April 1986 No. 269
Western Winter " Railroading HALF A WORLD ... HALF A CENTURY Pennsylvania's anthracite coal country and Mainland China have little in common ... and a lot.Yesterday lived the third-rail Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Railroad- a remarkable Keystone State interurban. Today, China is building new railroads,
emphasizing both electrification and new steam power. Now, Interurban Press and
Trans-Anglo Books take you trackside to see how it was, is-and will be.
THE LAUREL LINE was an interurban with a difference. It was at once an electrified, heavy-duty coal-hauling railroad and an important passenger carrier linking Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. It lasted well into the 1950s, but was seldom prosperous. It never modernized, but its heavy cars were classics. Its management was reactionary but resourceful, and its passengers complained-but stayed loyal almost to the end. Authors Muncie and Henwood really did their homework on the L&WV, and the result is a definitive history, rich in the telling and complete to the last detail. And there's a wealth of rare photos spanning the Laurel Line's entire history from construction to dismemberment.
THE LAUREL LINE-An Anthracite Region Railway By JAMES N.J. HENWOOD and JOHN G. MUNCIE 208 pages, 247 illus., maps, rosters, 8'hx11" hardbound with color jacket painting. ISBN 0-916374-72-6. (Special 103) ...... $34.95 IShipping S1.50; Californians please add 6% sales lax)
MAINLAND CHINA .. . so far and yet so near. Her railways are surprisingly like ours; her ubiquitous ribbed-metal passenger cars could have come right off the Milwaukee Road! Forbidden no longer, China offers the 1986 railfan a dazzling choice of steam, electrics, U.s.-built diesels, old and new trackage and scenery spectaculars beyond imagining. Our tour conductor is none other than noted rail authority William D. Middleton, who has put between the covers of this major new book the complete story of China's railways, from today's busy main line to teeming Shanghai to the once-upon-a-time Birneys of Darien. It's a different travel book, well documented with color and black and white photos!
CHINA BY RAIL By WILLIAM D. MIDDLETON 120 pages, 137 photos, 8 pages color, system map by John Signor, 10'/,x8'12" album format, soflbound. ISBN 87046-074-9. Trans-Anglo 274 ...... $19.95 IShipping S1.10; Californians please add 6% sales lax) April 1986 No. 269
Pacific RailNews and Pacific News are registered trade· ...... Ken Meeker marks of Interurban Press, a California Corporation. UP's GP35s . . . . 8 PUBLISHER: Mac Sebree The Disappearing Few EDITOR: Jim Walker ART DIRECTOR: Bill Bradley ...... NEWS EDITOR: Dick Stephenson Snow!...... 11 PRODUCTION MANAGER: Ray Geyer CONTRIBUTING ARTIST: John Signor STEAMEXPO Facts ...... 14 STAFF: Kenneth M. Ardinger, Michael W. Fort Collins Municipal Railway, Blaszak, David R. Busse, P. Allen Copeland, Harre W. Demoro, R. C. Then and Now ...... Raphael F Long 16 Farewell, Ralph Forty, Thomas Higgins, Don Jewell, Ken Meeker, Steve Morgan, Clifford Prather, Karl Rasmussen, John A. Rushton, Jim Seal, Joe Strapac, Charles Departments: Vercelli. Shipping: Aramaeys Gazarian
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CHANGE OF ADDRESS: The Post Office does not regularly forward 2nd Class Mail and A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR Pacific RailNews is not responsible for copies not forwarded or destroyed by the Post Office. Replacement copies/PO notifications will be LESS AL L WHO SHOOT black and white films! This is not billed. Please allow us at least four weeks for any B facetiou s, it is a fact that we rarely receive good old-fashioned address changes. prints of cu rrent rail news and action. While color is nice, there is a ADVERTISING RATES: On request, or call limit on how mu ch we canus e each issu e.So many 35 mm slides are (818) 240 4777.· su bmitted, in fact, we mu st oft en return them not becau se they aren't Ar ticles and photographs for the magazine are great, bu t simply becau se we have so many on hand. welcome.When submitting material for consider· ation, include return envelope and postage if you We don't want to tu rn of f the color, bu t we do appreciate being able wish it returned. Pacific RailNews does not to choose mono- or polychromatic views. assume responsibility for the safe return of material.Payment is made upon publication. Preservation of Diesel- electric locomotives is a logical step in the © 1986 INTER URBAN PRESS progression of rail technology.Many of the models now becoming Mac Sebree, President Jim Walker, Vice-President either scrap or mu seu m candidates were bou ght new long afterDiesel power eclipsed steam. In fact, ex amples of many "first- generation"
ARt.. Diesel types were gone before preservation ef forts tu rned to this type of locomotion. We commend these ef forts andur ge you r su pport of � present and fu urt e locomotive- saving efforts. -JIM WAL KER DA-J-
On the campaign trail ... SP operated a special train for U.S. Senate candidate John McCain between Tucson and Mesa, SP Rails Up Francis Guido Dies at Ariz. Here amid rather typical scenery at In Altamont Pass 65, Founder of Coolidge, business car 140-Stallford brings up the markers. SD45R 7556 and In December, the Industrial Railway Sup Western Railroader SDP45 3207 powered the train, on Febru ply Co. of San Leandro, Calif., began the ary 1, 1986. -DAVE WOOD project of removing SP rails and ties in One of the pioneers in railfan publishing, Altamont Pass between Midway and Francis A. Guido, passed away on Febru Ullmar, just east of Livermore. By the end ary 1, 1986. Guido, 65, suffered a heart of January, all rail had been taken up. attack and had battled with heart disease Union Pacific and Katy Clean-up operations were expected to con fo r some time. Call Off Merger Plans tinue until the end of March. Born in 1920, he founded the West em The line enjoyed a brief revival in the Railroader with a group of friends while The proposed merger of the Missouri summer of 1985 (PRN Sept. '85) when this still a high school student in 1937. Over Kansas-Texas Railroad into the Union segment of the line was used fo r the oper 500 issues were published. The last was Pacific System has been called off. ation of training runs. The right-of-way only recently mailed out. Many authors Katy needed to acquire 60% of its out now will be under the jurisdiction of Ala began by having their articles published in standing registered certificates, worth meda County. They are reported to be the Wesl e1'11 Railroader. $30.1 million,. by a January 10 deadline, studying the possibility of using the right Francis Guido was the founder of the but was able to obtain only $12.5 million of-way fo r a light rail system, which Northern California Railroad Club and worth of the certificates. reportedly would connect with a similar was also active in the Pacific Coast Chap Reginald Whitman, chairman and chief system to originate in neighboring San ter, Railway & Locomotive Historical Soci executive officerof Katy Industries, parent Joaquin County. ety as well as being an active supporter of of the M·K-T Railroad, told the Do l/as Alameda County also has its sights set on the California State Railroad Museum. He Tim es Herald, "As fa r as we are concerned, a portion of the fo rmer SP San Ramon was a regular participant in railfan excur the Union Pacific deal has been termi Branch which was recently abandoned. sions over the years and his famous police ated." He added, "I don't see any hopes of The segment is between Radum (East whistle, used to get photographers behind the deal being resurrected. This puts us Pleasanton) and San Ramon. This line the photo line, was the subject of a carica back to square one." could possibly provide a connection with ture of Guido by Ward Kimball, noted rail The Katy, still facing tough competition BART in Walnut Creek, and serve as a artist and cartoonist. as an independent railroad, has no other valuable fe eder in an area which has ex In addition to all his rail activities, he merger plans, said Katy president Harold perienced rapid growth in the last fe w was a graduate of Stanford University, a Gastler. (Ed Von Nordeck) years. practicing attorney, and a fa mily man.
4 • APRIL 1986 S.F. Commute Changes; Espee Power Gone The San Francisco commute service is now the exclusive domain of the new Caltrans F40PH units, which are equipped with head-end power. All the new gallery cars are in service as well, so there is no need fo r Southern Pacific Diesels as backup-only boiler-equipped SD9Es 4450 and 445 1 were evident at San Francisco in late January; otherwise the commute fleet has taken on an entirely new look in just a year. SP commute locomotives have been re assigned. The three GP40P-2s, 3197-3 199, are assigned to unit rock trains in Texas. Most of the SDP45s in the 3200 series are now in general freight service, although 3205 and 3208 presently remain in storage. Also stored at Sacramento are GP9Es 3189-3191, while the rest work locals and switching jobs. Questions were raised by SP about potential wheel-heating problems on the New Orleans bound, SP SDP45s 3207/3201 head the 15-car Super Bowl Special as it F40 Diesels in "push" mode (that is, when deadheads to Houston. The train is seen eastbound on January 21, 1986, between Bosque they are at the rear of the train on north and Shawmut, Ariz., east of Gila Bend. This is likely the last big passenger special to be bound runs). Since the final price of the operated by the Southern Pacific. -DAVE \·1700D F40s was over the planned budget, "blend ed" braking between dynamics and auto matic air was deleted fr om the specifica Rail Briefs ... well as coastal scenes near Ventura, Calif. tion, putting more load than anticipated on SP operated a one-way, one-time-only brake shoes and wheel treads. To answer The three-block-long, eight-story fo rmer movement of APL double-stack containers the SP, a test train was assembled and three Texas & Pacific fr eight terminal at Lan between Los Angeles and Oakland on Jan round trips run on January 9 and 10; con caster and Jennings in Fort Worth, Tex., uary 30. These cars represent a new tech clusions were that all was well and no has been sold to California investors who nology which is rapidly being seen in many changes were needed. plan to convert it into "a really first-rate" areas. On Monday, January 20, a special was shopping mall. The building was sold fo r Santa Fe Southern Pacific Corp. an operated by Caltrans on the Peninsula in development in the 1970s by Missouri nounced in late January that income fo r the honor of Martin Luther King Day. Ten Pacific. (Bulletin Board) year 1985 was down 4%. In the transporta fo rmer SP gallery cars, otherwise out of tion group, carloadings were down 10% on regular service, were pulled by F40 914. The snappy new Amtrak TV commer the Santa Fe, and down 8% on the South The crowd was standing room only-esti cials aired in January fe aturing brand-new ern Pacific. The group reported income mated at 2,000 people. There was even live F40PH 399 were shot in early November of $35.1 million, down $7.5 million fr om broadcasting fr om the train. (Joe Slrapac) when a special train fo r filming was put 1984. There was a significant reduction in together. There are spectacular scenes expenses which helped to offset the lower fr om the Sierras, Cascades and Rockies, as revenues experienced during the year. Daily Service End Sought By California Western The California Western Railroad, a subsid iary of Georgia-Pacific Corp., is seeking permission fr om the California Public Util ities Commission to abandon the daily ser vice to "wayside stations" along the 40-mile scenic route between Ft. Bragg and Willits. The "Skunk" train operation lost nearly $510,000 before taxes in 1984, and 1985 losses are estimated to reach $650,000. The railroad wants to concentrate its resources on its tourist business, reported the Sal11a Rosa Press Dem ocrac.
Freight Business OtT The hauling of lumber, long a mainstay fo r the road, has diminished greatly. Even Georgia-Pacific ships only 17 percent of its Not everythi g coming out of Cleburne Shops is in the new red and yellow scheme as lumber by rail from its Fort Bragg mill. � seen by two CF7s painted for new owner Mexicana del Cobre, a copper operation south Freight revenue dropped $100,000 fr om of the border. The scene was recorded on January 25, 1986, at Cleburne, Tex. 1984 to 1985. (E.H.Nervo) -ROBERT SEALE
PACIFIC RailNEWS • 5 Former DOT Secretary 4449 California Visit Over 30 Killed Named New Union Due in Mid-March In VIA-CN Head-On Pacific Chairmanl CEO At press time, the exact date fo r the move A mnajor head-on collision between a ment of Southern Pacific GS-4 4449 was Super Drew Lewis, fo rmer U.S. Secretary of Canadian National fr eight and VIA's not firmly set. It does appear that subject to COlIC inellCa/ on February 8 killed in excess Transportation, has been elected chairman the shooting schedule of the movie Tough of 30 passengers, and injured 80 others. and chief executive officer of Union Pacific Guys by Disney Studios, the big steam The nine-car passenger train was east Railroad Co. effective April I, 1986. Lewis locomotive will be in Southern California bound when it collided with the 114-car became a director of Union Pacific Corp. in mid-March. westbound fr eight train. The location was on January 30. It is set fo r a layover day in Sacramento, 10 miles east of Hinton, Alberta (50 miles William S. Cook, chairman, president and after filming in Los Angeles will pay a east of Jasper). and chief executive officer of UP Corp., brief visit to the Kaiser Eagle Mountain It was not immediately known if signal the railroad's parent, stated that it is Railroad east of Indio, Calif. fa ilure or the fa ilure of the crew of the intended that next year Lewis, 54, will The five-car train moving with the fr eight to observe the signal at the west end become president and chief operating offi steamer represents privately owned equip of the siding brought about the crash. cer of UP Corp. Upon Cook's retirement ment. (Ben Fredericks, Don Bain, Dick Fire broke out shortly after the collision, at age 65 on October I, 1987, Lewis is Sc ep henson) adding to the problems of removing the expected to succeed him as chairman and passengers. chief executive officer. John C. Kenefick, presently chairman We Did See Double and chief executive officer of the UP Rail There were two locomotives of the same road Co., will become vice chairman of the number in the photo on p. 33 of the last parent UP Corp. on April I, 1986, and will issue (No. 268). In making a correction to serve in that capacity until his retirement one transposed number, we managed NOT Amtrak's northbound Coast Starlight came to grief on BN rails at milepost 22.6, on January 1, 1987, at age 65. to change the other one. Both the Union near Du Pont, Wash., on December 20, Lewis, currently chairman and chief Pacific and Missouri Pacific units shown 1985. Two locomotives and five cars de executive officer of Warner Amex Cable are No. 3238, pointing up the problem of railed because of a rain-swollen spring Communications, a position he has held duplication in the UP-MoP fleet now re that undermined the hillside; 175 feet of since 1983, served as Secretary of Trans solved by combining all the locomotives main line slipped out, leaving a 75-foot portation fr om 1981 to 1983. into one fleet. crater. The line was reopened for traffic on January 22. -ALBERT FARROW
6 • APRIL 1986 NEVADA
Carson City Railroad Association-4th CALL BOARD Friday (most months). 7:30 p.m. CCRTA Mills Park Station, Carson City NV (enter off Saliman Rd., opposite high school). Contact Box 2245, Carson City NV 89702. APRIL 26-27: Annual Rail Festival at Orange Feather River Rail Society-3rd Saturday Empire Railway Museum, 220 1 So. "A" St., bi-monthly (even-numbered months) 7:30 p.m. Perris CA 92370. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. both days. $5 at the museum, Portola, Calif. Write P.O. Box TEXAS for adults. 267- 270 8, Portola CA 96122.
Gulf Coast Chapter NRHS-8 p.m. 3rd MAY 25: "Rails to Belvidere." First passenger Southern California Chapter, R&LHS- Tuesdays aboard railroad cars on Track 1 of special in many years on C&NW's Belvidere 1st Tuesday. 8 p.m. Basement, 401 N. Brand Gulf Coast Transportation Museum, 7390 Subdivision, west of Chicago. Includes visit to Blvd., Glendale CA. Contact W.B. Fletcher, Mesa Rd., Houston, Tex. Write PO Box 547, Illinois Ry. Museum at Union. $5 0. Informa Chmn., 7515 Yankey St., Downey, CA 90242. Houston TX 77001. tion from Overland Chapter,NRHS, 1412 12th St.,Mobile IL 61265. (309) 764- 1 834. 26 7-270 Northern California Railroad Club, Inc.- 4th Tuesday monthly except January. 8 p.m. UTAH MAY 23-jUNE 1: STEAMEXPO at the Expo Auditorium,San Francisco Community College 86 World Exposition at Vancouver, B.C. For District, 33 Gough St. (just off Market), San information, write to Steamexpo Visitors Pro Francisco CA. Contact Ronald Vane,Secretary, Promontory Chapter, NRHS-1st Friday gram, PO Box 34105, Station D,Vancouver BC Box 668, San Mateo CA 94401. monthly, 7:30 p.m. Salt Lake Hardware Build V6J 4MI. 269- 27 1 ing, 105 N. 400 West (one block north of Union Orange County Railway Historical Society Pacific station), Salt Lake City. Contact Lester -1st Monday, monthly. 8 p.m. At Santa Ana Tippie, 1965 Lindsay Dr., Salt Lake City UT Regional Transportation Center (new Amtrak 84119. MEETINGS depot), 1000 E. Santa Ana Blvd., Santa Ana. ARIZONA Contact Steve Donaldson, PO Box 51, Balboa Island CA 92662. (714) 642-1864. WASHINGTON Arizona Chapter, NRHS- 4th Friday (ex Pacific Locomotive Association-3rd Fri cept Nov.lDec.) at Vista del Camino Recreation Northwest Railfan Group-1st Friday, day. 8 p.m. Social Hall, St. Christopher's Center, 7700 E. Roosevelt, Scottsdale AZ September through May. 6:30 p.m. Room Church, Hacienda & Hathaway Sts., San 85257. 1- 1-32, North Seattle Community College. Lorenzo CA. Write Box 24 65,San Leandro CA Contact Carl E. Weber, 1277 NE 69 St.,Seattle 94577. WA 98115. (206) 523- 1630.
CA LIFORNIA Pacific Railroad Society-2nd Friday, 8 Puget Sound Railway Historical Associa p.m. Story Park Recreation Center, 210 No. tion-2nd Friday. 7:30 p.m. North Seattle Bay Area Electric Railroad Association- Chapel Ave., Alhambra, CA. Contact Marti Community College,Room R C 1-1-31 Lecture 1st Friday. 8 p.m. Hospitality Room, San Ann Draper, Pres.,Box 807 26,San Marino CA Hall "D". Contact Box 459, Snoqualmie WA Francisco Federal Savings, Shattuck & Univer 91108. (213) 28 3-0087. 98065. sity Ave., Berkeley, CA. Contact John C. Plytnick, Pres., Box 3694, San Francisco CA Tacoma Chapter, NRHS-3rd Friday. 7 941 19. COLORADO p.m. South Park Community Center, 4851 S. Central Coast Railway Club, Inc.-3rd Tacoma Way, Tacoma WA. Contact Dale Kraus, Pres.,Box 340,Tacoma, WA 98401. Friday. 8 p.m. Community meeting room, Mile High Railway Club-Last Monday Santa Clara Public Library, 26 35 Homestead (except june, july, Aug., Dec.). 7 p.m. Rd., Santa Clara CA. John Francis, Pres., Box Rossi's, 4301 Brighton Blvd.,Denver. Contact 8407, San Jose CA. (303) 420-4155, 233-2650. BRITISH COLUMBIA
Electric Railway Historical Assn. of So. Intermountain Chapter, NRHS-3rd Fri Pacific Coast Division, Canadian Railroad Calif.-3rd Friday. 7:30 p.m. Community day (except june, july, Aug., Dec.). 6:30 Historical Association-3rd Wednesday. Rm.,Calif. Federal Savings, 1900 Sunset Blvd. p.m. Rossi's, 430 1 Brighton Blvd., Denver. 7:30 p.m. Vet's Room, CN Terminal,Vancou (Echo Park), Los Angeles. Write Box 24315, Contact Box 5181, Terminal Annex, Denver ver, Be. Contact Box 1006, Station A, Van Los Angeles CA 90024. CO 80217.(303 ) 623-6474. couver BC, Canada V6C 2PI.
