2 BOOKS ON CAJON PASS! -------- ALSO --........ Chard Walker's MODELING By Pete Youngblood ©ffit!!](ID[ID RAIL PASSAGE TO THE PACIFIC Whether you're a beginner or a ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO they drove steel across veteran modeler, this new book is I Cajon Pass, creating that legendary rail passage ro the for you! Cajon Pass ... Sullivan's . 1 Pacific that is roday's mighty artery of commerce. ,� 1 __ _ Curve ... Summit ... double track There's a story there-and Chard Walker is the one man and sidings-it can all be yours and w.ho tells it superbly. He was the operaror at Summit, where Pete Youngblood tells how to do it the Santa Fe and Union Pacific turned the helpers, where passed endless fleets of troop trains in wartime and with layouts tied to prototype maps, streamliners full of vacationers in peace. Where the tonnage HO scale plans for buildings, signals, Lc.�.. rolled day and night-and where there was a little ex­ stations- the works! Prototype and , funeral streetcar named Descanso which became the spiritual home of a generation of railfans. model photos galore! Buy both : This is THE railbook of or any other year. It will make books for an even better picture of /7;;,;n,uml':;;;'ankrJ?t'I"I[' ':. 1985 you srand in awe of Cajon and the Santa Fe, UP and SP the railroad wonder that is Cajon! • railroaders who work there. And it is the showcase for such rail photographers as Kistler, Hotchkiss, Peterson, Glattenberg, Steinheimer, Sims, Whitmeyer, the author 72 pages, 1,20 photos and and-yes-Herb Sullivan who took rhe photo below and plans, softbound 8'/zx11". had a Cajon named after him. ISBN 87046-073-0. (Trans-Anglo No. 273) . $9.95 256 pages, 350 + photos including (Add .85 p/h: Californians add 6% sales section, maps and artwork by John fax; 6'12% LA Co.) timetables, appendix. Hardbound Howard Fogg color jacket, 8'/zx11" . 87046-072-Z. (Trans-Anglo No. 272) .. Qty. Title Price Subtotal Postage/hdl 6% Tax (Calif. only) TOTAL D Check enclosed D Charge credit card NAME STREE T CITY STATE ZIP Charge to: D Visa D MasterCard Exp. date CREDIT CARD NUMBER SIGNATURE February 1988 No. 291 PACIFIC RAILNElrlS and PACIFIC NEWS are . registered trademarks of Interurban Press, a Sacramento Light Rail.... .........Mac Sebree 16 California Corporation. The second portion opened, but patronage has been light PUBLISHER: Mac Sebree Rocky's Des ert Main Line . ......... ..Bruce Kelly 18 EDITOR: Jim Walker BN's First Subdivision across the Columbia Plateau NEWS EDITOR: Dick Stephenson ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Mike Schafer ART PRODUCTION: Mark Danneman Spokane, Portland & Seattle Class E-l PRODUCTION MANAGER: Ray Geyer CONTRIBUTING ARTIST: John Signor 4-8-4 No. 700 debuts ....... .....Kenneth G. Johnsen 28 STAFF: She was the star of Portland Rail Fair '87 Michael W. Blaszak, David R. Busse, P. Allen Copeland, Harre W. Demoro, R.C. Farewell, Departments: Thomas Higgins, Herb Horton, Don Jewell, Ken Meeker, Steve Morgan, Brian Norden, Rail News .. .. .... .......4 Mexico ...... .. ....37 Clifford Prather, Karl Rasmussen, John A. Letters ... ... .......... .. Shortlines . ..... .... 37 Rushton, Jim Seal, Joe Strapac, Charles Ver­ 6 celli. Call Board ... .... ...... ..6 Transit PIIC/F/C RAILNEII'S (UPPS 862840) is pub­ Expedited News ... ..... ..7 Portland ........... ...38 lished monthly by Interurban Press (a corpora­ Railroads San Francisco . ... .....38 tion), 1212 South Brand Blvd., Glendale, CA 91204. Second-class postage paid at Glendale, SP . ... ... .............8 Preservation .............39 CA 91209 and additional offices. POSTMAS­ AMTK . .. ..... .... 10 Out West .......... .. ..40 TER: Send address changes to: PACIfiC .. ... ... ............ RAILNEWS, P. O. Box 6128, Glendale, CA D&RGW . .. .. 12 Books/videos 40 91205. ISSN 8750-8486. SOO ............. .... 13 Photo Focus .. ....... ...42 CORRESPONDENCE: Please use P.O. Box C&NW . ........ .... 14 From the Past . .........43 6128, Glendale, CA 91205 for ALL correspon­ BN ................... Photo Stop .............. dence. UPS deliveries only to 115-C E. Palmer 32 44 Av e., Glendale, CA 91205. UP ...................33 Interurbans Newsletter . ...46 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $27 (U.S.) for 12 AT&SF ..... .........35 Extra Board Ads . ... .....47 issues, $49 for 24 issues. Foreign add $4 for Rail Canada West ......36 each 12 issues. Single copy $2.75 (subject to change without notice). First-class/air rates COVER: Combined Burlington Northern trains 195/1 03 rail down the 0.8 percent hill between available on request. Bluestem and Harrington, Wash., on June 20, 1986, an the First Subdivision of BN's Pacific Division. CHANGE OF ADDRESS: The Post Office BN GP50s 3142 and 3130, B30-7A 4050 and SP Tunnel Motor 9219 are leading this heavy does