the Prosperity Special

the Prosperity Special was a train made up entirely 24 Baldwin locomotives, part of an order of 50, left on May 27, 1922. They "headed west out of the Baldwin Locomotive Plant to East St. Louis, took the Cotton Belt Line across Texas and was switched to SP tracks in El Paso.

Thousands of spectators lined the tracks to see an almost half mile long train made up entirely of new locomotives cross the country bound for California. A large sign was erected on the lead locomotive that read, ‘The Prosperity Special’.

The special arrived at Taylor Yard in Los Angeles in early June. Half of the locomotives would stay here and run heavy freights over Beaumont Hill and Tehachapi Pass. The rest of the locos went to Sacramento for duty over the Sierra Nevadas, the train stopped to take on water before the descent into Bakersfield and the trip up the valley to their new home in Sacramento.

A couple of years ago I posted this pic of the completed 50 at Eddystone, Pennsylvania:http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2015/02/baldwin-locomotive-works-1922.html and had zero idea what it was about

Thanks Steve!
http://www.theloopnewspaper.com/story/2015/02/28/community/the-prosperity-special/1338.html

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