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PACIFIC RailNEWS • 7 UP's GP35s • • • The Disappearing Few
by Ken Meeker
UR LOCOMOT IV EFE ATURETHI SMONT H Five were pu rchased by the Colorado and Eastern Rail O focuses on UP 's originalfl eet of EMD GP3 5 s, way: the 743, 748, 75 6 , 76 0 and 76 2. The 741 , 750 and 763 most recent class of motive power to disappear from the were sold for scrap. The long hood of f the 763 wasus ed railroad's roster. UP pu rchased a total of 24 GP35 s, to replace that of wreck-damaged WP GP3 5 30 20 . That nu mbered 740 -763.The first22 units were bu ilt between unit is,still awaiting repairs at theSalt Lake City Shops. May andJu ly of 19 6 4, Upon its release it will be renu mbered UP 79 8. while the 762 and 763 were bu ilt between Au gu st and November of 19 63.They operated Roster-cou sins of the same model came into the UP as EMD demos 56 52 and 56 54 before pu rchase by the fold throu gh the merger. UP 782- 799 are ex -WP 30 01- UP . 30 22 . All of the UP 'sGP 35 s were bu ilt to common EMD They continu e in service on former WP territory, design with trade-in parts fromF3 s andF7s. The grou p now wearing the UP Yellow. From the MoPac came 18 of 24 units represents only 20/0 of EMD 's total produ c GP3 5M s: 26 0 0-2617. These were rebu ilt between 19 76 tion of 1,250 and 1978. units between late 19 63 and196 6. They have spent a considerable amou nt of Strangely enou gh, time in the last five years in storage. none of the UP units ever received pilot snow At this writing plows, they are awaiting retirement, thou gh they frequ ently operated in snow cou ntry. and may be traded in on Only 10 of the units su rvived into 1985, new power. winding up their careers in local service throughou t the UP System. So, while theGP 35 s have not been as prolific as other Prior to that, models on the roster, they cou ld frequ ently be fou nd on the they have had an interesting life on Eastern District, the UP .Tho u gh the original UP units are gone, often as pilot engines on trains operat the few ing east of North Platte, remaining former WP andMo PacGP 35 s are still worthy Neb. All were retired byJu ne 25, su bjects of photography. 19 85 . By late Janu ary 1986 , six were awaiting disposition, inclu ding Nos. 744, 746 , 74 7, 753 , 75 8 and 76 l.The Deep in the heart of ex-WP territory, UP 785 heads a lashup which 742 and 749 were donated to the Association of Amer includes five ex-WP GP35s and a GP30 at Stockton, Calif., on Febru icanRailroads forus e at its test facility atPu eblo, ary 24, 1985. Note the application of the UP herald below the lower Colo. headlight. -DICK STEPHENSON
8 • APRIL 1986 Ty pical of GP35 power on the WP is the 3008, seen at Roper Yard in Salt Lake City on June 21, 1982. WP power laid over at the D&RGW yard. -DICK STEPHENSON
UP 758 basks in the springtime sun at Salina, Kan., on April 5, 1981. · The GP35s were used in local and switching service throughout the .entire system. -JIM WATSON PHOTO/DICK STEPHENSON COLLECTION
PACIFIC RailNEWS • 9 Heading down Mainline Two with general merchandise in tow were units now captive to the UP's Nebraska Division on May 7, 1979. GP35 752 is on the point; behind are GP30 866 and GP30B 719B. In minutes they'll cut their cars off and go to the Round house for servicing and further assignment. -GEORGE R. COCKLE
When new in July 1964, SD35 760 was coupled to DD35s at the Council Bluffs, Iowa engine ter minal. -JOHN J. WHEELlHAN
10 • APRIL 1986 COMBINE ALL the problems of oper ating during subzero temperatures and crossing mountain ranges and you have the components of winter railroading on the major Western roads, Winter's white blanket lends both a picturesque and dramatic air to photographic efforts from many of our contributors. This is the kind of railroading that most enthusiasts would prefer to pursue from their armchairs.
Snow and the Canadian Rockies are synonymous. On April 27, 1974, Canadian Pacific No. 2, The Canadian, headed by units 140311413, with a 10-coach consist, rolls down the Bow River Valley east of Canmore, Alta. (mile 64 of the Laggan subdivision) on this snowy afternoon. -MICHAEL WILKIE
Below: What was once simply a necessary
..:;;.. chore has become also something to cele • brate. Cumbres Pass, Colo. (elev. 10,015 . ':jf ft.) was still under some four to fivefeet of - snow when Cumbres & Toltec Scenic RR -*.. rotary snowplow OY carne by the water plug atop the pass on May 25, 1983, doing its work as it had for decades. ! -* -"CHIP" SHERMAN
•
PACIFIC RailNEWS • II To p: Making its way right down a city street in Coeur d' Alene, Ida., Above: BN Extra 6791 West kicks up some fresh snow as it heads BN GP38-2 2089 handles one car as it works the Coeur d' Alene local through Summit, Mont., on October 12, 1985. The four-unit lash up is on November 21, 1985. -FRED SIMON handling piggybacks bound for Seattle. -BRUCE KELLY
12 • APRIL 1986 To p: Three Centennials lead the UP symbol sex westbound through Above: The UP Park City local wends its way into Coalville, Utah, on Salt Lake City on February 5, 1985. The DDs were on borrowed time, the Park City Branch on January 8, 1986. GP30 805 leads S040-2 and so this gloomy day shot is all the more meaningful. 3324, which reflects a recent change in the motive power used on the -D. B. HARROP branch. -D. B. HARROP
PACIFIC RailNEWS • 13 A Host of Visiting Locom.otives STEAMEXPO FACTS
TEAMEXPO, Wheel which is organiz ed as part of EXPO Arrange- S 86 in Vancou ver, Identification ment Coming From British Colu mbia, has issu ed a "qu estion and answer" style fact sheet for those inter Bear Harbor Lumber "Gypsy" 0-4-0 Northern Counties Logging ested. Wequ ote from it, Museum with the addition of locomotive Union Pacific 8444 4-8-4 Union Pacific RR information provided by The Western Railroader. Alberni Pacific 2 Shay Aberni Valley Museum Canadian Pacific 120 I 4-6-2 National Museum of Science and Technology What is STEAMEXPO? Stephenson's Rockel (replica) National Ry. Museum, York, England STEAM EXPO is the largest gathering of steam locomo Canadian National 6060 4-8-2 Province of Alberta Virginia & Truckee IIIYo 4-4-0 Nevada State RR Museum tives to be held inNorth America since steam power lef t Canadian Pacific 2860 Royal mainline service. Hudson 4-6-4 British Columbia It is an offi cialSpecial Event of EXPO British Columbia 1077 2-6-2 B.G. Provincial Museum 86 , Condon Kinzua & Southern 91 Heisler Western Washington Forest the 1986 World Ex position inVanco u ver, Canada. Industry Museum Northern Pacific 1070 0-6-0 Lake Whatcomb RR When does it take place? Prairie Dog Central 3 4-4-0 Vintage Loco. Assn. Southern Pacific 4449 4-8-4 City of Portland May 23 throu ghJu ne 1, B.G. Forest Museum 1 Shay B.G. Forest Museum 1986 . Union Pacific 4466 0-6-0 Calif. State RR Museum Johll Molsoll 2-2-2 Canadian R.H.A. Where in the city will it take place? Salem & Hillsborough 1009 4-6-0 Hillsborough, New Brunswick In a section of theCanadian National rail yards south of Canadian National 1392 4-6-0 Alberta Pioneer Ry. Assn., Edmonton Terminal Avenu e and ju st east of Main Street. The Best Frielld of Gha rle51oll, It is a short walk from the EXPO 86 East Gate, Pickering Lumber Co. 12 Shay Pacific Loco. Assn. the main en Quincy RR 2 2-6-2T Pacific Loco. Assn. trance to the ex position. Dum·obin 0-4-4T Ft. Steele, B.G. Ohio Steam Crane Crane CANSTEAM Brownhoist Steam Crane Crane Transport Collection How many engines are coming?
About two doz en are registered to date, Are they coming under their own power? bu t inqu iries from potential participants continu e to be received. The larger engines will be, bu t the smaller ones will be There will also be many private cars and trains attending. transported on flatcars cou rtesy of the connecting rail roads. Are they going to be running?
Yes, What about BN's policy not to let steam locomo this is a requ irement for participation. tives operate on its track? Will they run together at any time? This has not changed, bu t alternative rou ting via the Yes, Union Pacifi c, aGrand Parade opens the event at noon onMay 23 , Spokane International, and Canadian the date and time commemorating that of the arrival of Pacifi c is being arranged. the firsttranscontinental passengertrain inVanco uver in 1887. Where can I get complete scheduling of these All engines will ru n from staging tracks to the spectators' area on the downtown Bu rrard inlet water runs, or tickets to ride them? front. STEAM EXPO is not directly involved in arranging these trips, bu t as details become known, they will be Will there be excursions behind the locomotives? pu blished in the Pacific Express newsletter. (Su bscrip Ex cu rsions are being arranged, tions are for a total of 12 issu es, althou gh fares and loco and inclu des all back motives involved have not beenfi naliz ed. issu es to date. Costs are $6 .00 Canadian to address in Canada, $6 .00 U.S. for address in the U.S.A. , and Which engines are coming? $1 0 .0 0 Canadian elsewhere. ) The list of participants continu es to grow, For STEAM EXPO information, bu t the fol write to: Box 3410 5, lowing locomotives have been confirmed to date: Station D, Vancou ver, B.C. Canada V6J 4M l.
14 • APRIL 1986 Canadian Pacific No. 1201, the Pacific· type locomotive featured at the Last Spike Re·Enactment at Craigellachie, B.C., last November (p. 17 of PRN 267) is shown as it was towed into tern· porary storage in Vancouver prior to the opening of STEAM· EXPO 86. -PHIL MAGNALL
One of the guest locomotives due to appear in steam at STEAM· EXPO 86 is famed Union Pacific 4·8·4 No. 8444. It is seen on the point of the City of Kallsas City at E. 56th Ave. in Denver on March 29, 1971. -RONALD C. HILL
PACIFIC RailNEWS • 15 Fort Collins Municipal Railway
( Then and NOW)
by Raphael F. Long
On the return run of its first offi cial trip, Ft. Collins Municipal Railway Birney Safety Car No. 21 is at the corner of Mountain Ave. and Roosevelt St. on De cember 29, 1984. Anti-trolIey pickets are at left, attesting to opposition by local residents to the return of trolIeys to the median right-of-way which they occupied for many years. -AL DUNTON
HENEW SOF TH EPR ES ERVA TION EFFOR TS andSouthern. The original plan was to build an electric T by the Fort Collins Municipal Railway Society is line between Fort Collins and Denver via Boulder. The but another manifestation of the Lazarus ef fect that is interurban starting from Denver never got beyondBoul gripping cities throughout North America. der, Those elec with the ex ception of the local trackage in Fort tric railway systems that died in the 1930 s, Collins. '4 0sand ' 50 s were supposed to stay dead! In 190 6, Now we read where even the FortCollins City Council granted a fran tiny Fort Collins, chise to the Denver and Interurban for operation of a Colorado, is making an abbreviated comeback. local trolley system. Construction of a single-track line FortCollins, alongMountain Avenue fromCollege Avenue to approx in 1950 , was lik e so many small towns in Heartland America. imately 20 blocks west(G randview Cemetery) The architecture of its buildings began on ref lected an earlier, July 7, more affiuent time, 1907 . froz en by the Great Depression and soon to disappear in the plastic Thefi rst passenger service was operated onAugust 8, age of post- World War II. 1907 , Only the automobiles and using borrowed Colorado and Southern steam ladies' fashions betrayed 1950 , engine 20 6, rather than 190 0. an 0-6-0, There and four ancient open-platform were noGolden Arches; coaches. no Colonel' s face smiling down on you. Each Electrified service didn' t begin until December 29, community throughout America refl ected the individuality of its people, when the system was formally dedicated. and Fort Collins was no Four Woeber ex ception. built cars numbered M-lOl to M- 104 and four Jewetts To travel about America was a fascinating adventure because each town, numbered M-10 5 to M-10 8 provided the initial service. each place, was truly dif ferent in that era before the 80 0 number. All of this eq uipment req uired two men to operate, I made my one and only pilgrimage to that city back on which even in that era of low wages was not cost the 10 th ofJuly 1950 . ef fective. Fort Collins was just a few hours' In 1912 , the cars were converted to one-man jaunt north of Denver on the Colorado and Southern. operation. Denver Tramway had closed the previous week end. For you trivia buffs, the Woeber cars were Denver products and similar to the Tramway cars. Origins During World War I, the D&IM's parent Colorado The Fort Collins system had its origins in theDenver and Southern, along with most railroads inthe United and Interurban Railway, States, a subsidiary of the Colorado fell under the control of the Federal Railroad
16 • APRIL 1986 On a quiet day in the late 1940s, No. 26 runs along one of the wide Administration. rights-of-way in Fort Collins. This was the federal government's way -FORT COLLINS MUNICIPAL RAILWAY SOCIETY of addressing the problems inherent in having too many dif ferent systems. The rationaliz ation that would have solved these problems was still decades away. Under government mismanagement, homa. the nation's railroads fell The deal was consummated af ter the electorate on hard times. approved the transaction by an 8 to 1 margin in an elec TheD&I M, weaned from its parent and weak from lack of patronage, tion heldJanuary 7, went into receivership. 1919 . The local system in FortCol l ins struggled along until Before municipal service could begin, several changes it became painfully obvious that it could never be eco had to be made. The track on Mountain was cut back nomically viable. three blocks from Grandview toCity Park, On the night ofJuly 10 , where a loop 1918, employ ees of the system were simply tol d not to report to work was constructed through the park. A new carhouse was the following morning. constructed at Howes and Cherry, along with several AsJuly 11 dawned, blocks of trackage on Howes. Fort Coll ins found itself without Four new Birney Safety any public transportation. Cars, For the citiz ens, numbered 20 -23 , this was a were purchased from the Amer disaster. icanCar Company ofSt. Few owned any form of private conveyance. Louis. The new cars arrived on Attempts were made to initiate a bus and a gasoline May 24 , 1919 ; by early June, Fort Collins again had streetcar service. Neither effort proved successful. streetcar service, af ter nearly a year-l ong hiatus. In 1920 , another Birney, numbered 24 , was acq uired A Municipal System new from the Cincinnati Car Company. Dimensionally Using San Francisco as a model, and mechanically this car was identical to the earlier cars a number of sugges tions were made for municipal ownership of the system. ex cept for a wide number board. TheCity Council balked at paying the price asked by the In 1924 , two additional cars were acq uired from the Denver and Interurban. After Cheyenne Electric Railway Company of neighboring a series of negotiations, the city and the railway settled on a price: Wyoming. $7 5, Numbered 6 and 7 they became cars 25 and 000. It is quite obvious that the railway got the better part of that 26 . Like20 -2 3 they were also products ofAmerican Car, deal. vintage 1922 . They had outward folding doors and re Seven miles of track with overhead wire, a rotary converter hooked to the local power company and four movable headlights. ancient Jewetts were soon sold to an operator in Okl a- By 1946, car 23 plus Cincinnati- built 24 and former
PACIFIC RailNEWS • 17 The three-way meet in front of the First National Bank. After passing simultaneously on the wye track, No. 20 will go south on College (right), No. 26 will go west on Mountain (lower right), and No. 25 will go east on Moun tain (upper left). -FORT COLLINS MUNICIPAL RAILWAY SOCIETY
Cheyenne 25 had all reached the scrap pil e and replace every 20 minutes, so this phenomena occurred three ments were needed. Two cars were located inRichmond, times an hour. Virginia. Former At the opposite side of the cycle, when Virginia Electric Power Company the westbound 1530 and 1520 became second number 24 and25 , Mountain Avenue car reached City Park, respec the two loop tively. cars would pass at Remington and Pitkin. These were 1922 products of theJ.G. This was BrillCom pany ofPhiladelphia. accomplished by the loop car (one car continuously TheVirginia cars were shuddering piles of junk and probably should never have been ac traversing the loop clockwise) which would pull into a quired. They were bought because the buyer from Fort single switch spur permitting the eastbound car on Collins liked their deep leather seats. Pitkin to pass. The loop car woul d back out onto Pitkin and resume its westbound journey back towardCol l ege. This passing spur was at one time a wye, and earlier was A Loop System part of a loop adjacent toA& MCollege. TheRemington Fort spur proceeded north to Edwards where it swung west Collins was famous for the three- way meet at the intersection ofMountain andCollege Avenues. Since the and back to College Avenue. system was single track, No trip to Fort Col lins was complete without ex plor there were few places to pass. Each leg of the wye at Mountain and College could ing the intact but unused trackage along Linden from accommodate one car for passing. College up to State Highway 14. Headways were once And also north along
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18 • APRIL 1986 Cars 21 and 24 sit in front of the carbarn on the corner of Howes and Cherry Sts. This building is still used by the city as a garage. It was here that the first restora tion efforts on car 21 began. -RAPHAEL F. LONG
Birney No. 26 bobs along its single-track route on tree-lined Whedbee St. on its southbound loop circuit in the late 1940s. -RAPHAEL F. LONG
College fromMountain to Walnut, tunately, then east to Linden. the elitist elected officials were not. When an This was an anachronism from the age before municipal election was held and it was decided to retain the cars by ownership. It was a remnant of the short-lived Linden a two-to-one margin, the all-knowingeleCled ones allowed meier Lake line, the system to fall into disrepair. One by one the cars a popular recreation attraction, about two and a half miles northeast of town. Here the D&I became unserviceable, until there was none left. Along constructed a pavilion and boat landings. with them perished the 5<1: fare that had been a feature of Commencing in 190 8, the system since it was built 44 years before. the line lasted only a few years. High main tenance, The Birney cars enjoyed a very high survival rate coupled with low revenues, soon put an end to this line. despite the fact that 1950 was probably the benchmark This seven-mile-long system featured every conceiv year in America's post-World War II love affair with able type of roadbed: destroying its heritage. Car 20 was sold to the Pioneer center and side of the road oper ation; Village at Minden, private right-of-way through CityPark loop; Neb. span Car 22 found its way to the wire over macadam and concrete streets; Colorado Railroad Museum at Golden. and even pole Second 25 was and bracket soldto a private party at WoodlandPark, arms in the middle of the street. Colo., and car 26 was sold to the Midwest Chapter of the National The (First) End; 1951 Railway HistoricalSociety, and is now on display at the The little maroon and silver trolleys met their fate on GreenfieldVillage Museum inMichigan. Second car 24 June 30 , was scrapped, 1951, and all that was left inFort Collins was a when the system was abandoned. The local populace was overwhelmingly pro-trolley. Unfor- very lonely and forlorn No. 2! ,
PACIFIC RailNEWS • 19 Car 20 runs in the median of College Ave. on a warm summer day in the late '40s. The U.S. highway between Denver and Cheyenne used College Ave. as the route through Fort Collins. -FORT COLLINS MUNICIPAL RAILWAY SOCIETY
Bu t this isn't the end of ou r story. dollars in cash and donated materials, This car, a trolley barn No . 21 , had been placed on static display ou tside the Pioneer bu ilt, 1, 400 feet of track laid, and a mile and a half of Mu seu m. overhead wire acqu ired. Likeall railway ex hibits, it had fallen prey to every sort of indignity, We wish the hard- work ing people ofFort Collins lu ck , ranging from abu se and the elements, for thei r ef fort isn't an easy one. There are still many to providing shelter for homeless wretches of hu manity. By 1977 it was in a very sad state of hu rdles to leap, inclu ding organiz ed opposition from dilapidation. neighbors along the rou te, if they are to rebu ild the line Now enter the Fort Collins Ju nior Women' s Clu b. al ong Mou ntain Avenu e from City Park to within two That group of pu blic- minded citiz en s periodicall y tak es bl ock s of downtown. If they are lik e those hardy soul s of on projects that will benefit the city. Georgetown, They proposed Colo., who rebuilt that spectacu lar loop, performing a cosmetic restoration of the car, and the people ofColorado appear to be a dedicated lot when mak ing it into an information booth in the downtown area. With it comes to preserving their heritage. the blessing of the city, We urge anyone interested in this project to write to the car was movedup to the ol d carbarn. theSo ciety at P.O. Here it was discovered that there was little to Box 635, FortCollins, CO 80 522 for refu rbish and repaint. The woodwork from 26 years of membership information. the Colorado elements had tu rned to rot, and the sheet metal to ru st. For the car to be repainted, Update it wou ld have to be rebu ilt. October 27 , The genesis of an idea was born. 1985 , " ... was the off icial end of thefi rst oper Since we are rebu ilding the car and since the underframe, ating season of theFort Collins Mu nicipalRailway since motors and controls are intact, 1951 , why not restore it to reported the preservation grou p in its December operating condition? And if the car is in operating con 1985 "Trolley Fare." dition, TheSo cietyke ptup a 12-hourru nning schedu le each why not operate it?" This was beyond the scope and think ing of theJu nior Women'sCl u b.They wanted week end startingJu ne 2, and carried some 9,2 45 paying to restore the streetcar� not the streetcarsy stem! fares du ring the season with nearly "fl awless perform The people who shared these thou ghts banded to ance by ou r old bu t reju venated car." geth er to form the Fort Col li ns Mu ni ci pal Rail way It appears neighbors opposed to th e rehabilitated line Society in Febru ary of 1980 . Their goal was to recon continu e to harass the organiz ation and city, bu t the struct part of the original line, Society plans ex pansion of the ru n and is now work ing and to operate car21 on it as an ex ample of living history- a most ambitiousun der on constru ction. tak ing. Many than/�s to Joan Seegmiller) Carroll Tunnel') and Reopening the For t Collins Municipal Railway Society for providing In the intervening years, much of the infor mation which made this article possible. the car has had a mu seu m qu ality restoration and was an immediate "hit" on Thanks also to Brian Bech told and Al Dunton for illustra December29, tions) and to Jay Kale of the city of Fort Collins for help 1984 , thefi rst day of operation. There had been thousands of hou rs of volu nteer work , with map data. thousands of
