WESTERN PACIFIC Jl!J.1!P!?its OPERATION BLUE CHIP With "Operation Blue Chip" on No­ now obtainable. The balance will be vember 27 to 29, inclusive, Western used to partially r eimburse the com­ P acific placed itself on inspection by pany treasury for the cost of r ecent those interested in bidding on the improvements and thus to provide forthcoming bond issue. treasury funds for the additional An eleven- car train, th e "Blue Chip C.T. C., h eavy rail, new freight cars, Special," carried more than forty lead­ etc., on which the prosperity of the Vol. II , No.5 DECEMBER, 1950 Milepost No. 17 ing insurance company executives and road and its employees depends. investment bankers, most of them All departments cooperated to in­ Department of Public Relations from Eastern cities, over the entire sure that Operation Blue Chip went WESTERN PACIFIC RAILROAD main line, accompanied by President smoothly and space does not permit SACRAMENTO NORTHERN RAILWAY TIDEWATER SOUTHERN RAILWAY Whitman and a dozen or so oth er WP mention of all who helped to make it 526 Mission Street, San Francisco 5 officials as hosts. On the first day the successful. The dining car department, Lee " Flash " Sherwood, Editor Arthur Lloyd, Jr., Associate Editor special ran from Salt Lake City to however, did itself proud and its Roast Member American Railway Magazine Ed itors' A ssociation Keddie, tying up there for the night. F eather River Bear (meat by courtesy The following day was marked by a of the Plumas County Chamber of INDEX trip up the North ern Califor nia Exten­ Commerce) was a r eal thrill to the Page sion and then down the Feath er River Easterners. The diner was in charge of Canyon, the train tying up at Oroville, steward Mike Zellin. Operation Blue Chip 3, 4 where a "question and answer" meet­ The lounge car and vista- dome car H arold Michael McKenna 4 ing on the bonds was h eld in the sta­ on the rear end of the train were It Can Happen H er e . 5 tion in the evening. On the third and equipped with a sound system, over Up the Ladder 6, 7, 8 last day the party inspected th e Sacra­ which descriptions of industries being Other Personnel Changes Announced 9, 10 mento Shops and, on arrival at Oak­ passed were given, radio news re­ land, was transferr ed to two glass top ceived, and r ecords played. This was Mileposts in Gold 10 vista -dome buses for a trip around WP installed and opera ted by Dick Czeiko­ Teachers Visit Railroads. 11 installations and then to the visitors' witz. Mention should also be made of California Sunshine 12,13 hotels. A cocktail party and buffet P . F . Prentiss, now Oroville trainmas­ WP Will Remember . 13 supper given by the Directors that ter, who picked up a passenger arriv­ In Memoriam 13 evening officially ended the tour. ing one day late on th e California The financial men expressed them­ Zephyr long before dawn at Doyle and Old-Timers Bid F arewell 14-18 selves as extrem ely well impressed motored him to catch the Blue Chip T eletype Network Expanded 18 with the condition and prospects of our Special at Westwood- incidentally th e Caboosing 19- 31,33 railroad. The importance of this satis­ first WP passenger to board a train at That's a Good Question! 32 faction to everyone on the road can that point. Sports 34,35 be realized when the scope and pur­ On D ecember 1, P resident Whitman pose of the $22 million First and Re­ addressed the following letter to offi­ CORRESPONDENTS : Bill McGrath, Chicago; Nevada Michelson, Elko; E lsie Haggen, Keddie ; funding Mortgage bond issue is under­ cers of the company: Robert Munce Jr., Los Angeles; Hazel Petersen, O akland; Helen Small, Oroville ; Phyllis Rockwell, stood. Sixteen million, one hundred "Will you please express to all of Portola; Jim Kenney, Sacramento; Madge Slaughtner, Sacramento Shops ; I rene Burton, Sacramento Store; Jimmy Collins, Bob Gonsalves, Salt Lake City; Rita Connolly. Molly Fagan, Lawrence Gerring, and thirty-three thousand dollars will those in your departm ent wh o h elped Maurice N otter, Carl Rath, D udley Thickens, San Francisco; Chas. H. Myers, San Jose; Gene Trace, Stockton; Dora Monroe, Tidewater Southern ; Shirley Lee. W endover. be used to retire existing bonds which make "Operation Blue Chip" su ch an pay a higher rate of interest than that outstanding success, my great appreci- 2 MILEPOSTS MILEPOSTS 3 HAROLD MICHAEL McKENNA The Korean war struck close to (The follow in!; article appeare? in the October 23 fines levied for overloading are very home again when notice was received issue of California Feature