Southern Pacific #745

Steam locomotives always needed repairs, so the Southern Pacific Railroad worked up a large order of spare parts from the original builder of its class Mk5 locomotives -- the famous Baldwin Locomotive Works. In came the parts: boilers, fireboxes, driving wheels, pony trucks, tubes, flues ... all the parts needed to keep the SP fleet of Mk-5's running. Except the Southern Pacific had no intention of merely repairing locomotives. The company consigned most of the parts to New Orleans, and a smaller order to the SP shop at Houston, Texas -- all ostensibly for repairs. Soon the two shops put their boiler makers to work. Over the next two years, the two shops turned out more than a dozen "built in Algiers" (or Houston) Mk-5 steam locomotives. For two years at least, Algiers Shop was in the steam motive power manufacturing business.

Louisiana Steam Train Association