20 • APRIL 1986 Southern California Action
Above: Crossing the multi-arch Santa Ana River viaduct, this eastbound Union Pacific freight is between Pedley and Arlington as it approaches the Santa Fe connection at Riverside, Calif., for joint operation over Cajon Pass. SD40-2 3344 heads a three unit power consist. -BRUCE KELLY
Right: Missouri Pacific on the Pacific Electric? Well,it is a MoP unit and that is a Pacific Electric wig-wag crossing signal, but it's January 18, 1986, and GP38-2 No. 2035 is the lead unit on the Union Pacific Colton, Calif. job, shown here wying the train on the SP's Riverside Branch (for merly used by PE) in Colton. -BOB FINAN/ FINER ENTERPRISES
PACIFIC RailNEWS • 21 RAILROAD S
rebuild and the Caterpillar-reengined operated over the last remaining segment SD45 remain uncompleted as of mid of Santa Fe's abandoned St. Joseph-Henri January. Work proceeds as time permits fo r etta, Mo. line. The North Western used St. CHICAGO & the shops's 60 or so employees. Joseph Terminal and BN trackage through NORTH downtown St. Joseph to reach its own yard Ex-BN SD45s on the north side of that city. Through WESTERN Of the Burlington Northern SD45s trains on the CGW line were rerouted over (6472-6491) which have been on C&NW the fo rmer Rock Island "spine line" in property since October, fo ur (6475, 6480, December 1983; the track between Des 6486, 6489) were interchanged to Balti Moines and St. Joseph was abandoned in By Michael W. Blaszak more and Ohio in early December fo r 1984. delivery to the New Yo rk, Susquehanna C&NW!UP WEPCO Coal Pact and Western. The remaining 16 units will Other Abandonments Ever since Wisconson Electric Power Co. be leased by C&NW, operating under their In other abandonment developments, the opened its Pleasant Prairie coal-fired gener BN numbers. These units were also run company was authorized on January 7 to ating station near Kenosha, Wis., in 1980, through the Oelwein Shops in December abandon its Readlyn-Shell Rock, Ia. line. Burlington Northern and Chicago and and January. The Cedar Valley Railroad had offered to North Western have been supplying it with purchase this segment, but fa iled to reach coal produced at the Rawhide Mine in Crew Reductions; Payroll Trimming agreement with C&NW on price. North Wyoming, served by BN. Operation of the North Western is negotiating with its Western is negotiating with Weaver Con Pleasant Prairie coal trains on C&NW was operating unions to reduce crew changes struction, operator of its Rock Springs, notable because BN power arid cabooses on the Chicago-Fremont run. At present, Wis., ballast pit, to sell the 34.2-mile regularly ran through to the plant and on to three crews are required to operate a train Reedsburg-Camp Douglas, Wis. line. Butler (Milwaukee) fo r servicing. In Octo across this 482-mile line; crews change at (Credils 10 Mixed Train, North Western ber 1985, though, WEPCO began to Clinton and Boone, Ia. C&NW desires to Limited al/d Richard Wilkinsol/) change its coal-buying practices, purchas operate trains between Chicago and Fre ing some coal fo r Pleasant Prairie from mont with two crews, changing at Beverly, Sunedco's Cordero Mine and routing it via a point on the main line directly south of C&NW-Union Pacific-C&NW. On Janu Cedar Rapids. If an agreement is reached ary 2, C&NW announced that UP and on this change, it is likely that two-crew itself had signed a transportation contract operation will be limited to TOFC and with WEPCO covering an annual move double-stack trains which perform no inter UNION ment of about 1.5 million tons of Powder mediate work. River Basin coal fr om C&NW origins. Like many other railroads, C&NW has PACIFIC U nit trains operated under this contract are decided to thin its payroll by offering an SYSTEM symboled RNPPC (loads) and PPRNX employee buyout program. The company's (empties). UP power and cabooses run 1985 earnings will be reduced by a $21.2 through. At least fo r the time being, million charge to cover the cost of elim Pleasant Prairie continues to receive some inating 1,500 jobs through severance and By Ken Meeker Rawhide coal as well. The Pleasant Prairie attrition. plant is alongside C&NW's New Line Sub 1986 Capital Budget division south of the station of Bain, where CGW Remnant Axed Union Pacific's 1986 capital budget pro the auto-loading facility fo r American Due to declining traffic and operating vides fo r a total of $529 million fo r new Motors' Kenosha assembly plant is located. deficits, the North Western was authorized equipment purchases and fo r improving by an ICC order served December 24 to roadway and fa cilities. New purchases SD50 Movements abandon its 64-mile Kansas City-St. include 60 Electro-Motive SD60s, $64 mil With the entire order of SD50s on the Joseph, Mo. operation, the last remnant of lion, and 384 trilevel auto racks, $14 mil property, C&NW has been concentrating the old Chicago Great Western's Kansas lion. Additionally, the railroad will modify its new power on heavy-tonnage, long City line. The St. Joseph operation was 1,585 currently owned auto racks, to im distance trains, as expected. Trains such as notable fo r its extensive reliance on track prove security while in service between the Minnesota-Utah ore trains (ITCUSI age rights arrangements with other rail auto fa cilities. Maintenance-of-way expen CUITX), the Northern States Power coal roads. From Kansas City to Leavenworth, ditures this year will include $296 million trains and the Wisconsin Power and Light C&NW's biweekly trains operated over the fo r track renewals, $142 million fo r road coal trains are often assigned two SD50s Missouri Pacific. At Leavenworth, C&NW way improvements and $91 million fo r and an older six-axle unit in place of the trackage turned sharply to the east to cross equipment. The track renewal program customary fo ur SD40-2s or SD45s. The the Missouri River on a landmark (but will include 821 miles of rail to be relaid 7000s have also been spotted on other tottering) 1893 bridge. Between Beverly (406 miles of new rail and 415 miles of trains, such as the nightly Belvidere, I11. and Leavenworth, Burlington Northern secondhand steel). Two million crossties Proviso Yard auto parts turnaround. exercises trackage rights over C&NW fo r will be replaced and $22 million will be During December and January, C&NW access to the latter city. This portion of the spent on bridge, decking and culvert re began cycling the SD50s through the line will remain intact pending a decision placements. Oelwein Shops. Due to the work being by BN on whether to continue the stub-end Major projects fo r 1986 include: 1. Con performed on these units and Oelwein's Leavenworth operation. Between Bee struction of two new sidings at Farr and ongoing traction motor rebuilding assign Creek Junction (south of St. Joseph) and Martin, Neb. (at a cost of $1.8 million). 2. ment, the prototype 16-cylinder SD45 the St. Joseph Te rminal Ya rd, C&NW Installation of a new fu eling fa cility and
22 • APRIL 1986 supplemental mainline trackage at Coffey In the past, this train was a good bet fo r It turned out to be a long, long night fo r ville, Kan. ($32 million). 3. A new yard two or three GP30s, but recently this the train's crew. They made a pickup at master's tower and related improvements assignment has seen a GP30/SD40-2 com Colton, then added a helper fo r the climb at Pocatello, Ida. ($1.6 million). 4. Upgrad bination. over the Pass. Part of the way up the hill, a ing and expanding the inter modal fa cility In late January an influx of coal traffic knuckle let go, and they had to stop to at Argo Ya rd in Seattle, Wash. ($2.7 mil fo r export through Los Angeles Harbor replace it. At Lenwood, where encountered lion). (UP Info Magazine) brought a pair of MoPac SD40-2s of the by your news editor, the train was being 6000 class to Los Angeles on temporary held to meet Amtrak No. 35, and because Branchline Abandonment News assignment. When contract problems of congestion at busy Barstow Yard on the The last run of the Boulder City local brought about an abrupt halt to the coal Santa Fe. Over an hour was consumed occurred on December 18, 1985, when traffic, these locomotives were quickly while additional cars were picked up from GP30s 874 and 842 pulled the last empty released and headed east. The coal traffic, the Santa Fe at Barstow. Finally, the train car fr om Boulder City's team track. The if the contract had been completed, would dragged into Yermo at about 1 :00 p.m. The inbound load of transformers fo r the have seen 75 trainloads passing through yardmaster instructed the crew to break up Hoover Dam Upgrading Project, the last Los Angeles in a month's time. This is their 152-car train before quitting. There revenue shipment fo r the historic branch, another indication of just how busy the San was not much left of their 12 hours before had arrived the day before. This branch Pedro branch can get. (Dick S1ephenson) that task was done. It really was a night's will now terminate at Henderson, 12.3 work to get that train the 150 miles fr om miles east of Boulder City. After a small Locomotive Shorts Los Angeles to Yermo. (Dick S1ephenson) ceremony upon the train's departure fo r New C&NW SD50s have been showing the last time, maintenance-of-way person up in regular pool service throughout the Western Pacific News nel removed a section of rail signifying the UP System, including all three main lines During the latter part of 1985 there was a branch's official abandonment. The 12.3 to the West Coast. Mechanical department lot of confusion regarding the disposition miles of track beyond will now be turned personnel often accompany these units, of many of the fo rmer WP GP40s that over to the Nevada State Railroad Museum recording performance data. (CUrl Howell) were assigned to MoPac territory. For the fo r possible excursion service use in the ... UP recently leased seven D&RGW record, this includes units in the WP 3517- near fu ture (PRN 267, Feb. 1986). SD45s to offset pool mileage owed by the 3544 series, excluding Nos. 3527 and 3540 In November 1985, the Wutzke Tie Co. Rio Grande. Performance of these aging which were wrecked prior to the merger. was awarded the contract to tear up 10 units was unsatisfactory, and UP requested Reader Tom Messer has done some investi miles of the Oakley branch in south-central SD40T-2s to take their place. (Jeny Logan, gating and has confirmed the fo llowing: Idaho (from Martin to the end of the Rick Volk) ... UP C30-7 2535 underwent Numbers 3517-3526 were retired on branch at Oakley). Permission had been drawbar fo rce tests during early January, August 20, 1985, and returned (on paper) received fo r UP to abandon this segment along with test car 210, at MoPac's Neff to their lessor, a bank trust firm. Of this fr om the ICC on October 12, 1983. (Tom Yard in Kansas City .... All remaining group, Nos. 3517, 3518, 3520, 3524 and Johnston) 6900-series Celllenl1ial locomotives are 3525 were subsequently subleased to Kyle In a surprise move, Burlington Northern being sent to Omaha fo r removal of their Railroad at Phillipsburg, Kan., fo r use on has postponed indefinitely the filing (in engines fo r use in SD40s and SD40-2s .... ex-Rock Island trackage. All five units conjunction with UP) fo r abandonment of remain in complete WP paint and numbers the 66.8-mile Grangeville branch of the Long Night's Work and, although currently stored serviceable, jointly owned Camas Prairie Railroad in On January 18, the eastbound LAB (Los were used during 1985's late summer Idaho. BN's reasoning behind the post Angeles-Bailey Ya rd) train was spotted as harvest season to supplement Kyle's fleet ponement is unknown at this time. Traffic it made its way eastward over Cajon Pass. of ex-BN Alcos and ex-Conrail GP38s. on the primarily grain-hauling line has fa llen off drastically during the last 15 years, with little promise fo r the fu ture. Barging grain down the Snake River fr om Lewiston, Ida., has significantly reduced the quantity of rail traffic leaving the area. (Pa l Simmons)
Locomotive News During late December and through mid January, locomotive transactions slowed down considerably. In fa ct, fo r the first time in many months, there were no loco motives sold. There were, however, a fe w retirements, including GP30s 806, 843 and 849, and SD40-2 3178 (all effective Decem ber 31, 1985), and SD40-2 3309 on Decem ber 26. Locomotives stored awaiting retire ment included MoPac GP35Ms 2603, 2605, 2612 and 2614 (all early January), UP U30C 2876 (December 31), GP40 610 (ex-Rock 350) on January 6, and GP30s 715, 822 and 828, and U30C 2901 on Janu ary 24, 1986. There are now only 28 active GP30s, 18% of the original 152 units owned by the UP. Although most of these are still operating at the same locations listed in issue 267, p. 11, one notable change is the Park City local out of Ogden.
PACIFIC RailNEWS • 23 They will return to service whenever busi now advises trains of any problems that Carl Loucks ness demands increase. GP40s 3519, 3521- may exist in its consist. ... Painters ....SELLING RAILROAD TIMETAHLES 3523 and 3526, previously reported as recently fi nished painting the famous being leased to the MKT, were never Keddie Wye with a new coat of silver 199 Wayland St., Hamden, CT 06518 actually taken out of storage fo llowing their paint. ...A derailment at Reynard, Nev., retirement. MKT never received these on January 16 involving the westbound SPECIALS OF THE MONTH . . .. units, and all are currently stored, pending unit steel train, symbol USW, fo rced sev disposition, at Houston's Settegast Yard. a few of the more than 100,000 eral UP trains to detour over SP's Donner GP40s 3528 through 3544 were removed Pass route .... items in our stock. We do NOT sell fr om service during April 1985 and stored any reprints. All are original rail unserviceable. During August, Nos. 3528, Sacramento Northern Update road issue. 3531, 3533, 3536, 3538 and 3543 were A&K Railroad Materials, Inc., the con EMPLOYEE TIMETABLES: Line "renumbered" to UP 676, 679, 680, 684, tract scrappers recently assigned to remove by line descriptions, trackage, sig 686 and 690, respectively. This renumber the rail and ties fr om SN's Rio Linda nal rules, all you need to know ing consisted of spraying out the WP num branch, completed that project during about the road and operations. ber and lettering with black paint, spraying early January. A stub-end spur off the WP orange UP numbers underneath the cab main line at Sankey is all that remains of Many have complete maps. windows and applying new number this one-time section of the SN's fo rmer 1982 ..... $4 ATSF -Eastern Div boards. These six units were leased to the main line. A&K is currently in the process ATSF-Illinois Div 1984 ...... $4 MKT on a short-term basis, specificall.y of tearing up 10 miles of the Holland ATSF-Los Angeles 1984 .... $4 from August 19 to September 19. They branch between Clarksburg Junction, mile ATSF-Southern Div 1983 .... $4 were used mainly (if not exclusively) on the post 6, and Oxford, milepost 16. Removal ATSF-Valley Div 1984 ...... $4 O-K-T line between Ft. Worth, Tex ., and of the 4.2-mile Vacaville branch between BN-Seattle Region 1985 ..... $4 Enid, Okla. They were returned to the Vacaville Junction and Vacaville will com BN-Springfield (Fri sco) '83 ... $4 MoPac after expiration of the one-month mence upon completion of the Holland ICG-Midsouth Reg 1983 .... $4 lease, and placed into storage at Spring, project. Tex., where they remain. Also in storage at Scrapping of the recently abandoned ICG-Midwest Reg 1983 ..... $4 Spring are the remaining unserviceable Chico branch could occur if a new operator ICG-Northern Reg 1983 ..... $4 GP40s: Nos. 3529, 3530, 3535, 3537, cannot be found. The Chico-to-Durham 1982 ..... $4 ICG-Southern Reg 3539, 3541, 3542, 3544 and UP 680 (ex portion of the line is being considered fo r 75 . $20 LEHIGH VALLEY-System WP 3532). Ultimate disposition of these possible sale, but the Colusa Junction-to MP-System 1984 ...... $5 locomotives is unknown at this time, but it Live Oak segment is doomed, as there is no NS-Eastern 1984 ...... $4 is highly unlikely that they will ever run means of revenue on this segment, and no N&W-Ft Wayne Div 1978 .... $5 again on UP System lines. Our thanks other reason fo r its continued existence. N&W-Moberly Div 1981 ..... $5 again to Tom Messer fo r clearing up these N&W-Pocahontas 1981 ...... $5 records. Editor's Note N&W-Scioto Div 1981 ...... $5 Recent updates concerning the UP-SP battles at Milpitas/Warm Springs, Calif., PC-Northern Reg 1969 ...... $6 Operators Abolished over the new United Motors plant that PC-Southern Reg 1970 ..... $6 Effective January 1, train dispatchers in Sacramento began transmitting train have appeared in Pacific RailNews were sao LINE-Eastern 1983 .... $8 orders, slow order and clearances via com provided by reader Don Watson, whose SOO LINE-Western 1984 .... $8 puter to the various yard offices on the name was inadvertently left offthe credit ROCK ISLAND-Illinois 77 ... $6 fo rmer WP territory, thereby allowing fo r list. Our apologies are extended to Don. 74 $6 ROCK ISLAND-Des Moines the abolishment of the last operatorltelegra SBD -Jacksonville 1984 ...... $5 pher jobs on the Feather River Route. SBD-Nashville 1985 ...... $5 Although clerks at Winnemucca and Elko, SBD-Raleigh 1984 ...... $5 Nev., still copy orders, they are fo r the SBD-Tampa Div 1984 ...... $5 Southern Pacific, which utilizes a paired SP-Houston/Lafayette '80 ..... $4 track agreement with the WP (UP) between SP-Los Angeles 1982 ...... $4 these two cities. These jobs are also bulle SP-Oregon Div 1984 ...... $4 tined as train desk assignments rather than as operators. SOUTHERN SP-San Antonio Div 1983 . . . .. $4 Also effective January 15, Track Warrant SP-Tuscon Div 1983 ...... $4 PACIFIC Control (TWC) and track bulletins were RULE BOOKS: Uniform Code placed into effect on subsidiary Tidewater used by MKT, MP, CRIP etc. Southern's trackage between Stockton and 1968 ...... $10 Tu rlock, eliminating one of the last train By Jo seph A. Strapac SCL-Rule Book-Binder Format order districts on the fo rmer WP. As a over 180 pgs 1976 ...... $15 result of this new procedure, the new "yard It appears that SP will close out its "GRIP I" upgrading program for the older, flared CHESSI E SYSTEM, 1969 ... $10 limits" boundaries on the Tidewater exist only between Stockton, milepost 0.0 and radiator SD45 units at No. 7566, due out NEW CATALOGUE ISSUED Manteca Junction, milepost 5.8. Previ late in March. The presently large supply MONTHLY. Sent with each order ously yard limits existed between ofSD45s in "retired" or "stored unservice or SSAE. McHenry, milepost 25.6 and Turlock, able" status will remain on hold fo r the milepost 47.9. time being, with few actually scrapped. In their place, it has been proposed to Carl Loucks Feather River Shorts upgrade SD45T-2 tunnel motor locomo Effective January 13, a new "talking" tives over the balance of the year. These ....SELLING RAILROAD TIMETAHLES hot box detector went into operation at would occupy a new number series as 9500-9525, and would begin appearing in 199 Wayland St., Hamden, CT 065 18 milepost 161.3 near Trowbridge, Calif., on the Second Subdivision. A fe male voice early April; 26 SP and Cotton Belt
