'd love to take a ride in those. Thanks for watching! 👍

[@threepea1151]

@@espeescotty they usually say what locos they’ll run for the weekend on the Thursday before the weekend on their Facebook. One more thing, I forgot the age requirement, but how old do you have to be to start learning operations there if you know? Also the museum is getting Coaster 2105, a F40PH-3C and a Bicentennial ATSF SD45-2 No. 5704 next year. They are also restoring an ATSF FM H12-44M No. 560.

[@espeescotty]

I don't know the age requirement for when they'll teach you operations there. Carson did mention to me, plus I've been reading the articles about Santa Fe 5704 and how it will eventually end up there. As a matter of fact, the thought of seeing 5704 was one of the strong pulls to get me to go to the museum that day. Unfortunately, Carson explained to me how MetroLink severed the connection to the museum's track and that 5704 will not be delivered until something gets figured out. I didn't know about the Coaster unit though. That'll be a neat addition too. Also, I've read some about the ATSF 560 on their website. Before this trip to the museum in September when I shot this footage, the last time I was there, I was just a year or so older than you are now....now I'm 48. I hope I can get there at least once a year or so. I live 6-hours away in Arizona, so frequent trips are not possible for me. Thanks for the additional information, and good luck in getting trained on operations there.

[@threepea1151]

@@espeescotty thanks

[@robert_hughes1970]

That was a nice resto they did wood floors the whole thing .

[@espeescotty]

Yes, they took her all the way back to 1939. She looked great.

[@locomotiveproductions]

Thats a funny horn lol

[@espeescotty]

Yes, it was neat to actually hear that old diesel switcher horn. That was the sound of early diesel switches in this country...the single chime horns like that. It was a treat to have the whole experience.

[@locomotiveproductions]

@@espeescotty thats amazing. At my work, we have a switch train (butthead) with a single horn as well. But his one is #1

[@espeescotty]

@@locomotiveproductions That's funny "Butthead". Carson, the engineer here was talking about the horn and how he really has to pull the chord fully to get it to sound the best.

[@ccrx6700]

Awesome Scotty. I really enjoyed the ride. Sounded great. Excellent history in description. I've never been in the cab of an SW. We need one here to haul ballast. I've tried numerous times to get them to buy one. Transportation costs are huge tho. Only thing I would have liked to see is how he shut it down. Other than that great job. The bell was so cool. Was that original SP equipment?

[@espeescotty]

Thanks, Dave! I was super thrilled when I found out that they offered cab rides at a reasonable price, plus the money goes to helping the museum keep them running and restoring more goodies. Unfortunately, I didn't know he was going to shut her down when he did, or I would have shot that too. As for the bell, I'm sure that was the standard bell that came on most EMD switchers at the time. Parts standardization was one of EMD's main points to keep production as efficient as possible. As Carson mentioned, during the restoration, they even went so far as to remove the radio from the cab to make it that much more authentic to the time she rolled out of the factory. One neat thing is that the SP never changed her number, so you can actually see pictures of her throughout her career and her different paint schemes. It's too bad that your railroad is landlocked. I mean you know more than anyone how that limits what you guys can do. But I guess we play the hands we're delt. Thanks for watching buddy!

[@ccrx6700]

@@espeescotty thanks for the great reply 👍 💪👌

[@9_12Port3T2I]

May I have permission to use the sound of the horn from this video? I absolutely love it!

[@espeescotty]

@@9_12Port3T2I Yes sure, that'll be fine with me. Thank you for asking. 🤠👍

[@9_12Port3T2I]

@@espeescotty You're welcome, thanks for letting me use it!

[@Gordon705]

That started easy. You should have asked to see him "bar the engine over". I remember believing as a kid that the wheel was for changing switches from the cab.

[@espeescotty]

Well, he was kind of just doing his thing and happened to have somebody else in the cab with him. If I didn't ask him if he was about to start it, he would have just gone ahead and done it. I asked him to wait just a few seconds so I could catch it. I didn't want to hold him up from getting things done. At least you didn't fall for that wheel being the steering wheel gag. 😆👍