not regularly forward 2nd Class Mail and westbound past the talking defect detector at milepost 1524.6 in double-track ABS (Automatic Block PACIFIC RAILN£lfIS is not responsible for Signal) territory. -BRUCE KELLY copies not forwarded or destroyed by the Post Office. Replacement copies/PO notifications will be billed. Please allow us at least four weeks for any address changes. A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR ADVERTISING RATES: On request, or call oo much of a good thing, like something to eat or listen to, is (818) 240-4777. T often our problem when we open packages. Articles and photographs for the magazine are Yes, some slide subjects, composition and exposures are welcome. When submitting material for con­ excellent, sideration, include return envelope and post­ but chances are we'll only use one view-not because the others age if you wish it returned. PACIFIC aren't swell, but because out of an average of 500 slides on hand, we RAILNEI17S does not assume responsibility for can only use a dozen or so in each issue. the safe return of material. Payment is made upon publication. What is the message? Please be selective and send us only a few slides. pick out the best ones-if we have to sort through or © 1988 INTERURBAN PRESS You 10 Mac Sebree, President 20 we're more likely to send all of them back. Jim Walker, Vice-President Be sure to fully identify what's going on, and be sure to put your name and address on each slide. Please enclose a stamped, self­ addressed return envelope. -JIM WALKER PACIFIC RailNEWS • 3 DA-J- Ridin' high and lookin' pretty, a pair of glistening new Union Pacific Dash 8 40C's, 9102 and 91 10, and SD40-2 mate breeze along the Caliente Subdivision (former Los Angeles & Salt Lake) near East Garnet, Nev., on Dec. 11, 1987. The big new GEs delivered late in 1987 are rated at 4000 h.p. with a maximum speed of 70 mph. -MARK P WAYMAN SP Labor Problems Tra ffic Diverted Napa Valley in San Luis Obispo In the meantime, the decision to divert traffic off the Coast route has cost a num­ Wine Train ber of other rail employees their jobs. Struggles To Begin Many affected by the downgrading of the Labor Problems in San Luis Obispo line were long-time residents of San Luis UTU sources brought to our attention an Obispo. Though their seniority may be The Napa Valley Wine Train has nearly error in our report in PRN 288, p. 6, exercised at other locations, many were completed a $1.7 million renovation of regarding the SP crew fired in conjunc­ very unhappy at the prospect of leaving 21 miles of track between the cities of tion with the tunnel fire near Serrano in the area they considered home. To them, Napa and St. Helena and soon will begin May 1987. While the crew was dismissed, things such as home ownership and the regular freight service prior to the start of and has not as yet been reinstated, they schools their children attended were im­ passenger operations in early 1988. did report the fire, but there was a delay portant considerations. Their protests to "We've taken great pains to make our of some two and a half hours before the company management in San Francisco tracks as smooth as Napa Valley's finest railroad notified the California Division went unheeded. wines," said Wine Train president Jack of Forestry of the fire. By that time the Currently, only Amtrak's Coasl Slar­ McCormack. Because the Wine Train blaze was more serious. The line was lighl and the unit sugar beet train for will run on track that has been part of closed for 13 days. Union Sugar's Betteravia plant run Napa Valley's history for more than 118 After an investigation, the six crew through San Luis Obispo. This arrange­ years, much of the line required extensive members were fired for non-compliance ment could change in the future. An­ repair, he added. with Rule 617, which in part states, "If other, more drastic, possibility is that the McCormack compared the assignment there is any danger of fire spreading to a line could be considered for sell-off (as to rummaging through a Napa history bridge or other structure, trains must be had been rumored if the proposed Santa book. "We found rail from the 1800s and stopped and members of the crew must Fe-Southern Pacific merger had been ap­ nails stamped with dates from the 1930s assist in extinguishing the fire." The crew proved). and 1940s." A collection of items found members have appealed the firing deci­ (Dick Slephenson, R. M. Sievers, San during the renovation will be placed on sIOn. Luis Obispo TELEGRAM-TRIBUNE) display in the community. 4 • FEBRUARY 1988 While much of the focus was on the track, safety along the route was up­ graded with the restoration of crossing gates, and a growing fire hazard was eliminated by Wine Train crews, by cut­ ting back overgrown brush which had gone untended for years.