24 • APRIL 1986 SD45T-2 units have already been chosen fo r upgrading. At this point, it is not certain that budgeting will be approved fo r this program, but the idea certainly has merit, as the primary effort of the "GRIP I" process was to bringthe early SD45s up to "Dash-2" standards. The proposed "GRIP II" program will buy SP more units fo r the same amount of money, since all tunnel motors already have "Dash-2" electrical gear, and will therefore need less expensive reworking. This project should still be fu nctioning when the Santa Fe-Southern Pacific merger takes place some time later in 1986, and some of the later engines should emerge ...,.... ""'"""� . with the new initials and SP&SF numbers. -� - ���-=- - ', ' ��' !!���;;I;g Yo ur reporter would anticipate SP&SF ::" numbers in the 7300-7500 series. ' .' '.-.::;. �·! /i.�·:· ::... : . ':>>\ ' :.. " " " :' . ' Locomotive Dispositions Recent sales of Diesel switchers fo r addi Ex-SP SD45 9148, leased by the Utah Railway (note lettering) from CIT Financial Corp. tional service include the fo llowing was back on the main line on January 12, 1986, when operated in pool service with Union Pacific locomotives into Southern California. It is shown at Mira Lorna, Calif., on that SW-1200s: 2265 to Shell Oil & Chemicals date. -JOHN E. SHAW, JR. at Houston; 2291 to General Motors Trucks at Saltillo, Mexico; and 2297 to the Lubrizol Corp. at Houston. exclusive Texas duties, a half-dozen operated between East St. Louis and Kan Many more locomotives have gone fo r GP38-2 units have been reassigned to sas City the night of January 30-31 with scrap; in fact, it turns out that all the Northern California. These 4800s, built in Rio Grande GP40s 3094/3082, and ICG General Electric U25Bs (except 6755, 1980, languished in storage fo r months GP40 303!! which remains held by SP) have been the after delivery, and then went to work on Frequently when the SP is short of property of Chrome Crankshaft fo r some the Eastern Region. More than the usual power at Kansas City, the call goes out, years, although only recently sold fo r scrap number of GP9 and unrebuilt GP20 loco and whoever can help does. In late Janu at National Metals. (Incidentally, there motives have appeared on the point in road ary, when the SP called the Santa Fe, word have been conflicting reports about the service lately. Houston and Pine Bluff came down that the SP was just a tad late final disposal of the U25B units; some assigned GP35 and GP35E units have ... Santa Fe had just placed 20 units in sources say that they were cut into bite-size become more common in Southern Cali storage due to a downturn in business. If pieces before loading on ships, while others fo rnia of late. Espee had called sooner, there would have are definitely sure that they were loaded been an influx of Santa Fe units on the SP aboard relatively intact ... does anyone Pool Power in January. (Dick St ephenson, Doug Kerr) have a picture proving the latter assertion?) As we have mentioned from time to time, Chrome has also purchased all three of the when SP is short of power they reach out to Pending Disposition Aleo C-C slugs, 1000-1002. One interest their neighbors and ask fo r help. This was A reader asked what was the collection of ing purchase by Chrome was GP9E 3346, certainly true again during January, with a old and stripped SP units alongside Valley wrecked in South Los Angeles on the fo r number of units fr om Union Pacific, Rio Blvd. east of downtown Los Angeles. This mer Pacific Electric line. The front end of Grande and BN making appearances on location is known as Aurant Yard, and is the frame and draft gear were destroyed. various parts of the SP main line. Two the resting place of just over 60 locomo After careful return to Taylor Yard, the Milwaukee GP40s showed up in Los tives which are awaiting official retirement, Federal Railroad Administration required Angeles on January 29 fr om Kansas City. and sale for scrap. As of February 1, there that it be scrapped without fu rther move They returned eastbound on the Los Ange are 58 U33Cs of the 8500, 8600 and 8700 ment; employees of Chrome Crankshaft les-Chicago pig train on January 30, as classes, plus SD45s SSW 8967, 9043 and therefore cut it up on the spot! they trailed two SP SD40Rs. That evening 9069, plus the one remaining U25B not Held on the retired-not sold-list at the in Yuma was interesting, as right behind previously disposed of, the 6755. All of moment are fo ur dozen conventional SD45 the LACHT was the WCHOM (West these units are in terrible shape, with many units and 20 GP9s, among others. The Colton-Houston Manifest), with SP parts removed, and windows broken, or fo ur Sulzer-powered TE70-4 units, still in SD45T-2 9305 leading Rio Grande GP40s shot out. Some have been the victim of their lightning-bolt orange paint, are re 3131 and 3108. The two trains departed fires set by transients. Three of the U33Cs, tired and ready for sale. SW 1500s 2509 and within about five minutes of each other. Nos. 8677, 8710 and 8763 will be difficult 2529 both appear to be on their way out; Probably the prize-winning combination to remove, as they are derailed. they are among the first of this important of the month was the OGRIU out of It is difficult to visualize the U33Cs as group to be removed fr om the roster. Carlin, Nev., early on the morning of proud mainline power on the SP, when GP40-2 7620 was wrecked in Arizona and January 31. It had an eye-catching lashup they are in such desperate condition today. is presently held at Tucson. It may be sent with units fr om UP and Rio Grande mixed Also, it is hard to realize that some are still to Sacramento for rebuilding as a slug in with SP power. Units UP SD40-2 3123, running out of Pine Bluff. The active units "mother" unit to replace the 7957, lost in a SP SD40R 7319, SD45T-2 9175, Rio present quite a contrast to the desolate 1982 wreck. Grande GP40-2 3107, UP SD40-2 3394, remains in Los Angeles. (D ick St ephenson, and SP SD40R 7344 were needed to move Mark Denis) Locomotive Assignments almost 9,000 tons of unit oil train. As usual, locomotive assignments change Runner-up fo r most unusual combina Super Bowl Special over the years, and some familiar faces get tion of the month goes to the ASOAT Another Super Bowl special was oper replaced by new ones. After years of almost (Alton & Southern-Oakland Trailers) which ated fo r shippers in the week before Janu-
PACIFIC RailNEWS • 25 ary 26. Its purpose was to show offrecent Cabooses currently slated fo r scrap or Retired Cabooses by Location major rehabilitation of SP's line between sale are on the retired list due to heavy bad Sacramento: SSW 48, 1297, 1819, Houston and New Orleans, a past problem order conditions; we're printing a list of 1867, 1905, 4217. area that had considerable track and signal most currently retired SP/SSW cabooses Roseville Car Shops: SSW 84, 1511, ing work in 1982-85, and is now in top and their present locations. Oddly, the lack 1616, 1702, 1926, 4210, 4402. flight shape. The train, led by red-and of roller bearings doesn't necessarily write Roseville Yard: 1235, 1239, 1249, yellow SDP45s 3201 and 3207, deadhead the end fo r a caboose, but in the next few 1251, 1283, 1285, 1291, 1306, 1315, 1322, ed fr om Oakland to Houston on what was months SP will probably retire all crum 1330. expected to be a leisurely schedule-but mies not yet fitted with FRA-legal, missile Oakland: 1258, 1636, 1973, 4001. managed to elude Southern California proof glazing. Ogden: 1333. photographers lying in wait. Guests were Portland: 1246. picked up at Houston and Dallas fo r the Globe Branch End Sought Tracy: 459, 1058, 1247, 1276, 1295, ride into New Orleans. Virtually all ofSP's In other news, a major branch line is 1312, 1319, 1342, 4004, 4351. "phantom fleet" of passenger equipment presently on the block. In Arizona, the Los Angeles: 411, 438, 1238, 1278, was pressed into use, along with all of the 134-mile Globe Branch, between Bowie 1343, 1354, 1447. business cars. and Globe, has seen a 57% loss in copper West Colton: 445, 1163, 1237, 1279, related traffic since 1979, due both to truck 1289, 1303, 1339, 1887, 4003. Caboose Era Not Over competition and the generally poor condi Houston: SSW 92, 1290, 1579, 1583, The other end of the train is also in the tion of the copper industry. SP has asked 1672, 1860. news these days. Despite the much-heralded the ICC fo r permission to abandon. New Orleans: 1252, 1262, 1329. arrival of end-of-train telemetry devices, Pine Bluff: SSW 5, SSW 7, SSW 9, they are not yet legal in every state, nor Employee Rolls Tr immed SSW 18, SSW 20, SSW 45, 1832. have labor agreements been negotiated sys Employment matters, while perhaps not Total: 72. temwide. In fa ct, if SP were to be allowed of general interest to our readers, continue (Informalion from Don Bain and Dick to eliminate all cabooses tomorrow, it could to occupy attention at the Southern Pacific. Slephenson) not-simply because not enough locomo SP has lost a fu ll third of the carloadings it tives have yet been fitted with five cab was carrying 10 years ago, while labor costs seats! The future of the caboose on the have risen by almost 200%. Officers and Southern Paciflc is now in the hands of staff members are down by more than 38% state legislatures and labor negotiators. In since 1980. In the last year, employment by short, SP needs all the cabooses it presently the transportation company dropped by owns (about 600 in all) and would need more than nine percent-"Mom, don't more were business to pick up significantly. raise your son to be a railroad man."
SANTA FE
By Dave Busse
The Red Report: The New Image Spreads Fans of the Santa Fe blue and yellow should stay near trackside with camera in hand: there are men at work in San Bernardino, Cleburne and Argentine splashing the new red and yellow on Santa Fe locomotives at an alarming rate. Our press time (February 1) tally conducted by Santa Fe fans across the system reveals 91 locomotives now sporting the interim premerger paint scheme, 86 of which were known, and the list should grow to better than a hundred units by the time this appears in print. Among the group are several variations on the new image: SD45 5362 was ob served at Barstow in January with the more traditional black number boards rather Climb into the cab and travel the Alaska Railroad! than the garish red-with-white-numbers Highlights include: setup seen on the rest of the repaints. • Anchorage to Fairbanks passenger service C30-7 8156 was seen at Cleburne with • A car/tra in ri de on the Whittier shuttle light gray trucks rather than the standard • A cruiseship train with eight dome cars silver. • Freight service An informal poll among fans in the West • And More! 90 Minutes $60 VHS or BETA indicates a real preference fo r the new
"WRITE FOR FREE CATALOG" image on the EMD cowl units, but GP9U �� 2291, seen in the Fullerton, Calif., area � P.O. Box9491 1 Pasadena, CA91109 during most of January, just doesn't seem to wear the colors as gracefully as the bigger units.
26 • APRIL 1986 Whatever your preference, we are print ing this list fo r you to take along on shoot ing expeditions; perhaps hearing any one of these 86 numbers as a lead unit on a scanner will make it easier fo r you to get shots of what will certainly be the more interesting units in a Santa Fe photo collection.
SD39U (being released fr om San Bernar dino shops as part of the current remanu fa cturing program): 1562, 1564-66, 1568- 74 (11 units). GP7U: 2001, 2064, 2126 (three units). GP9U: 229l. GP38-2: 2370, 2371 (two units). GP30: 27 16, 2717, 2735, 2748, 2776 (five units). GP20: 3012, 3048, 3056 (three units). GP39-2: 3600, 3613, 3632, 3679 (four units). SD40-2: 5026, 5062, 5068, 5082, 5182, 5184, 5192 (seven units). SD45: 5333, 5335, 5339, 5347, 5348, 5362 (black number boards), 5394 (the first in the new paint), 5398, 5401, 5402 (10 units). SD45-2: 5676, 5682, 5694 (three units). F45U: 5953, 5955, 5959, 5963, 5970, 5975 (six units). FP45U: 5996. B23-7: 6388. B36-7: 7486, 7497 (two units). C30-7: 8032, 8063, 8077-79, 8090, 8104, 8133, 8139, 8141, 8142, 8150, 8156 (13 units). U36C: 874l. U36CU: 9510-9522 (13 units). By the time this appears in print at least one of the ex-Amtrak SDP40F units and fo ur more of the F/FP45 series could be wearing the new image: they were observed in primer at San Bernardino in late January. Again, we can only suggest that fans make it a point to spend lots of time on the Santa Fe fo r the next six months or so, as it should be an interesting time to photo graph the big change in the railway's image. (One younger Southern California fa n lamented recently that his slide collec tion contained several thousand "dull slides." Spending some time shootin g Santa Fe right now will no doubt make fo r some lively slide shows in just a fe w years, e Be RAIL I not to mention the collecting and trading value of slides showing these short-lived Climb Intothe cab and travel the British Columbia Railway! premerger paint jobs.) Staying close to Highlights include: home, or close to the "home" railroad this • Royal Hudson Stea m service vacation year might be well worth it. • Tumbler Ridge Electrics The Santa Fe car department is also • Budd RDC passenger service getting into the painting frenzy, though not • Freight service • The new red, white and blue units as noticeably as the fo lks in the locomotive • Alco power and more! shops. Just about everything coming out of Travel by Steam, Diesel and Electric power overthe most- the car department paint shops is sporting unique railroad ofCanada. DON'T MISSIT! the soon-to-be standard tuscan red: Santa Fe's bright red boxcars and white piggy 90 Minutes $60 VHS or BETA back flats will be a thing of the past. Reader "WRrrE FOR FREECAT ALOG" Keel Middleton has noticed a number of r -., the 50-foot boxcar-to-flatcar conversions on P.O. Box94 91 1 Pasadena, CA 91 109 the Plains Division in boxcar red/brown rather than the traditional white.
PACIFIC RailNEWS • 27 Premerger Connections probably be built after merger day. Cur In addition to the rolling stock changes, rent talk places the actual merger date as premerger activity in Southern California some time in late summer. can be observed along the right-of-way. By late January, work was on hold on the new Big Doin's Planned in the Desert RIO interchange tracks between the SP Sunset Officials in Barstow, Victorville, Hes Line and the Santa Fe Third Subdivision peria and Apple Valley, Calif, in coopera GRANDE at Colton, Calif, site of the old interlock tion with Santa Fe and Amtrak, are plan ing tower. ning a big extravaganza in mid-April. This Nearby in Cajon Pass, the first of three is to celebrate the 100th anniversaries of proposed tr.acks connecting Santa Fe's the fo unding of Barstow and Victorville, as By R. C. Farewell First Subdivision to Espee's Palmdale Cut well as the beginning of Santa Fe's second Over the past fe w months, this column has off is taking shape just west of the Santa Fe century of service to these high desert San fo llowed the back-and-forth bargaining crossovers at Keenebrook. Other connec Bernardino County communities. Plans call between the Rio Grande and the United tions planned at Devore and Summit will fo r an open house at the Santa Fe's lO-year Transportation Union (UTU) regarding old Barstow classification yard, and more the possibility of running super high important, a special passenger train utiliz priority TOFCI COFC (Sprint) trains over Blockbuster Double Feature ing Santa Fe and Amtrak locomotives and the Rio Grande. Initially the UTU turned cars to transport visiting dignitaries and down the Rio Grande's Denver-Salt Lake on VIDEO CASSETTES others fr om Los Angeles to Barstow. We'll City-Denver proposals. Superficially, it try to have more specific information in the seemed that the issue was dead. Under the next column. Judging from preliminary surface, however, negotiating was still company planning, this will be an event going on. A renewed Rio Grande proposal DIESELS well worth attending. was put to a UTU vote in late 1985, receiv ON THE Hey, wouldn't it be nice if someone got ing approval. the idea to paint the locomotive(s) in the The Rio Grande's response to the posi traditional Santa Fe red and silver war tive vote became public via a company bonnet just fo r this trip? Never mind that memo dated December 18, 1985. This UNION it's probably the most recognizable paint memo announced a "Name That Train" scheme in railroading and that locomotives contest to Rio Grande employees. The in that dress figure prominently in the PASixty minutesCI of RailroadFIC Action featuring Union train will begin operating on March I, Pacific trains on the Sherman Hill Line from logos of San Bernardino County, Calif, 1986. It will run between Denver and Salt Cheyenne and the western approach from and the city of San Bernardino. Stranger Lake City with its counterpart running at Colores, Tie Siding, and Dale Junction. AND things have happened. the same time between Salt Lake City and THE 6900'8 ARE BACK ...but not for longI Follow Centennials out of Cheyenne in many Denver. Initially one section will be oper trackside views and pacing sequences. Notes fr om Along the Trail ated per day on a five-day-per-week sched Experience the power of contemporary rail Being a safe worker has taken on a whole ule. This pair of movements is officially roading in this action-filled video program. 60 known as an "expedited intermodal" oper minutes. $64.95 new meaning on the Santa Fe's Illinois Division. 1985 Safety Award winners got ation. Each section will run with a two the usual hat, belt buckle and handshake, man crew (engineer and conductor), with plus the entry of their names into a rame. no caboose. With two crew districts, the The lucky winner took home a new Ford crews will change at Grand Junction, Colo. DIESELS Ranger pickup truck .... The era of the The Sprints will be the hottest trains on ON THE CF7 on the Santa Fe has drawn to a close. the system. By late January there was none of the popular home-rebuilds left running on the Operational Notes system. Uncle John's Used Locomotive The new year has brought other addi UNION Shop in Cleburne has sold quite a few, tions to the Rio Grande's suite of semi some of the latest of which headed south of scheduled trains. A long-dormant unit-coal PACIFIC the border to such places as Cananea and assignment was re-initiated and began ...TH E fo r use by ASARCO at one or more of their operation on January 2, 1986: train num plants .... Fast running has long been a bers 703 and 704. Train number 703 deliv Santa Fe trademark. On January 18, the ers 75 to 100 empty DRGW hoppers to 891 train heading east out of Barstow was Phippsburg, Colo., fo r dispersal and load SEMore adventuresQU of SO-40's,EL U30-C's and clocked clickin' off the miles at a cool 80. ing. Number 703 normally departs Den DDA40X's on the Union Pacificl We explore That train was almost into Texas before ver's North Yard westbound late on Mon the scenic New Line west of Cheyenne and nightfall. ... Plans are being kicked day and Wednesday evenings, arriving at experience the fury of a Wyoming blizzard as trains battle snow out of Cheyenne. We meet the around fo r doing away with Redondo Jct. Phippsburg early the fo llowing morning. San Francisco Zephyr as it arrives at Borie in a tower and the operator at Hobart Yard Once the hoppers are loaded, the operation blizzard. There are scenes of business trains (known on the air as Hobart Telegraph). becomes eastbound train No. 704, depart and we ride the cab of "Centennial" 6922 from Both of these locations may figure into a ing Phippsburg late Tuesday and Thurs Denver to Cheyenne. 60 minutes S64.95 change in the location and type of control day afternoons, destined fo r Denver. Shipped Postpaid. Specify VHS or BETA II. fo r the interlocking in that area. Assigned power fo r the two runs is usually VISA or MasterCard. Phone (303) 770-8421 a suite of six SD50s. Westbound empties, Th anks to contributors Joe McMillan, No. 703, usually rate from three to six of :::. = Hale Bosman, Mark Denis, Bob Lehmuth, these SDSOs on the head end (more fr e = == =-== � Mike Martin, Glen Fraziel; Charles Cox, quently six). Eastbound loads, No. 704, =- :E'VIDEOPRODUCTIONS Keith Belk, Dan Schroedel; Martin Orozco, require three or fo ur SD50s on the head 6447 South Heritage Place West Dick Stephenson, and Rod Higbie. end, with the remaining two or three cut Englewood. Colorado 801 11 into the train toward the rear of the consist.
28 • APRIL 1986 A helper is commonly used on the rear end, itself. In other motive power notes, al quin at Oakland. Number 708 was held at working eastbound fr om Tabernash, Colo., though the trio of ex-Rio Grande Zephyr Oakland fo r No. II's arrival. The Starlighl up Winter Park hill as fa r as the west portal F9s were not used in Ski Train service this was the first train through the derailment of the Moffat Tunnel. As with the Sprint, season, they are still listed as "stored scene when the track was restored. It ar no caboose is assigned. Occasionally, a serviceable." Moreover, they were pulled rived in Los Angeles about fo ur hours SD40T-2 tunnel motor will be substituted fr om their storage location on the Burnham tardy. fo r one of the SD50s (5411 was the primary Shop's dead tracks, and positioned so that On January 13, the southbound Starlighl candidate assigned through most of Janu evaluations could be made by an outside struck and destroyed a truck at a crossing ary). After arrival in Denver, the loaded contractor fo r their possible conversion in Moorpark, about 40 miles west of Los hoppers are delivered to either Colorado fr om their aging steam generator systems Angeles. The driver was killed, and parts Public Service's (CPS) Valmont power to a more current Head End Power (HEP) of the truck scattered over 400 fe et. F40PH plant, via Denver-based Union Pacific system. After inspection, they were re 288 had its nose damaged. While it was locals, or the CPS Arapahoe power plant, turned to their previous location, with the able to continue on to Los Angeles two via local Burlington Northern service. results of the evaluations or the details of hours late (with a replacement engineer), it Sperry Rail Service car No. 144 contin any bids not available as of this writing. was held there fo r repair work. ued to extensively test the eastern part of The important thing to note here is that A washout on the BN main line at the Rio Grande mainline system during the trio is certainly not en route to the Nisqually, Wash., 65 miles south of Seattle January. For example, on January 6, No. scrap heap, at least in the near fu ture. caught the northbound Starlighl on Janu 144 began a testing sequence that took the (Thanks 10 R. Ham/en fo r sighling info) ary 19, derailing its two locomotives and unit south fr om Denver down the Joint the first five cars. About 25 passengers Line as fa r as Fountain, Colo. Following its were injured in the accident, which oc Joint Line testing activities, No. 144 re curred in difficult terrain, shortly after a turned to North Yard and worked west freight train had passed and observed no fr om Denver over the Moffat Tu nnel main problems. The passengers were bused on line to Dotsero, then to Grand Junction, to Seattle. Damaged in the derailment were Colo., arriving on the evening of Janu F40s 239 and 248. The latter unit caught ary 14. fire, and was seriously damaged. The The Speno Rail Service has been active AMTRAK/ injuries and damage could have been more on the Rio Grande as well. Labeled as Rio PASSENGER serious, but the engineer had already Grande train No. 852, that rail grinder reduced speed to 35 mph in an area where entered duty on the Rio Grande at Pueblo normal track speed is 60 mph. The west on January 6 and worked its way north up bound Pioneer and No. 797 were annulled the Joint Line. The 'Grande assigned By Dick Stephenson between Portland and Seattle until the SD40T-2 5384 to power the otherwise self main track was reopened on January 21. sufficient train on its slow-moving mission. January was indeed a bad month fo r All was not bad news fo r the Starlighl, As of January 15, the train had worked Amtrak's Coasl Starlighl. Derailments and however, as No. II from Portland on Janu north up the Joint Line as fa r as Green accidents conspired to make on-time per ary 24 was an hour and a half late. It made land, Colo. fo rmance fo r this popular train very poor. up that deficit by Sacramento, and was on On January II, SP derailed a south time into Los Angeles. (John Arbuckle, Ski Train bound fr eight near Coyote, Calif., about 15 Staff) January 4 saw the first weekend runs of miles south of San Jose. This fo rced the the 1986 Ski Train season. The unique de annulment of both north and southbound Reno Fun Tr ain Returns fa cto rolling museum was powered by a Starlighls between Oakland and Los Ange Once again this winter the Reno FUll duo of GP40-2s; steam heat was provided les. Six buses represented the northbound Tr ain will carry happy travelers between by steam generator car 253. The Sunday train, with a couple of these making local the Bay Area and the casinos of Reno on II version of the operation has consistently stops en route. Passengers continuing on weekends between February 28 and May seen the owner Mr. Anschutz's business north of Oakland boarded their train at 16 (omitting the weekend of March 28). cars attached to the rear of the train. Both 16th St. Station in Oakland, and continued The 12-car trains depart Oakland at 6:45 of these cars, the Utah and Colorado, have on their way on time. p.m. on Friday evenings, and return at been repainted to match the paint scheme The next day those southbound passen 7:00 p.m. on Sunday evenings. of the Ski Train. The whole assemblage gers who were continuing on beyond Los The annual kickoff to the Fun Train provides a passenger train more to be ex Angeles were transferred to the San Joa- season is the Easl Bay Rotary Club Special, pected in some railfan's wildest imagina tion than in 1986-vintage reality.