SerVIce.) often ridiculously low and . .. have not that Private First Class Harold Mi­ Good news it was for California put much of a damper on violations." chael McKenna, 18-year-old stepson motorists last week when the State D e­ California's motorists don't need a of Gilbert R. Patterson, fireman, and partment of Public Works announced son of Mrs. Elizabeth Patterson of testing experiment to prove that their plans for spending 115 million dollars highways are being pounded to pieces Portola gave his life in action against on highway construction and repair the enemy at Inchon, Korea, on Sep­ by trucking law violators. The evidence beginning next July 1. That much is on every highway in the State. Un­ tember 16, 1950. money should do a lot toward making Young Harold enlisted in the Marine less the public demands and insists our highways, which have deteriorated on law - enforced correction of these Corps July 26, 1949, and after receiv­ rapidly of late years, safer and more . ing his basic training in San Diego was abuses, expenditure of that 115 million pleasurable for the motoring public . on highways will be tax money wasted. stationed at Alameda until July 14, However, some highway news last 1950, when he left for Korea. Harold McKenna week from the State of Maryland may As a little added stimulant to yOUl" Born February 1, 1932, at Leadville, well serve as a warning to Californians thinking, may we add these final wOl"ds, brother, Earl McKenna, is living in Colorado, he received his elementary that expenditure of money cannot of taken from a columnist writing fOl" a Denver, Colorado. and high school education there be­ itself assure better highways and Berkeley, California, newspapel": fore coming to Portola. Just two days before Harold lost his country roads. "It is good to breathe the invigorat­ One brother, Charles McKenna, life as a result of a fragment wound, For more than four months, a one­ ing Berkeley air again ... and to get lives in Butte, Montana, and a second he wrote his last letter to his parents, mile stretch of standard-construction back at ye 01' desk . .. which is being reprinted below with highway there.has been closed to ordi­ "Seems we have been away a month, ation for their loyal and helpful efforts. their kind permission: nary traffic. Day and night, during that rather than just a little more than a "I am sure that most of them are "Dear Mother and Dad: time, eight trucks of varying weights week. .. With 2,985 miles on the speed­ aware of the fine compliments we had By the time you receive this letter have been grinding back and forth ometer of the '51 Packard, most of it on such matters as the meals, handling we will have already made an am­ along individual sections of the pave- . rolled up in other states, we thought of the train, the skill in answering phibious landing on Korea. I hope that ment. The purpose of the experiment, when we hit California pavement at questions and giving information, etc., this landing will mean the end of the financed by the U. S. Bureau of Public Needles we would never, never again but if it had not been for the combined war . I am not certain that I will Roads and ten cooperating States, was gripe at this State's excellent highway teamwork of all of the people in the be home for Christmas, but I am quite to determine to what extent heavy and various departments, we would not systell1 ... But by the time we had sure that the war will be over. overloaded trucks damage public have had such a favorable impression reached Oakland we had come to the We are going to land close to the capi­ highways. created of the Western Pacific organ­ conclusion the State is maintaining the tal of South Korea and the strongpoint The result? The public of Maryland ization. Many people told me that they highways for the trucks, not the car of the enemy. I know that this will already is in a state of alarm over the had never seen a trip so well handled drivers... At no place between here be a great success. incredible disintegration of the test and had never seen a group of indi­ and Detroit, Mich., did we hit the truck Somehow, I am not a bit worried, pavement. "It is bulging and cracking," v iduals who were more alert and traffic that jams California highways. as both the Catholics and Protestants cries the Baltimore Evening Sun, in an aggressive and well infor med as our had services tonight a nd I went to ours, editorial demanding r igid enforcement ... Stinking trucks, trucks that throw group. and we are going to have mass to­ of truck-weight laws.