Old '45s Vanishing Vistas Presents: VOLUME 1 In a recent column, the revenue use of some of the Rio Grande's supposedly stored SD45s was noted. After a bit of investigation, it was determined that some, • Vanishing VistasC?/7# is proud to�� present �� but not all, of the big units listed as active, the first in a series of full color were en route to and from loan to the volumes on the Norfolk and Western. -Vanishing ® Union Pacific, who operated the growlers • Written in detail by noted Railroad � -Vistas out of Salt Lake City. Once returned to the historians R.A. Le Massena and It" 'Grande, the units were worked in revenue E.L. Huddleston. service back to Denver, then the whole col • Superbly printed in full color. @ lection of active '45s were again "stored." • Thirty-four pages, 8" x 10 " format photos. �= - , .f TM RICHARD E. COX It took a fe w revenue trips to and from $9.95 plus $1.00 shipping. (Overseas Denver before all of the units could be P.O. BOX 15902P orders $4.00extra, U.S. funds.) California SACRAM ENTO, CA 95852·0902 captured, however, fo r a bit of a power residents add 6% tax. ISBN 0·912935·01·4 shortage had developed on the Rio Grande
PACIFIC RailNEWS • 29 which operated this year on January 19-20 manned station has not had regularly proper railroad identification on it. 5797 with two F40s and 14 cars (including three scheduled service since 1971. ... The and 5798 had no railroad markings on diners). Making up this train and the SP's short·fall on baggage cars continues: as of them, possibly because they may still Super Bowl Special at the same time at West mid·December, 162 cars were owned (in belong to GE. During the summer months Oakland kept crews busy all weekend. cluding seven ex-VIA cars which do not those ex-CR leased units were showing up (John Arbuckle) have HEP capability); with 139 cars re as fa r west as Cranbrook. Number 7777, a quired through the holiday period. There GP38, was seen on a way freight in Fort Other Special Trains were 35 cars out of service on that day, Steele. The Penticton, B.C., station was In addition to special trains mentioned leaving a short-fall of 12 cars. To make closed last summer. The rail line still above, the Air Force has a pending request matters worse, car 1126 was damaged in serves this area, but the station will no fo r an L.A.-Surf-L.A. special on March the January 19 derailment of the Coast longer be open fo r business fo r the first 20, which 'would use two F40s and 15 Starligh t.. .. A mid-December equipment time since 1915. Superliners. A proposed Las Vegas Fun change saw a HEP·dome coach moved The Alberta government and the CP Train was canceled. It had been proposed fr om the River Cities to the AnI! Rutledge have reached an agreement which will to operate the weekend of January 31 fr om with a 44-seat coach operating between lower transportation costs to companies Los Angeles. Kansas City and New Orleans via Cen shipping goods fr om Alberta to the West Amtrak ran an Inspection Special on tralia, Ill. Numbers 303-304 are a fo ur-car Coast. On average costs will be lowered by January 15-16 out ofIndianapolis, Ind. On train on the weekends .... With triweekly 25%, covering the movement of containers January 15 they operated fr om Beech service during the winter on the Crescent, between Edmonton, Calgary and Van Grove to Hamilton (via the B&O), an all the normal consist on days the train runs couver. CP Rail has awarded a contract to day trip. On January 16, the special train, through to New Orleans is 13 cars fr om Flakt Canada, Ltd., of Ottawa, fo r the which consisted of an F40, fo ur coaches New Yo rk to Atlanta, with six cars going ventilation system in the Mt. MacDonald and inspection car 10002-Corridor Clippel; through to New Orleans (the remainder Tu nnel. The equipment will include five operated fr om Indianapolis to East St. return fr om Atlanta on No. 20 that eve 2,250-hp fa ns to ventilate the tunnel and to Louis and return via Conrail. The equip ning). Extra service was operated on the cool the engines. Four of the fa ns will be ment fo r the special was routed via Chi Crescel1l in conjunction with the Super housed in a 3,900-square-meter building at cago. The 10002 was later sent to Beech Bowl and Mardi Gras ....To fo llow up on the top of the ventilation shaft, while the Grove Shops in conjunction with regularly our report in the last issue of private cars in fifth fa n will be housed in a fa n building at scheduled maintenance. New Orleans fo r the Super Bowl on Janu· the west portal of the tunnel. ary 26, were Pass-a-Gri!! Beach, Manatee During the summer the Craigellachie Am-Shorts Rivel; Caritas, Dianne Marie, Palm Beach, Cairn, site of the Last Spike ceremony last On January 22, the San Joaquins began Silver Foot, Hiram, Innsbrook No. 4. Rail November (PRN 267, p. 17), was rebuilt stopping at Berkeley, Calif. This un- road-owned cars included Norfolk South using stones representing the 10 provinces ern No. 6, Kansas City Southern To lma/� of Canada and the two territories, as well as and Columbus and Greenville King COllOn a stone fr om Craigellachie, Scotland. A No. 1. Seaboard System operated a special silicon seal has been applied to prevent train, with F7 A 116 and FP7A 118, power weathering in this rather harsh climate. car 766743, 317-Alabama, 310-GeO/gia, Drilling through MacDonald fr om the 300-North Carolina, 308-01d Dominion west did not provide any problems during (four business cars) and Track Inspection the first half of 1985. As of July 1985 Car 318. This was quite an assortment of workers were passing under Cougar Creek 7ak1986 maya� be lhe lasl year for Ihe�/ grand old equipment. (J ohn Arbuckle, Ed Von Nor at the 1,359-meter mark. From the east the streamliner·era equipmenl before Canada deck, David Hu rl) workers passed the one-quarter mark of inlroduces Ihe bi-Ievel Superliners. their contract, having reached the 2,273· Come ioin us for a noslalgic lourney meter level as of the middle oflast summer. Toronto to Vancouver CP restored FP7A units 1418 and 1424, September 9 -17, 1986 repainting them into the tuscan red paint Fully-escorted, aboard the scheme and donating them to the "city" of longest transcontinental train Medicine Hat. Of course the city put them in North Americal RAIL in a park behind trees, etc. These units were restored at the Ogden Shops, and can "7k �" - Train #1 CANADA be seen from the Canadian; they were $ 6 6 5 double occupancy WEST acquired by VIA in 1978, have about seven Price Includes bedroom or roomelle In prlvale million miles on them, and were renum luxury of a chartered Pullman. sighlseeing. bus bered CP 4060 and 4068. They were used transfers. holels in To ronlo !Vancouver. and your "pass" to Ihe exciling EXPO '86-Vancouver's all over the CP system and served on the World's Fair all aboul lravell Canadian. The VIA numbers were 6565 By Th omas Higgins and 6568. Air !are & meals exIra CP has recently purchased seven SD40-2s, Rumor has it that CP will paint six units 'See Canada Ihe scenic way ...aboard a legendary Nos. 101-107, fr om Kennecott Copper, in the EXPO 86 scheme (we can hardly observalion·dome lounge car. Inc., in Bingham, Utah, and has acquired a wait and hope they look better than the CN 'Pamper yoursell to a dining car tradition now only available on Ihis continent wilh Canada's VIA RAIL transcontinenlal second batch of SD40s fr om the QNS&L. units). service. In addition, CP has ordered about 30 Optional: SD40-2s fr om EMD instead of GMD. Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway News A day on Brillsh COlumbia Railway's eleganl GMD in London, Ontario, is so busy it The new Victorian-era station in Victoria steam train, "The Royal Hudson" was completed and dedicated in November and/or excursion 10 beautiful VICTORIA. BC could not handle the order. During April and May 1985 the CP 1985. You no longer have to take a bus or Contact: Bonnie Miller or Don Norville tested three BN B39-2s (5497-99) through cab fr om downtown to get out to the sta SUNSET TRAVEL · Sunset Blvd.• LA, CA 8589 90069 out Canada. The western crews reported tion. Ridership on this line might reach an (213) 652·3044 (ltmerary & prices 5ubieCi iO change) that the ride was rough, but they could all-time high when the final figures fo r outpull the SD40-2s. Only 5799 had the 1985 are in.
30 • APRIL 1986 The town of Qualicum Beach has land Remanufactured and renumbered: GP9u Prince Rupert Grain began to ship in scaped the grounds of its station, and 1607 (8682), 1608 (8611), 1609 (8670), and early March from its Ridley Island Termi Bloedel, Stewart and Welch's Baldwin 1610 (8675). Rebuilt: GP9 8823. nal. This company owns its own switchers 2-8-2 No. 4 (1926) was added to that site. Rebuild plans fo r 1986 include G P9s (or did in 1984). The first shipment of For photographers it will be "cocooned" in 8508, 8515, 8519, 8527, 8647, 8652, 8654, grain was on a Chinese ship, and was com a protective plastic as restoration gets 8701, 8706, 8808 and 8817, all to be re pleted at the old terminal. CN Rail has lost underway. The locomotive was shipped by built in the Angus Shops. Leased to Mara another round in its fight with the Prince water from Squamish, went north on the thon at Terrace Bay: S- II 6620. Damaged Rupert Grain Co. over who should pay fo r E&N freight to Courtenay, and then run by fire: ex-CR GP38 7770. New arrivals: the construction of the railyards at its new back down to Qualicum behind the E&N all GP38-2s up to number 3070 as of fa cility. The CTC, so far, has ruled that day liner, arriving on August 15, 1985. December 15, 1985, with more to come in CN should pay fo r its construction under Does anyone have a picture of this event? 1986. its obligation under the National Railway and National Transportation Acts. The Other Miscellany Canadian National News cost of the yards was about $6 million fo r On January I, 1986, CP took over the The CN has been busy expanding and the 200,000-ton terminal. CN argues that Vancouver and Lulu Island Railway. improving its western fa cilities. In Blue the CTC has no jurisdiction to order it to SW I 200RSs 8113 and 8115 were dis River, the western end of the yard was pay, and that the track solely benefits the patched from Calgary to Coquitlam to pro graded, with new track. In Kamloops, con terminal operators. This fa cility was vide service on this light line. struction is underway fo r a major addition opened officially in May 1985. Brand-new GP38-2s 3052 and 3056 were to the classification yard. At the Thornton Potash, sulphur and Alberta coal moves seen in Ottawa on their way to their home Yard, near Vancouver, new property has continue, but at a reduced pace. Neptune base in Winnipeg. been acquired at the south side of the Coal shipments are down fr om three to two The five CR GP9 units used on the terminal. Also, a revision to the west end of train movements per week, and Obed Canada Southern were sold to a new short the Lynn Creek Yard has begun. Finally, Mountains Coals Ltd. suspended ship line to operate under the name of the the east end of the Boston Bar Yard has ments fo r one month during the summer. Central Western Railway in Alberta. Units been revised. A total of 60,000 fe et of new 1985 marks the 15th anniversary of unit 7434-38 were delivered in Edmonton on track will be installed at these terminals trains from the Cardinal River Mines to November 16. The new shortline will during 1985-86. Other work that is planned North Vancouver. Today five unit trains of operate on CN's Stettler Subdivision in will include: construction of a runaround 98 cars each are used fo r this service. When Alberta. track on the Cam rose sub, extending and it began, there were two trains of 82 cars The Fort Langley, B.C., station has been upgrading the tracks at Te rrace, and the each. During the past 15 years, 25 million preserved and restored to its original con construction of new crew quarters and sta tons of coal have been moved. dition. Imperial Oil has announced a cam tion in Endako. (By the time you read this, A record at Robert Banks fo r unloading paign to restore the CPR Drake Street most or all of the work should be com Gregg River coal trains was set when a Roundhouse in Vancouver. It will be used pleted.) CN Rail will seek bids to build 98-car train was unloaded in one hour and as a theme pavilion in conjunction with eight permanent bridges and five culvert 38 minutes. EXPO 86. If you are interested in making a fills during 1986 to replace existing timber CNR has placed the fo llowing new donation write to: Esso Heritage Brick, trestles in the Mountain Region on the equipment orders: 349 covered hoppers, Box 5500, Vancouver, B.C. V6B 5A9. Telkwa subdivision. The bridges will be fo ur five-pack intermodal well flats, 155 Also, VIA will spend $3 million to restore upgraded at (group I) miles 93.2, 93.6 and trilevels, four SD50AFs, and 40 SD50Fs. the CN station in Vancouver fo r EXPO 86. 94.7; (group 2) miles 73.0, 73.4 and 73.9; Halifax is still the place to go to see It will have a display to mark the 150th and on the same subdivision (group 3) MLW power. Last summer fe w GMD anniversary of railroading in Canada. lt is miles 56.4 and 69.0. Culvert fills on that units were seen there. This, with all of the near the False Creek Yards exposition site same subdivision will be completed at retirements of these products, will not last of the CPR, and near the ALERT station miles 29.1, 59.4, 61.0, 69.4 and 113.6. fo r long. on Main St. In conjunction with the open A new unit train departure yard is now in The Spadina Avenue Yards are now de ing of EXPO 86 the Okanagan Express will operation at the Thornton Yards. lt has void of passenger cars, but some backup operate on May 24, 25 and 26 to Kelowna, five tracks and will take the pressure off the units are still kept there by CN fo r VIA B.C. For information contact Drainie existing departure tracks. Signalized two Rail. The Lasel; CN's hotshot train, is Travel in Vancouver at (604) 669-6900. track operation between Thornton Ya rd often powered by GTW power (former and Mount Lehman should also ease con DTI units) in the 6400 series. This train CP Power News gestion in that area. runs between Chicago and Toronto. The B&O GP40s that have been modified by Morrison-Knudsen to lead CP trains are: 3702, 3706, 3708, 3715, 3718, 3720, 3725, 3730-32, 3736 and 3738. SD40s 5408 (ex � • • QNS&L 212) and 5409 (ex-QNS&L 213) Grab the Thrott�. have been outshopped in CP colors. The fo llowing power was returned to its home And get on the mainline roads at the end of November: all BN SD40s, all BCR SD40-2s, and 10 B&O for the best in trailer units. CP FA2 4085 has been retired and converted into an air repeater car 1100. Brass, Books , Models, lt can be fo und at St. Luc (Montreal) Ya rd, with its new number reported to be 400900. Details and More . SD40-2 has been repainted into the EXPO 86 color scheme, and is assigned to trains 500 and 501 (the Soo-C&O-CP Roadrun ner). No MLW RS-18s are scheduled fo r �whistle rebuilding in 1986. A C424 is due fo r 3745 E. Colorado Blvd ., Pasadena, CA 91 107 (81 8) 796-7791 shopping at Angus in April.
PACIFIC RailNEWS • 31 Montreal-Toronto leg is powered by CN that B.C. Hydro's engines will be painted During April 1985, a northbound BCR GP40-2L(W) units in the 9400 series. red, white and blue during 1986. freight hit a rockslide in the fog at Mile There is much opposition to CN's deci 63.6. This derailment closed the main line sion to try to discontinue the Muskeg British Columbia Railway fo r 17 hours. Units 751, 761 and 705 are Special on the former NAR. The reaction BC No. 31 is back in service after a major still reported over the side as of November from the locals was swift and predictably overhaul. It has new wiring, a new galley, 1985. The damage to these units was quite opposed. If you really want a fun ride and rebuilt air conditioning, cab improvements severe, and will probably be made worse old-fashioned railroading, try this train. fo r the enginemen, new seats and interiors, when they are brought up the side of the new air brakes, and of course a coat of cliff. CN Power News green paint. The BCR people fe el that it Parts fr om RS-18 606, wrecked in 1984, As of December, the CN SD60AFs were will last another 20 years. are in the process of being installed in the under a blanket of snow in London, Ontario. On May 4, 1986, there was a special run carbody of RS- I0 583. The unit will Also, some of the SD50s were undelivered. on the Tumbler Ridge Subdivision, with emerge as RS- lOu 606. The retirements Fourteen S-4s and S-7s were seen at the over 150 members of the Professional and conversions, listed above, will leave Reclamation Yards. They are units 8031, Engineers of B.C. and the B.C. Society of only 10 MLW units in service that are still 8039, 8043, 8058, 8059, 8068, 8207, 8209, Engineering Technologists. equipped with the 251-series engine. My 8211-13, 8215, 8225 and 8233. Other units One train per day was rerouted onto the advice to all is to get those shots of all which have been stored since 1982 are CNR to allow the rebuilding of a 400-foot MLW/Alco units on all three roads: CN, 8218, 8219, 8221, 8223, 8229 and 8232. section of fill near MP 307. The BCR CP and BCR (notice I left out ONR as it is S- 13 8612 was outshopped as 8612, not decided to build a temporary bridge in this now an all-GMD road). 8710 as scheduled. area. It took seven days of round-the-clock Seventy-seven units retired: RS- 18s shifts to complete the job. 3105, 3112, 3116 and 3117. C-424s 3201, The BCR will again run ski trains be 3206, 3208, 3214, 3216, 3218, 3232, 3235, tween North Vancouver and Whistler. As 3237, 3239, 3619, 3634, 3638, 3649, 3658, of mid-January the fa re fo r the Saturday 3660, 3662, 3670, 3680, 3685, 3692, 3695, and Sunday trips had not been announced. 3697, 3699, 3700, 3705, 3706, 3709, 3714, During the summer of 1985 the BCR in 3716, 3722, 3724, 3730, 3734, 3737 and stalled 520 Australian-designed steel ties at 3743. GP9s 4210, 4215, 4245, 4271, 4274, Mile 64. In June, the BCR asked for bids 4275, 4300, 4306, 4311, 4320, 4334, 4337, fo r 185,000 ties to be installed on the 72 BURLINGTON 4352, 4362, 4364, 4366, 4367, 4370, 4372, miles of track between Prince George and 4376, 4395, 4405, 4416, 4473, 4474, 4489, Anzak. NORTHERN 4499, 4516, 4525, 4579, 4586-88, 4610 and So fa r the fo llowing units have been 461l. SW8 7155, and SW900 7608. painted red, white and blue: 406, 632, 715, By Karl Rasmussen Leased: as of December I, 1985, high 716, 722, 763-767 and 1003, and vans speed (80-mph) GP40s 9316 and 9317 were 1875, 1879 and 1880. More repaintings Corporate Report Card leased, on a long-term basis, to VIA Rail. will take place in 1986. While the first few weeks of 1986 have To protect holiday operations the fo llowing The new extension of the locomotive been relatively quiet and unproductive in units were leased, short term, to VIA Rail: fa cility at Prince George was opened on the eyes of the railfan community, the BN 9410, 9414, 9417, 9420, 942 1, 9423, 9425, September 12, with unit No. 6001 on continued to please its stockholders by 9426, 9428, 9430, 9431, 9433, 9437, 9442, display. announcing higher corporate earnings fo r 9443, 9446 and 9447. The BCR management team has decided the fourth quarter, as well as all of 1985. GMD I 1021 now has B-B trucks, and to retire most of its MLW/Alco fleet by the The per-share profits fo r the last three sister unit 1013 will soon get the same end of 1986. As of November 1985, the months of the year improved from $l.55 to treatment. Both units will have 100 added fo llowing units were stored at Squamish: $l.95, while the annual figure rose fr om to their current numbers. RS-3s 56 1, 565, 566, 569, 570 and 576; $7.15 to $8.03. Although most of the com RSlOs 580, 582 and 84. They might be peting roads in the West endured either B.C. Hydro converted into slugs or cut up, we are not diminished profits or losses in. 193"5, the The Trapp Yard shops do work fo r the sure at this moment. Units 562 and 584 are continued cost control and diversification CNR; CNR 5606 (GP38-2) was seen there still reported to be working near Squamish program has improved the company's having its wheels turned in November. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays financial posture. The word has come down fr om on high on the Squamish-to-Lillooet wayfreight. Operating Trends While grain trafficcontinues to hold at a fa irly good pace, coal business remains soft New Book from the Colorado Railroad Museum due to intense competition from Western Rail Properties, Inc., as well as to the more temperate climate experienced in the mid Pacific west and southern parts of the country in Union 3985 photo-story recent weeks. This shift in traffic base has had a ripple effect in the assignment and This NEW Museum book by Ronald C. Hill incorporates 64 pages of sparkling black & white photos and text on the UP's famous 4-6-6-4. quantity of motive power in service, the Horizontal format, full color soft cover - $9.95 details of which will be covered later in this column. Let it suffice to say that many Th e Rio Grande Ski Train SD40-2s and six-axle GEs normally used in New 64 page soltcover on the D&RGW's unique ski train coal train service have appeared on the operations, 8'/2 x" , many photos - $.9.95 point of other types of trains in early 1986. DEPT. N, BOX 10, The variety of pool power on the eastern GOLDEN COLO. 80402 end of the system has been restricted to the Colorado Railroad Museum 18 fo rmer Milwaukee Road coal service Add S1 .S0 shipping to orders under $20 SD40-2s seen in the Montana to Wisconsin
32 • APRIL 1986 corridor. A typical example of this opera 6180, 6189; GP18 1994; GP20s 2004, ary 4, using SD40-2s 204/205, leading 97 tion was the l47-CC275-2l through Het 2014, 2020, 2023, 2026, 2039, 2040, 2052, cars and CN waycar 781 14. On the 14th of tinger, N.D., on December 21, using the 2062; GP30s 2209 and 2240; U30C 5814; the month, No. 402 was noted in St. Paul pure "pumpkin" SD40-2 set of 1311195/ SD45s 6444, 6514, 6517, 6518, 6548, Yard behind CN SD40s 5010/5016, typical 187. A curious variation on this theme 6650, 6669, 6679; and F45s 6639 and of the 5000- and 5200-series "international involved No. 100 into Minneapolis on 6641. ized" units used in this service in previous December 29, with BN SD40-2s 8157/ With the continued retirement of older years. 6359 leading ex-Milw cousin 163. power, the number of premerger (1970) Another significant operating develop Although the weather in the upper mid locomotives on the roster dropped to 660 ment occurred on January 16, as double west was very mild fo r the first fe w weeks as of December 24, 1985. stack container service commenced in the of the new year, the BN still has had to Other end-of-the-year statistics fo und the Kansas City-to-Chicago corridor. This make use of its snow-removal fleet. Local number of air repeater cars on the property traffic is received from the Cotton Belt at No. 31696 was spotted in Aberdeen, S.D., to be 32, including 12 converted boxcars, Armourda1e Yard in Kaycee. It is planned on January 3, sporting plow 972523, nine ex-CBQ U28Bs (5450, 5451, 5453- that weekly consists of OOCL (Overseas pushed by GP39-2 2706 and GP9 1902. 5459) and 11 ex-CBQ and Frisco U30Bs Orient Container Lines) tonnage will be Further north, rotary 972551 was used on (5473, 5475, 5476, 5479, 5481, 5484, 5771, run over this route, with no indication as branch lines in the vicinity of Jamestown, 5773, 5776, 5778 and 5781). yet as to whether run-through motive N.D., in early January. Sister unit 972560 Roster anomalies ET 1 through ET3 re power will be utilized. remains stored serviceable at Dilworth, main in the Twin Cities region, as sets Examples of the improved coordination Minn. 178/ET1 and l80/ET3 were in active ser between the fo rmer Milwaukee and "old" Despite the rather predictable assign vice in the Duluth-Superior area as of Soo routes are highlighted by the handling ment of locomotives to certain trains January 4, while remaining combo 179/ of unit potash trains, such as on January recently, there were a fe w notable excep ET2 was in and out of service at North 10. An 89-car No. 670 arrived in Minneap tions to report. Such an example is No. town in recent weeks. olis from the CP at Noyes behind SD40-2 31662 at Aberdeen on January 3, sporting Contributors to this column: David Gasa/, 786, SD40 748 and SD39 6241. After a GP50 3143 leading cabless GEs 4103/4038 Jeff Hendricks. quick run over the BN to St. Paul and a as well as GP39-2 2725. The proverbial mainline crew change, it departed fo r "dog fr om every town" consist led No. 884 Chicago as a first 498. Unit trains of grain out of Breckenridge, Minn., on December are also being handled in a more efficient 9, as U30B 5770, GP38 2172, GP9 1923, manner, as evidenced by an 83-car drag out GP30 2226, SD45 6519, GP38-2 2108, of Humboldt Yard in Minneapolis on Janu and SW 1500 307 powered 10,812 tons east ary 18, its 8,225 tons handled by SD40-2s to Willmar. Another powerhouse set of 1421775 and GP40 2058. This movement motors brought No. 100 into Minneapolis Soo also bypassed Shoreham, making a quick on December 28, with SD40-2s 780617168/ LINE crew change in St. Paul, then heading fo r 8020/8074, GP50 3114, GP9s 194211939, points east. GPI0 1411, and GP5 1365 easily pulling the 81-car drag into town. A grain-laden Motive Power Update There was not much action in the back No. 100 out of Northtown fo r Chicago on By Ka rl Rasmussen January 18 fo und SD40-2 7179 leading shop to report in the past month, but GP40 C30-7 5009 and U30Cs 5387/5350, obvi Effective January 1, 1986, the Milwaukee 4648 was released in fr esh paint early in ous renegades fr om the overstocked coal Road and Minneapolis, Northfield and January. SW1 200 1218 was due out of the pool in Alliance. Southern properties were fo rmally merged shop later in the month, while "pumpkin" One fa irly minor operating change has into the Soo Line Railroad, rail subsidiary GP40 2006 will be the next unit to be re occurred in the past month, involving the of the Soo Line Corp. As of this date, all worked and repainted in standard Soo unit taconite trains NT400/401 between employees have specifically been instructed colors. the Iron Range in northeastern Minnesota to use the term "Soo Line" when referring With a long string of fo rmer Milw and Granite City, Ill. With the decline in to operations over segments of fo rmer GP20s in the 964 to 981 series stored in the raw ore shipments in recent years, the BN Milw and MN&S railroad. With the excep back yard at Shoreham, information fr om has been able to upgrade the equipment tion of some out-of-service fo rmer Milwau the Chicago, Central and Pacific Railroad used on the long-haul trains, presently kee SW 1 200s in the 700 series, all number in Waterloo, Ia., indicates that these 18 equipped with 100-ton capacity cars pur conflicts have been eliminated, allowing units will be sold to the new Class I entrant chased after the merger. After several years safe dispatching over the airwaves and on in the near fu ture. The removal of these of operating trains in the 8,500 to 9,500- train orders (the fe w that are left, anyway!). units from active service has resulted in a ton range, the BN has opted fo r 135 real variety of fo ur-axle power across the 100-ton capacity cars, requiring fo ur units Operational Changes entire system. Late December and early fo r the loaded movements. An example of Several operating changes have taken January fo und the Soo experimenting with this was NT400 out ofNorth town on Janu place with the fo rmal merging of the three hump power at St. Paul Yard, including ary 18, using SD40-2s 80811711117826 and component properties at the first of the such sets as MP15 473 and GP40 4602, as SD45 6671 to highball the pellets. year, the most significant of which involves well as GP40s 2037/2059. the reinstitution of run-through operations As of the first of the year, nine of the 20 Motive Power Miscellany with the CN and DW&P between St. Paul GP30s remaining on the roster were in ser Traffic changes, streamlined operations and Winnipeg. Trains 40 1/402 now oper vice, including a set of three (70117091712) and the delivery of the entire fleet of ate with pooled motive power in this corri in Twin Cities transfer service. Another GP50s as well as the trio of SD60s made it dor, replacing fo rmer Milwaukee trains mixed bag of transfer power was spotted in possible fo r the BN to retire some 41 loco 617/6 18. Manifest designations 4111412 the fo rmer Milwaukee Southtown Yard on motives during the last fo ur months of have been assigned to the traffic moving January 12, consisting of GP38-2s 353/ 1985. Units removed fr om the roster in over the "old Soo" between Superior and 4412 and GP40s 2008/2066. This trend cluded switchers 106 and 155, GP9s 1712, Chicago, via Stevens Point, Wis. Samples should continue in coming months as more 1714, 1720, 1738, 1740, 1754, 1777, 1864, of this new operation included the north multichannel radios are installed on the 1880, 1887, 1947, 1952, 1962; SD9s 6170, bound No. 401 at Beroun, Minn., on Janu- non-SD40 power fleet.
PACIFIC RailNEWS • 33 meters between the junction with the problems with the trains in Mexico that Nacozari District at Del Rio and Cananea tourists should know of; however, there remains the Cananea District. The mixed were some inaccuracies ... Mr. Shannon trains are operated on the same days, with even missed the date of the earthquake by MEXICAN the Nogales to Agua Prieta train running nearly two weeks. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The RAILROADS trains to Nogales operat.e on Tuesday, More NdeM Divisions Thursday and Saturday. The mixed trains We continue with the description of the on the Nacozari line operate daily except operating divisions of the National Rail Monday. The new timetable includes the ways of Mexico'. By C. R. Prather schedule of a fr eight train that operates The Division del Mexicano includes The Ferrocarril del Pacifico has issued a fr om Nogales on Tuesday, Thursday and the fo rmer Mexican Railway. The division new employee timetable. Timetable No. 11 Saturday. Sunday, Wednesday and Friday connects on the west with the Mexico Divi was effective November 24, replacing the are the days that the freight operates out of sion near the Valle de Mexico Yard. The timetable issued on November 1, 1981. A Agua Prieta. The fr eight and mixed trains main line extends from Mexico City to separate booklet covers each of the two depart at the same time, noon fr om Nogales Veracruz via Apizaco, Orizaba and Cor divisions, the Sonora and the Sinaloa. The and Agua Prieta, but the mixed trains are doba. Among the interesting aspects of this new timetable omits the schedule of train allowed more time because of station stops line are the 4. 1 % grade at Maltrata, and the Nos. 9 and 10, the Nogales-Guaymas rail and a side trip on the Cananea District. famous bridge at Metlac. A second line is car, which were discontinued shortly after Due to the change in timetable direction, being built to bypass the steepest grades on the previous timetable was issued. The the Nogales trains operate with several the line. The division has two branches: the Puebla District between Apizaco and southbound El Costeno is again officially number designations. For example, the operating as train No. 2, after over a year Agua Prieta to Nogales mixed train runs as Puebla, and the new Tecamac District and a half of running most of the route as No. 64 to Empalme Agua Prieta; No. 23 to which runs between Teotihuacan and Jalto an extra, due to a schedule change. The Del Rio; No. 26 to Cananea; No. 27 back can on the Hidalgo Subdivision of the schedules of the other passenger trains on to Del Rio; and finally No. 31 to Nogales. Mexico Division. The Tecamac District is the FCP have been adjusted slightly. Train part of a bypass line around Mexico City. No. 4 now leaves Nogales at 7:00 a.m., 15 Mexico Rail Travel The Division de Puebla consists of two minutes earlier. Northbound trains from Articles on rail travel in Mexico seldom subdivisions, the Puebla and the Oaxaca. Guadalajara have been changed; No. 1 appear in the newspapers, except mention The Puebla Subdivision consists of the two leaves at 8:30 a.m. and No. 3 leaves at of the Copper Canyon route of the Chihua lines fr om Puebla towards Mexico City, via 11:00 a.m., an hour earlier. The schedule hua al Pacifico. The Sunday December Cuautla and San Lorenzo. There is also an times at intermediate points have also been 15th travel section of the Los Angeles Times important line that runs from San Lorenzo adjusted. There have been some important carried an article by Don Shannon on travel to Oriental. The Puente de Ixtla branch, changes in regard to the branches that are in Mexico after the major earthquake of and the line between Los Reyes and to the east of Nogales. The line between late September. This included a trip on the Teotihuacan, round out the trackage. The Oaxaca Subdivision main line runs be Nogales and Nacozari is now the Nacozari FCP and NdeM fr om Mazatlan to Mexico District, instead of the Agua Prieta Dis City. The mostly negative report on the tween Puebla and Oaxaca. The branch trict. The short 2.8 kilometers bet�een train trip included the usual problems, between Esperanza and Tehuacan plus the Empalme Agua Prieta and Agua Prieta, such as late trains, dirty windows, and old branches out of Oaxaca complete this which was not in the past timecard, is now equipment. Mr. Shannon, who stated that subdivision. The the Agua Prieta District. The 15.4 kilo- he was a rail buff, was especially critical of Division de Veracruz al Istmo the fo od service on the train, " ... where covers the trackage from the junctions on the worst fo od we encountered in Mexico the north at Cordoba and Veracruz to the was delivered to dirty tables by a sullen connection with the trans-Isthmus line at crew." While the meal service in Mexican Medias Aguas. Tierra Blanca is the station dining cars may not be that of a resort where the two northern lines come to CAB-FORWARD hotel, I have found that the fo od and ser gether. There are five branches that are FINAL PRINTING vice is generally good, reasonably priced included in this division. and to date I have suffered no ill effects. The Division del Sureste includes the by The writer's suggestion to "hop offthe trans-Isthmus line between Coatzacoa1co R.J. Church train at fr equent stops" to purchase food and Salina Cruz, and the line between and drinks is a little difficult, since the El Ixtepec and the Guatemala border at ",", .�.::_..• �;.:;. The complete Costeno has only three regular stops be Ciudad Hidalgo. story of ALL __- -"�!!!!,....II!! tween Mazatlan and Guadalajara. The stop The Division de Merida is the fo rmer Southern Pacific at Tepic is the only one that allows any Ferrocarril Unidos Sureste. This division articulateds. Class details, time to deal with local vendors. The only includes all the trackage in the Yucatan. shoppings, operations on each comment made about the country that the Coatzacoa1co is the connection with the route. 36 scale Loco and tender train passed through was that "the arid rest of the NdeM system. drawings. Over 550 photos. 23 landscape passed." I wonder if Mr. Shan chapters. 31 8 pages. Hardbound, non was asleep, since there is much more The NdeM has 68 passenger train sched dustjacket. to see along the route. The writer stated ules, 130 mixed train schedules, and 137 that the Pullman he rode in, the Real freight train schedules listed in the em Direct - $45.00 ppd in U.S. Aguilal� was purchased from the Southern ployee timetables. In some cases a train Calif. add $2.70 Sales Tax. Pacific. However, this car is one of the last may carry more than one number because Foreign add $3.00 postage. sleepers sent to Mexico, and shows definite of the change in timetable direction, or a signs of service fo r Amtrak. Rail passenger side trip on a branch; each train number is CENTRAL VALLEY service in Mexico is not fo r everyone, and I considered a separate schedule. RAILROAD PUBLICATIONS would imagine that most tourists would Thanks to Ed Vo n Nordeck and John Kirchner/or in/ormation used il1 this month's 11508 Green Rd., Wilton, Calif. 95693 not enjoy traveling by train in most cases. The Times article describes many of the column.
34 • APRIL 1986 tion between the ventilation shafts in the The district was unable to acquire the underwater tube and in the Berkeley Hills same Rockwell cast truck used on the orig Tu nnel. inal car, which has proven to be one of the I TRANSIT I most reliable and smooth-riding trucks in Fire Scares the transit industry, and is a one-of-a-kind BART cars are known fo r fire scares. design fo r BART. Alsthom has produced a Unofficial figures cited recently in Bay replacement truck with a welded fr ame that Area newspapers indicated that there is a will be interchangeable with the original smoke problem on a train on the average of truck. once a week. On December 28, car 693 The cars have different seating arrange BART (with an old interior) that had been on a ments fo r testing and improved access fo r storage track at Richmond fo r about 24 handicapped passengers. hours was seriously damaged by a fire that Upon completion of the testing, the started inside the car and spread between bodies of the fo ur cars will be scrapped and By Frank Marino the fiberglass walls, causing $125,000 in replaced by new bodies. All of the assem damage. Richmond fire officials blamed bly work of the revenue cars will be con The Bay Area Rapid Transit District is in the blaze on a short circuit in the electric ducted at Union City south of the Hay the midst of a $500 million-plus program motor (or a related circuit) that opens and ward Ya rd by Soferval, a U.S. subsidiary of to expand the 71-mile system's passenger closes one set of doors. Alsthom. The prototype carbodies were capacity well beyond its present 220,000 In addition to those problems, represen not smooth enough to meet BART specifi daily patronage limit. tatives of most Bay Area fire departments cations. Also, the air-conditioning system When the work is completed, probably have complained to the PUC that there are has not passed BART tests and an im early in the next decade, BART's daily dozens of other fire safety problems. They proved version will be installed on the capacity should approach 300,000 passen cite pipes in tunnels that lack water, inferior gers. This will be accomplished by running radio communications equipment, inade longer trains and by decreasing the present quate emergency exits in some areas and approximate four-minute interval between the delays in replacing flammable interiors. trains to less than two and a half minutes. The PUC has hired outside consultants to The key fe atures of the modernization study the complaints. ��,"$�o$r1 are acquisition of ISO new cars fr om Returning to the modernization, here is a BOOK & GIFT SHOP French-owned Alsthom Atlantique; recon progress report: 01 the struction and expansion of the switches New Cars: Four prototype cars have CALIfORNIA STATE RAILROAD MUSEUM and other turn back facilities at Daly City; arrived from France fo r testing. By early Over 1000 Titles Always In Stock! construction of a new yard and shop fo r January, they had operated over the entire � CALL US FIRST! .,... routine servicing at Daly City; upgrading system to check clearances and to see if Milepost t and the State Railroad Museum of the automatic train control equipment they would run in multiple-unit with the are open 7 days a week 10 AM . 5 PM both along the tracks and in the cars; com older cars. Extensive testing is scheduled to pletion of the KE track through downtown continue through February on BART's PHONE ORDERS (9 16) 447·9665 VISA/MC Oakland; and expansion of parking lots at Hayward Test Track. It is anticipated they 115 "\" STREET · OLD SACRAMENTO, CA 95814 East Bay stations. will be put in revenue passenger service fo r SEND $1.00 FOR CURRENT CATA LOG These items are all long-term projects. a fe w weeks or months starting in March. PACIfIC COASI CHAPI[R RAilWAY & lOCOMOIIV[ HISIORICAl SOCIHY. INC. One short-term program that should allow BART has designated the new rolling more trains to operate in the 3.6-mile trans stock as "C Cars" because they can operate bay tube and the 3.8-mile Berkeley Hills at any point in a train and have a motor Tunnel has been bogged down by red tape man's cab at one end. With the present ******************** and technical problems. That is the re cars, there has to be an A car at the front :+ :+ 1836 - TEXAS - 1986 � placement of the flammable interiors in and rear and B cars in between. The short Sesquicentennial BART's existing fleet of 439 A (cab) and B est train BART can run is three cars, the : : (midtrain) cars. longest, 10 cars. :+ :+ So fa r, the new cars have been much :+ :+ :+ :+ Refitting Cars more reliable than the existing fleet was :+ :+ At year-end, when the work was sup when it arrived fr om 1970-76. Where :+ :+ posed to have been completed, about 140 possible, BART has specified the same :+ :+ cars still had dangerous interiors consisting components fo r the new cars that were :+ :+ :+ ��.. :+ of polyurethane floors and fiberglass walls. proven reliable on the existing fleet. This • . � .- � :+ . :+ BART was ordered by the California includes the Westinghouse Electric Corp. ' - -, -� :+ . .:.-,, :+ Public Utilities Commission to replace traction motor, WABCO coupler and Ohio :+ -- .�'.'\1'lI :+ * -h'I'I.!!./" /11 II, !t,\(/\ '{ tmll/'" \/II'/'{I/ interiors after a fire in the tube seven years Brass third rail collector assemblies. *' ago. An Oakland firefighter was killed in The new C Car has an improved train :+ Te xas & Pacific, #610, 2-10-4 :+ Full Color Lithograph from painting by RR the fire, which emitted inky-black poison control system that also will be retrofitted : artist Howard Fogg. This is the TEXAS : ous smoke. onto the A cars. Its solid-state chopper SESQUICENTENNIAL Excursion Loco of 1986. The district almost immediately replaced control system is an improved version of 1: 16"x22" 1: the highly flammable seat cushions with the equipment in Sao Paulo and other post ;: ;: :+ $15 plus $3 1st. class post. :+ safer material but the more extensive work BART systems equipped by Westing :+ Send Check or M.O. to: :+ to replace the interiors has been plagued by house. Both the old and new cars have all TRACKSIDE PRINTS delays. BART has blamed the contractor, aluminum bodies with no underframes. On : : P.O. Box 898, Dept . PN To dco Overhead Door Co., which does the the old cars, the body bolster and a fe w :+ :+ :+ New Braunfels, TX 78130 :+ replacement work at the Hayward Main other fr aming members were made of steel; :+ • FISher. UP·Sherman Hill·1957 . 24"x36" . S30 :+ Ya rd. these components are aluminum on the C :+ • Fogg .CRIP FA·s·FaS! Fre'gh1 . 16"x22" . S20 :+ . Fogg .SI'. PAs. Sunset Ltd .. 16"x22" . S20 Until all cars are refitted, the PUC pro Car. The old cars were riveted together, :+ . Kraew,c.SOO 4·8·4. Fre'ght. . 16"x20" - 520 :+ :+ :+ hibits more than two trains in each direc- the new ones are welded. ** ******************
PACIFIC Rail EWS . 35 production cars, which will cost about $1.8 change the lengths of many of its signal era tic Rep. Henry A. Waxman, became million each. blocks. They now vary in length but ex seriously concerned about constructing a Daly City: Structural work has begun at perience at BART and with the same subway through the Fairfax district, after the station so tracks can be extended south general kind of equipment in Sao Paulo seeping underground methane gas ex toward the turn back and yard site. The indicates that blocks should all be about the ploded in a Fairfax area clothing store. As turnback is an essential part of the effort to same length, at least on the heavily traveled part of a compromise solution, the second reduce intervals between trains. Rail fo r sections between Daly City and downtown segment of the Metro Rail line west of the expansion was unloaded at the Hay Oakland, and in to MacArthur and Lake Alvarado Blvd. will be rerouted to bypass ward Yard in January. San Mateo County Merritt. Waxman's Fairfax district. Rep. Waxman voters in November approved construction has called fo r an above-ground alternative of a station at Colma south of Daly City to ensure a safer environment both during but work cannot begin until county and and after construction. As part of a tenuous BART officials negotiate a complicated compromise between SCRTD and Rep. agreement. By state law, San Mateo County Los Waxman, a panel of experts reviewed the must "buy into" BART by paying a con design of the first fo ur miles and concluded nection fe e to cover design and construc ANGELES that the subway "is not more complicated tion costs of major fa cilities and items such and does not pose greater hazards of con as cars and train control that were financed METRO struction or operation." Yet, the report by Alameda, Contra Costa and San Fran calls fo r additional studies and safety mea cisco counties in the 1960s. BART plans to sures. In late January, Waxman greatly match the connection fe e money with state concerned RTD officials by calling fo r By Jim Seal and fe deral assistance to extend the abandonment of the first leg of the route in Concord line to North Concord and the Despite warnings by President Reagan in support of an alternative plan. This was in Fremont line to Irvington and to build the October that he did not intend to distribute addition to the rerouting (as yet to be deter Bay Fair-Castro Valley branch. Negotia the fu nds previously allocated fo r Metro mined) of the second leg of the subway tions with San Mateo County could take a Rail, the President signed a massive fe deral route through the Fairfax area. Our next year or more. spending bill in December which con column will discuss the rerouting alterna KE Track: On July 7, 1985, trains began tained $429 million in fe deral appropria tives and the new round of environmental running at 25 miles an hour under manual tions for Metro Rail. This release was hearings. control between MacArthur and 19th St. made possible by an earlier agreement by stations, and returned to automatic House and Senate conferees to break a operation on January 2, 1986. The manual month-long stalemate on transportation operation was necessary to permit installa fu nding as part of a stopgap fu nding bill tion of the train control on the two-mile fo r many fe deral agencies. extra (or third) track between MacArthur Although the Reagan signature was a station and the Washington St. portal of major setback to avid subway fo es such as the Oakland subway. Space was left fo r this recently indicted Rep. Bobbi Fiedler track in the Broadway tunnels and 12th (R-Northridge), other fo rmidable obstacles SAN DIEGO and 19th St. stations under Broadway remain to be overcome. Urban Mass when the structures and connecting tun Transportation Administrator Ralph Stan TROLLEY nels were built in the 1960s, and also ley must negotiate a contract with the provision was made fo r two extra tracks SCRTD to release within 90 days the $429 between 27th St. and approximately million fe deral share of the estimated $l.25 By Ralph Forty MacArthur Blvd. billion cost fo r the 4.4-mile first-operable The new track has train control in both segment. Stanley has pointed to critical The sale/leaseback arrangement with directions. This will provide two San issues that are still outstanding, such as GLGT, Inc., fo r the six new (1025-1030) Francisco-bound tracks through downtown guaranteeing the additional fl llancial con LRVs was completed, with the MTDB Oakland in the morning and two Mac tributions of local agencies. (Stanley is banking the fu nds and holding the monies Arthur-bound tracks in the afternoon. As seeking state and local pledges of "full fa ith in reserve through 1986 until the final part of the project, spurs and sidings also and credit" to pay whatever amount the results of the 1986 tax bill are announced. were constructed in the right-of-way in the Feds are unable to provide.) Once a con A last requirement was that all six make at median of the Grove-Shafter fr eeway. The tract is negotiated with UMTA, $129 least one round trip in regular revenue new track is scheduled to be in revenue million of previously withheld fe deral service. This was accomplished on the service by March. funds will be available. This will be in morning of December 27 when the six Parking: Numerous projects will begin addition to $101 million of new appropria cars, operating as Train Nos. 1 and 2 fr om in 1986 in the East Bay. Except at Coli tion fo r 1986, with the remainder due in the carbarn, went south to San Ysidro at seum station, there are no parking spaces subsequent years to fu lfill the fe deral por 4:24 and 4:39 a.m., respectively. The cars available in the East Bay by 9:00 a.m. tion of the costs fo r the 4.4-mile line. returned to the yard fr om the Santa Fe Because of the inability of AC Transit, the The district previously sought a fe deral station just before first light, catching some financially ailing East Bay bus system (and "intent to finance" the entire 18.6-mile early workers by surprise with a ride in the successor to the Key System), to operate route, but was fo rced to abandon that strat new cars. extensive fe eder service to rail stations, egy in the fa ce of administration opposition BART riders have had to depend on the to the long-term cost impacts. While the Moving the Imperial Canopy automobile to get to suburban stations. effects of Gramm-Rudman are unknown at Not being one to waste its resources, the Train Control: In addition to the im this time, the SCRTD must now satisfy Trolley recently had the old Imperial provements to the cars already noted, UMTA that the subway tunneling plan is canopy shelter installed in Civic Center at extensive work is underway to improve the safe, despite mounting concerns about the new north side of C St. stop, which communications system between the track hazardous pockets of methane gas. was nearly complete as of mid-January. side equipment and the central dispatching This latest requirement surfaced when a The present shelter (of similar design) at office. Completion of this work is some previously loyal and influential supporter San Diego Square may also be reused at the years away. The district also plans to of the project, West Los Angeles Demo- new inbound Gaslamp stop when the San
36 • APRIL 1986 Diego Square station is removed. When fmt positioned over the weekend of Janu ary 18, the Imperial name caught many a trolley rider by surprise, even though that side of the street is not in use. Another benefit to come from the C St. work, con verting it to a "Trolley Mall," will be extending out the curb line between Third and Fifth Aves. This expanded area is envisioned as an area of modest sidewalk cafes.
Onward to EI Cajon The EI Cajon project still seems to be on line within the scheduled timespan, with construction projected to start some time in May. So fa r no contracts have been award ed for this work (which is being broken , down into two design components) because of uncertain fu nding constraints. The first, or Spring St., segment has 98% of the civil, bridge, trackwork and traction power de sign work finished. The second, or EI Cajon, segment also has 98% of the civil, bridge and trackwork design finished with Here is the prototype three-section, eight-axle articulated PCC manufactured by the signal revisions due to be completed in Motores and Adaptaciones Automotrices (see Interurbans Newsletter, p. 46). February. -JIM GRAEBNERIUTDC In 1983, L.K. Comstock Engineering completed the design fo r the railroad signaling fo r the East Urban line based upon track plans provided by the MTDB. In 1985 the track plans were revised because the results from a computer simu lation of the Siemens-Duewag vehicles on the East Urban line demonstrated that the trains would meet in different locations than originally projected. This required some change in trackwork to make sure .----I that double-tracking was placed in areas I where the trains would pass. It must be remembered that past Euclid the East line will first be operated basically as single track, as the original South line did before money became available fo r complete dou ble-tracking. There is a possibility that the $20 million counties' swap fu nds (men tioned in previous issues) may be used fo r this.
Destination Santee? Well, not yet, but the roller sign on new unit 1028 will be equipped for the final phase of the East Line extension on the San Diego Trolley. Number 1028 is one of the new air-conditioned Duewags (note the Signa roof-mounted unit, the source of PORTLAND the "Winnebago" nickname for the fo ur two-unit vehicles). -EDWARD R. SHERMAN
LIGHT month's issue, the 13.6 miles from the east the span, with the LRVs receiving priority. RAIL end of the line to just across the Willamette The LRT has a separate right-of-way on (accent on middle syllable) River fr om both approaches to the bridge (even its own downtown Portland. The river crossing is ramp at the west end), but on the span made via the ancient Steel Bridge, a double itself, LRVs will have to mix with roadway By Steve Morgan deck, vertical-lift bridge, built in 1912. The traffic; this is the only location on the bridge's lower deck, owned jointly by entire IS-mile line where this will occur. Car 125 was unloaded at Ruby Junction on Southern Pacific and Union Pacific, is used In addition to the surface reconstruction December 23, bringing to 23 the number by trains (only), but the light rail cars will required fo r use by light rail cars, the of Bombardier LRVs to arrive in Portland travel across the upper deck, using the 74-year-old bridge is also undergoing a so fa r (of 26 ordered). center two of fo ur lanes. Automobile traffic badly needed renovation. The contract for will continue to be allowed to use all fo ur the civil engineering work on the bridge The Steel Bridge lanes, but LRV-actuated signals at both (including tracklaying) was fo r this reason My segment-by-segment general descrip ends of the span will control the merge let by the Oregon Department ofTranspor tion of the light rail line covered, in last between private traffic and LRVs entering tation (ODOT), rather than by Tri-Met.
PACIFIC RailNEWS • 37 The upper deck of the Steel Bridge closed curves there would have made it an unsafe built in Portugal fr om Brill parts in the late to all traffic on June 11, 1984, and was to location fo r passenger loading and un 1920s or early '30s, based on a much earlier remain closed until June 1985; however, loading. design) has been on display on the com ODOT's contractor is now 10 months The downtown section of the line is pleted rails on Morrison St. between 9th behind schedule, so the bridge remains entirely on reserved right-of-way, all of the and 10th Aves. in downtown since June 13. closed at the time of writing (late January), track, except at street crossings, being set The other three cars, Porto 114, 167 and except to railroad traffic (the lower deck in cobblestones. On 1st Ave., where the 181, are in covered storage at the Trolley has remained open the entire time). line is double-track, the right-of-way gener Park near Glenwood, Ore. Mr. Naito The Steel Bridge segment is the last ally takes the fu ll width of the street. Most hopes to keep things moving fa st enough segment of the light rail line to receive its of the segment of 1st Ave. to be used by fo r vintage service to begin with at least track. Tracklaying there began around the light rail is permanently closed to all motor one car this fa ll (when light rail service end of January. This will be the very last traffic other than LRVs and emergency begins), but the less optimistic among us section of the line to become usable, al vehicles (and maintenance vehicles), mak (including most Tri-Met officials), figure though the downtown section will not be ing a pedestrian/LRV mall. On Morrison that summer 1987 is realistically the earli accessible to powered testing until the and Yamhill Sts., a single track runs along est date that the service could begin. More bridge's light rail trackway is finished. The the left side of the street, next to a single details on the vintage trolley plans later. latest estimates place this at around May. automobile lane. The LRVs are all double ended, and will use their "left-side" doors The City Center fo r loading and unloading on these two From the bridge, the trackway descends streets, as well as at stations having center the line's steepest grade-7.0%-to 1st platforms elsewhere on the line. Ave. and, in both directions, fo llows 1st to Morrison St. (12 blocks). The final part of Wiring Progress in Downtown the downtown alignment is a loop, from 1st Some span wires are the only overhead Ave. along Morrison St. to 11th, down one wires to have been strung in the city center block to Yamhill St., and then back over on so fa r. The first of these appeared around Yamhill to 1st Ave. All of this trackage has last November and are attached to exten already been laid, and about 90% of it is sion posts on the tops of newly cast replica finished(usable). Nearly all of the track is vintage street lamps which still line many set in cobblestones, giving a pleasing of the streets of downtown Portland. All of By Harre W. Demoro appearance and blending well with the the span wires in downtown will be sus many historic old buildings which the line pended either in this manner or, in a fe w Several months ago I made a slight change passes in downtown. Trees have been cases only, fr om new traction poles not in my newspaper reporting when I referred planted, several in each block, all along the being used fo r lighting. Most of the over to the Southern Pacific. Instead of rou downtown alignment, and the sidewalks head wiring work in downtown will not be tinely describing the railroad as the have been widened and redone in brick. finished until May, and will be, as will the "mighty Southern Pacific," I started writ The layover terminal is situated on a lot Steel Bridge, one of the last critical con ing "once-mighty." on the west side of 11th Ave., where there struction contracts to be completed. You can't be a newspaper reporter in San are three tracks-two fo r normal layovers Francisco and view the Southern Pacific and one (with manual switches) fo r storage. Vintage Trolley Proposal Advances with any great degree of joy. The place has There will not be a passenger station at the The proposal fo r an off-peak-hours always been run by tough people. Railfans downtown terminus. It is probable that the "vintage trolley" service, between the also are aware of the hard-nosed attitude of downtown terminus and the Lloyd Center SP's armed police fo rce. shopping center across the river fr om But I do fe el a tinge of pain when I real downtown, appears to finally be gaining ize that the Southern Pacific is vanishing OUTSTANDING VALUE! momentum again. The project was on hold into the Santa Fe. I am truly mourning the fo r a while, because it was not certain what passage of a great institution, a company the source of fu nding fo r it would be. But that was as much a part of the American now Portland businessman Bill Naito (one Frontier West as the Colt revolver, a rail of the people who first promoted the idea road that is so intertwined in our history back in the 1970s and one of the most that in some instances the story of the SP is active supporters of the proposal) has suc also the story of the development of the ceeded in obtaining signatures from the Pacific Coast. required 51% of businesses along the pro SP had no lack of colorful people at the posed route on a petition to fo rm a Local helm. In my day I recall the hard-as-nails Improvement District to provide tax D.J. Russell. He has been remembered fo r -Sherman Hill 195 7, "The Fu/ure Passes" money to pay fo r getting the project being anti-passenger train, but an objective Limited Supply going. The petition now has to work its account of Russell's years would have to UP City of L.A. and Big Boy #4022 way through the usual city government credit him with transforming SP into a Full-color lithograph from original bureacracy, but approval is expected. major and diversified corporation. painting by railroad artist Larry Fisher. The business tax money is needed fo r During Russell's tenure, yards were x image. 20" 33" restoration of fo ur vintage streetcars, con rebuilt, engine terminals modernized, $30 postpaid. struction of a small carbarn near down piggyback service established, pipelines Send check or money order to: town, and operation of the service. Tri-Met built, real estate developed. Trackside, supports the propcsal and would operate Russell's equally controversial (and inter P.O. Box 898, Dept. PN the service, but cannot afford to pay fo r it. esting) successor, Benjamin F. Biaggini, New Braunfels, TX 78130 Bill Naito and brother Sam have already fu rther expanded SP's diversification. He Also Available: oFogg T&P #61 0, 16" x 22" - $15 purchased fo ur Brill-type streetcars from nurtured the Sprint telephone system to oFogg ATSF PA's. Chief in the Desert - $35 Portugal, and have generously promised to the point that it was valuable enough to sell oFogg SP PA's Sunset Ltd . 16" x 22"-$20 oFogg CRIP FA·Fast Frt, 16" x 22" - $20 donate the cars to the city fo r the service. to GTE. One of these cars, ex-Porto car 178 (a car Biaggini and his people clearly saw how
38 • APRIL 1986 outside fo rces were encircling their once imperial institution. But even when it was becoming apparent that SP could not survive as an independ RE S ERVAT ION ent, the railroad fought hard and won an p almost impossible barrie against competi tors and regulators and bought a key part Milwaukee Road boxcab electric locomo Museum Assn. Built in 1925, the depot of the bankrupt Rock Island. tive E57B, placed on display in Chief was the third built in Laramie. The brick Perhaps Biaggini's greatest contribution Joseph Park in Harlowtown, Mont., structure was designed by Gilbert Stanley to SP was his decision to merge it into a about 10 years ago, has suffered consider Underwood, who designed many of UP's larger-and stronger-system, rather than able damage fr om vandals and a move is stations built in the 1920s. Efforts will be let the situation deteriorate to a point needed to prevent fu rther vandalism. It made to turn the depot into a railroad where his railroad would be mentioned in could cost $10,000 and we suggest you museum. (Union Pacific Info Magazine) the same breath as the Rock Island, the write Save the Engine Fund, Harlowtown Movement of Santa Fe 4-8-4 locomotive Penn Central or the Milwaukee. That MT 59036, which is seeking to raise fu nds 3751 fr om San Bernardino to Fontana, could not have been an easy decision fo r fo r this purpose. (Ili/orilialioll from The Calif.,was postponed by the San Bernar Biaggini, knowing he'd be remembered as Trainsheet) dino Railroad Historical Society. the executive who closed the books on one At a ceremony held at Perris, Calif., on of the West's greatest corporate adven The Center fo r Transport and Com January 19, 1986, Union Pacific officials tures, the railroad of The Big Four and of merce at Galveston, Tex ., was given turned over the builder's plates to Ya kima Frank Norris and The Octopus. NW2E No. 1303 by Southern Pacific Valley Tr ansportation Co. electric locomo Even if Biaggini had not made the move Transportation Co. in December 1985. tive No. 297 to the Orange Empire Rail to merge with the Santa Fe, it is likely we (J oe Strapac) way Museum. The locomotive was in ser would be referring to the SP as "once Union Pacific has donated its Laramie, vice on the museum's main line that day to mighty" fo r a different reason, because the Wyo., depot to the Laramie Plains carry hundreds on a special freight train. railroad's financial situation as an inde pendent probably would be hopeless by now.
The SP has always been my fa vorite. My memories are fresh with the sounds of cab fo rward air pumps echoing in the snow sheds, the clanking side rods of a Consoli dation meandering through the weeds to the Alvarado sugar mill, the whistle of the walking-beam fe rry Sacramento approach ing Oakland Mole, the Mole itself with its vast train shed and wonderful trains, the flash of yellow as the City 0/ San Francisco pulled out of 16th Sr. and the bark of a P-8 on a Sacramento local departing Richmond. What made the SP special is that it was part of our life. Publicists called it "The Road of a Thousand Wonders" and it was. The SP brought our ancestors to California and ran the commuter trains and fe rries that took them to work. Our fa rm products and the output of our fa ctories traveled on the SP. There were scandals and fo r many years the SP was too powerful. But as the railroad grew, we did, too, and so did our Golden State. I don't recall the Santa Fe being at Promontory in 1869. Or meeting the "NOW AVAILABLE" ------li� Virginia & Truckee's silver trains at Reno, or running narrow-gauged trains over A CENTURY OF SOUTHERN PACIFIC . Mount Montgomery Pass, or building the STEAM LOCOMOTIVES by Guy L. DWlscomh world's largest interurban system, the 496 pages covering corporate history and every class of steam Pacific Electric. power on the Southern Pacific System and its subsidiaries. Within the covers are 800 illustrations, rosters, histories, 18 division maps showing the SP at its grandest with both In a fe w months it is likely I will write a standard and narrow gauge branch lines plus addendum / story about the final merger and record the errata folder. The finest book ever on S.P. steam. At your SP disappearing into the Santa Fe, which is dealer or direct. based in fa raway Chicago. When someone Published by The Tr ain Shop - $49.95 asks me about the Santa Fe I will remind DELIVERY BY UPS INCLUDED Cali!. Res. add 6% sales lax myself of what the Santa Fe has always FOREIGN - ADD S7 .50 POSTAGE been to me: something I photographed only when I had an extra roll of film. THE TRAIN SHOP 321 SO. MONROE. SAN JOSE. CA 95128 VISA · MASTER CHARGE ' MONEY ORDER OR CASHIERS CHECK _Llo.i��______PHONE: 408 • 296-1050 ------.!L""'l:sO('......
PACIFIC RailNEWS • 39 of railroading through Cajon Pass. In that The author has included several maps time, the line has undergone certain and charts that explain line relocation and changes, not the least of which is the com other changes made on the railroad between BOOKS plete double-tracking of the line through San Bernardino and Barstow, Many of out its entirety. Other changes may not be these charts can be compared with photo as obvious, but have been important in the graphs in the book to give the reader a true continued evolution of this important before-and-after view of many of the im stretch of railroad in Southern California. portant sites on the railroad, especially Summit. Mr. Walker takes the difficult task of One of the nice fe atures about the outlining the history of Cajon Pass and author's book is that it leaves room fo r blending into that history fa cts and photo other historians of Cajon Pass to present graphs highlighting the important events fu ture works in such areas as the early occurring in these last 100 years. Most of history of the railroad. The author has the book concentrates on the major changes touched upon almost every fa cet influenc that have occurred since 1947, which inter ing railroading in Cajon Pass without fe el estingly coincides with the date that the ing compelled to provide details into each author first began to work at the Summit and every subject. CAJON: RAIL PASSAGE TO THE station. Because railroads are run fo r the benefit PACIFIC, by Chard Walker. Trans-Anglo The book contains some interesting dis of shareholders, many of the railroad's Books, P.O. Box 6444, Glendale CA 91205. cussions not often fo und in railroad books. decisions are influenced solely by financial 350 photos, 256 pages. Hard cover. $45.95 The author devotes a chapter to the geology considerations. Unlike many authors who plus $1.50 handling. of Cajon Pass and this is important to an like to avoid this subject, Chard Walker Of all the railroad miles in North America, understanding of the fo rces that shaped the takes this issue head-on, but does not there are only a few select locations that operations of the railroad during the first attempt to chastise the railroad fo r making carry universal name recognition as won 100 years. The weather in Cajon Pass some of the changes it did, despite the fa ct ders of American railroading. One such ranges fr om extremely hot summers, as that one of the changes cost the author his spot is Cajon Pass, the cut in the mountain artfully set fo rth in the interesting chapter job at Summit. It is interesting to read the range surrounding Southern California authored by Tommy Johnson, to the cold article written by Richard J. Weigle demon that permits access to what has become one and snowy winters, beautifully shown by strating the influence of unions on current of the largest urban centers in the world. photographs, including the "Christmas day operations through Cajon Pass. Mr. The publication of Chard Walker's Card" picture included in the color section Weigle's article could easily provoke a Cajon coincides with the 100th anniversary of the book. debate between pro- and anti-union groups.
Chard Walker's Cajon is a book that every enthusiast of Southern California EXTRA· EXTRA · EXTRA railroading should have. It is thorough, thought-provoking and not another run-of the-mill railroad book. READ ALL ABOUT IT� -TOM JACOBSON TITANIC SINKS . LINDBERGH BABY KIDNAPPED FORT SUMTER FIRED UPON • WAR DECLARED STOCK MARKET CRASHES . LUSITANIA SINKS WRIGHT BROS. FLY . CHICAGO IN FLAMES
. ..in the pages of Parker'sTHE PAST Gazette! LIVES You'll AGAIN be captivated by the inter WE NEED YOUR HELP esting articles in the "old news" paper that brings you The Portola Railroad Museum, operated the most exciting events of the past 15 decades, as they by the Feather River Rail Society, is one of were written by the journalists of that day! Plus ... the fastest growing museums in the country. recipes from great·grandma's kitchen; famous women We specialize in Western Pacific and West in history; early travel by train, auto, stage, plane, ern Railroading, now with over 50 pieces of riverboat and other means; sports and business news rolling stock including 12 locomotives. from the past; outlaws, lawmen and Indian stories from the "Old West"; antiques, collectibles, memorabilia; Our sales department is what keeps us WHAT OUR READERS SAY Victorian living; The Roaring 20's; Photos from histori· going. ALL PROFITS go back into the ABOUT THE "GAZETTE" cal collections printed in sepia tones and much, much museum to paint another engine or caboose d l "You have a great newspaper." more. And the best news of all, you can save one-third and set-up another isp ay, We are a Non· -Jim Me lka; Fo rest Park, IL off the regular one-year subscription price! Become a profit tax exempt organization. "Charter Subscriber" by ordering within 30 days and Our large expanded 1986 catalog is now "Thoroughly enjoyed ...Best luck, you will receive Parker's Gazette bi·monthly for the best wishes." out. We would love to send it to you along next year at a discounted cost of only $6.Times a wast -Myrtle A. Ho ward; Baltimore, MD with membership information. We offer ing, don't pass up this special offer or miss out on the many items at DISCOUNT including: T· liThe 'Gazette' is super." next fascinating issue. Shirts, Mugs, Belt Buckles, Decals, Logo -Jerry Baker; Troy, MI r ______Signs, Hats, Jackets, Custom HO & N "Count me in as a charter subscriber. Ma il to: ' Models, Books, Photos, Slides, Video, I really enjoyed your first issue." Par k er s Gazette I 9912 Constitution Dr. (H.B.), Box 28444 I Printed Maller Collectables, and much -George Goodin; Beverly Hills, L. FL I Santa Ana, CA 92799 I more. Many items are custom made. Many I YES! Sign me up, I want to take advantage of the I WP items in slOck. Order from us and pre � ' OU MUST BE DELIGHTE l i I special "Charter Subscriber" offer. My check/money I serve some ',�il �' �-:;;-;i�\ order for $6 is enclosed. more railroad OR YOUR MONEY BACK! I I Y D I history, SSAE Examine Parker's Gazette for I Ii i I I My name is ______I for catalog, 30 days. If for any reason you are I , not satisfied, keep your first issue. , I I 1/ I I live at ------P.O. Box 8 !Il We will send a fu ll refund. J I!I I I ...... Portola, CA 96 122 � ��, _<��?!'!:� ��,!.��:::�,��t�1 I CIty State ___ ZIP I '--______L ______..I
40 • APRIL 1986 !iARtral/E!':@' 535 Fifth Avenue. Suite 1112. New Yo rk. N.Y. 10017. What an opportunity to relive the golden age of steam! Please send me complete informa tion on the Limited Edition Steam Safari and Blue Train excursion.
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#PRN486 FROM THE PAST
Top: Mighty Great Northern 2-8-8-0 No. 2041 has a clear stack as it Above: Just before going all-Diesel, the Northern Pacific still 'heads an eastward extra through the flat prairie country west of worked its famous Z-class Mallets across the upper reaches of the Minot, North Dakota, on June 4, 1950, just days before the Korean United States. Here, at Laurel, Montana, in December 1951, a conflict's beginning would again put the rails to the test. 4-6-6-4 rests between assignments. -DONALD SIMS -JOHN C. ILLMAN
42 • APRIL 1986 Right: Texas & Pacific 909 and 904 typify first-line steam power of the 1950s. They were used on trains such as the Sunshine Spe cial. -T&P PHOTO/DICK STEPHENSON COLLECTION
Below: By 1956, the EI Dorado from Sacramento needs just one unit (AIco PA 6022) and it's back ing to Southern Pacific's West Oakland engine terminal past the arrival shed at Oakland Pier. -FRED MATTHEWS
PACIFIC RailNEWS • 43 ---� - --:::::.- -
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p p
To p: The Arco refinery in Watson, Calif., now has SW1 8413 as its Above: Klamath Northern GE 125-tonner 207 spotting cars at the switcher. Seen on January 1, 1986, on one of its few appearances SP interchange at Gilchrist Jet., Ore., on September 6, 1985. This outside the plant, the ex-B&O switcher presents a pleasant shortiine, unknown to many fans, is located north of Klamath appearance. -BOB LEHMUTH Falls. -DAVID MARTIN
44 • APRIL 1986 Northwestern Steel and Wire No. 2 exemplifies one of the less common EMD switcher models ... the SWI001. The unit works at the Sterling, Ill. plant, as seen here on December 2, 1985. -JOHN LINDQUIST PHOTOI GARY POWELL COLLECTION
This small Whitcomb at the Cali fornia Railcar Repair facility in Stockton is almost dwarfed by the tank car to which it is cou pled on August 2, 1985. -DAVID MARTIN
Latest addition to the Salt Lake, Garfield and Western roster is ex-BN SW9 160, now DS7. The unit was photographed on De· cember 4, 1985. -R YA N BALLARD
PACIFIC RailNEWS • 45 COUNTING THE CARS: The annual survey of ex-Detroit and Tw in Cities cars are available) and is rapid transit and light rail car orders by Railway Age shows undergoing tests. The Sistema de Transportes Electricos a high level of activity. The undelivered backlog of cars fo r (STE) plans to order 52 of the new cars. Meanwhile, the 1986 includes (for heavy rail) Atlanta 54, Baltimore 28, Short Circuit Bulletin reports that the fo llowing 30 PCC cars Boston 58, Chicago 154, New Yo rk 1,050, PATH (New were destroyed in the disastrous September 1985 Yo rk-New Jersey) 95, BART 150, To ronto 126 and earthquake: 2146, 2186, 2194, 2197, 2205, 2207, 2208, Washington DC 66. Undelivered light rail cars include 22 13, 22 14, 2215, 2220, 223 1, 2234, 2247, 2249, 2256, Boston 50, Pittsburgh 20, Portland 4, Sacramento 23, 2258, 2263, 2267, 2272, 2274, 2276, 2278, 2281, 2284, To ronto 52, Vancouver 14 and San Jose 50. Additionally, 2371, 2374, 2383, 2388 and 24 14. The 2100 and 2200 Detroit is awaiting 12 peoplemover cars. The magazine series came originally fr om Detroit, the 2300 and 2400 predicts that fu rther orders will develop in 1986, as fo llows: series fr om the Twin Cities ....To ronto plans to have an Dallas 100 light rail, Los Angeles 32 light rail, San Diego outside contractor rebuild a PCC car to see whether further 10 to 14 light rail, Sacramento 6 light rail and Philadelphia rebuilds are cost-effective fo r use on the proposed Spadina 28 heavy rail. In the next five years, these fu rther orders are streetcar route. likely: Los Angeles 44 to 60 light rail and 90 to 110 heavy rail; Miami 100 heavy rail, Philadelphia 70 light rail, CALIFORNIA CAPITULAT IONS: San Jose's Portland 35 light rail, Sacramento 10 light rail, San Diego downtown transit mall is going to be one of the more 15 light rail, Vancouver 30 light rail and Washington DC interesting light rail venues. The joint city-county project 200-300 heavy rail. Among major heavy railcar deliveries in will put LRVs on a loop, with cars fr om the south entering 1985 were: Atlanta 42, Chicago 112, Cleveland 45, Miami the downtown via San Carlos St., running north on Second 70, New Yo rk 94, BART 4 (prototypes), and Washington St., west on Devine St. and north again on First St. DC 74. The major light rail deliveries in 1985 were Southbound trains will use First St. all the way. There will Pittsburgh 35, Portland 19, Sacramento 3, San Diego 6 and be two lanes fo r buses and autos, a tree-shaded neutral Vancouver 100 .... Here are some more interesting ground, and a single LRT track between the neutral ground statistics, courtesy Railway Age. The costs per passenger and the sidewalk. Tr ees will line both sidewalks, too. In mile, rail vs. bus, have been computed fo r several major addition to the light rail trains, vintage trolleys will roll cities and are as fo llows: San Diego 12.0<1: rail vs. 23.9<1: bus; around the loop at fr equent intervals. Construction of the Atlanta 15.6<1: rail vs. 22.3<1: bus; Philadelphia SEPTA 17.1<1: mall has begun, with completion set fo r 1987. At least some rail vs. 29.7<1: bus; BART 17.3<1: rail vs. AC Transit 2l.l 46 • APRIL 1986 I L E TTERS I EXTRA BOARD ADS The Demoros CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING section for AUSTRALIAN RAILFAN looking fo r Amer Tell Harre Demoro that his pop has no railroad-related items. PACIFIC Rail ican and Canadian correspondents. Slides or monopoly on the Prohibition background. NEWS reserves the right to edit all copy photographs of rail systems, trolley or rapid My dad "moonlighted" (and moonshined) and to refuse any listings. Ads cannot be transit systems. Please write: Greg Holdsworth, acknowledged, nor can proof copies be C/·G Quarters, Repatriation General Hospital, fr om his job with SP by playing trombone sent. Closing date is 20th of 3rd month Hospital Rd., Concord 2139, Sydney, Australia. on Saturday nights at a speakeasy in San before issue date. Count all numbers, 269 Francisco's Sunset. In fa ct, when the fa m name and address, but not ZIP code. ily machine wasn't working, he caught the RATES: 10� a word, $4.00 minimum. Pay WANTED TO BUY- Back issues of Pacific Muni's cross-park bus line and transferred ment in advance. Inquire for discounts on News: Nos. 1-37, 34-4 1, 43-45, 47-52, 56, 57, to an L on Taraval. (Trombone case rather ads repeated 6 or more times. 65, 66, 68-78, 80·82, 86, 87, 89·92, 95·101, 104, than violin, Harre.) 106- 109, 112, 130, 135, 139, 140, 142, 144, I knew Harre's pop quite well when he OLD AND RARE original Kodak-processed 147, 148, 150, 151, 153, 156, 159, 173, lived in the City in the mid-'30s, when Kodachrome slide auction. Lots of oldies but 246-263. A.E. Roach, PO Box 7566, Washing ton DC 20044. 269-271 small groups of budding engine picture goodies! Buy and sell. Write fo r current listing. Fred Simon, S. 1427 Cedar, Spokane WA photographers would sit around his dining 99203. 268-270 SCANNERS at low prices. Programmable room table on a weekend evening, gather handhelds with search: Regency HX-2000, 20 ing details on how and where to get the "RAILWAY MILEPOSTS: British Colum· channel, includes nicad batteries, charger. best pictures, and especially where the rari bia," your traveling companion to/from EXPO $249.95. Regency HX- I OOO, 30 channel, in ties were to be found. Our whole fu ture 86. Volume I-The CPR Mainline Route, cludes nicad batteries, charger. Or, Bearcat lifestyles were fo rmed around the railroad $11.95; Volume II-The Southern Routes, BC- I OO, 16 channel with adapter/charger. lore doled out to us by Ralph Demoro. $14.95 postpaid (US$ to U.S. and overseas). $199.95. SSAE fo r list. Knox Railscan, W. 324 We knew the shrug of the shoulders from More than railfan guides. More than rail route Washington, Rathdrum ID 83858. 269 Harre's pop; it answered many a prying histories. Illustrated brochures on request. Rail· way Milepost Books, Box 593, Station A, BURLINGTON NORTHERN diesel locomo question. My dad had the native American Vancouver BC V6C 2N3, Canada. 269-270 tive roster. The most up-to-date, most detailed German cold stare which greeted such and only available. Lists each locomotive sepa· aberrations as two-day trips to an obscure OUT -OF-PRINT RAILROAD BOOKS, rately by number with place of assignment, logging railroad. That to him was "damned Poor's Manuals, Annual Reports, and Official model, builder, date built, horsepower, and fo olishness" and a waste of money. He Guides fo r sale. Please send $1 fo r 40-page cata weight. $5 ppd. Fred Simon, S. 1427 Cedar, never spoke of his years on the Ocean log. Want lists welcome. Book collections Spokane WA 99203. 268·270 Shore Railroad and he never mentioned bought. The Baggage Car, 128 Lake Drive East, anything good about the SP while he Wayne NJ 07470, (20 1) 694-6749. 267-272 RAILROAD BOOKS at discount. Also some worked there. After retirement it was videos. Check our low prices. Send LSSAE fo r list. Railroad Equipment, Dept. P, 725 Fuller another scene entirely and he was fu ll of NEW 35MM SLIDE SETS. High quality ton Dr., Tu rlock CA 95380. 269-270 sentiment and nostalgia about his rail roster and scenic action slides. Great fo r the modeler & collector. Over 60 diff. sets; ATSF, career. DRGW, MKT, RI, KCS, SP, MP, UP, BN, EXOTIC DUPLICATE slide sets available. So my dad did not look with favor on SOO, GBW, GT, Guilford, CR, Zep/iYlj Short Alco/MLW action and roster in Vermont (20 engine picture collecting or those who lines, 4449, 8444, 3985, J611, 614-T, trolleys, slides, $8); China steam (10 slides, $4), Hong indulged in it. Other fr iends had the same cabooses, CellCenlliais, and more. 20 slides $8. Kong double-decker streetcars (5 slides, $2), problem at home. We naturally turned to Catalog, samples available. Bledsoe Rail Slides, Dave's Slides, P.O. Box 785, Delaware OH Harre's pop fo r a sympathetic ear and a Box 377, Crowley, TX 76036. 266-277 43015. 268-270 helping hand with the hobby. He started off a number of fans on (so far) 50-year RAILROAD RADIO SCANNERS. Car WA NTED-Back issues of CTC Board. I careers as railfans, and they include expert mobile and hand held-Bearcat and Regency. through 37, 44 (2/79), 50 (8/79), 51 (9/79), 54 Several crystal and programmable models in (12/79), 55 (1/80), 56 (2/80), 57 (3/80), 60 (6/80), photographers, authors, consultants, lead stock fr om $119.95 to $299.95. Crystals fo r 62 (8/80), 65 (11/80), 88 (10/82), 94 (4/83), 95 ers In the movement, and apparently a most Western railroads in stock at $5.95 each. (5/83), 103 (3/84). A.E. Roach, P.O. Box 7566, couple of journalists-Harre and Kristin. Stop in or write fo r your railroad radio needs. Washington DC 20044. 268-269 -TED WURM Iron Horse Hobbies, 3529 Clayton Rd., Con cord CA 94519. 267tf RAILROAD BOOKS including old and out of-print books. Send SSAE fo r list. Chatham Publishing Co., P.O. Box 283, Burlingame CA VLA Corrections THE CORNFIELD MEET, April 20, 1986, There are errors in three of the captions 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Rosebowl Pavilion, 700 940 10. 268-269 Seco St. in Pasadena, Calif. Featuring a spec errors which I failed to notice and correct tacular selection of railroadiana presented REPRESENTATION · DISTRIBUTION during my last review of the draft-in my by America's fo remost collectors and dealers. RICHARD EGEN article, "Very Wide Railroading at the Very General admission $3; exhibit tables from Railroadiana Books and Gifts Large Array" (PRN 266). In two captions $17.50. SSAE fo r details: Possum Belly P.O. Box 3268 Long Beach CA 90803 on page 24, I used "antennae" rather than Caboose, Box 1285, Glendora CA 91730. (8 18) 253-276 "antennas" as a plural. Bugs have anten 963-8845. 265-270 nae, but the VLA has antennas. The name SLIDE SHOOTERS: Do you have top-quality of the contractor in the top photo on page RAILROAD PINS, patches, caps, work original Kodak-processd Kodachromes to sell or 25 should be William A. Smith Construc clothes and more. Send $1.00 fo r our complete trade of Santa Fe cowl units? I'm looking fo r fr ont-uncoupled, early a.m.-late p.m. roster tion Co. -JOSEPH P. HEREFORD, JR. catalog (refundable with purchase) to: Rolling Stock, Dept. P, 7523 Benton St., Arvada CO shots ofcertain AT&SF F45, FP45 and SDP40F 80003. 269 units as well as good action shots of all units, any location. Have publication-quality original Kodachromes to trade or will pay top dollar. Extra Board Classified Ads Get RESU LTS David R. Busse, 21368 Broken Arrow Dr., Diamond Bar CA 91765. 265 tf