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 . ........ .40 . PacIfic RailNews (USPS 862840) is published Rail News .. Book Reviews .... .. .. ..... 4 monthly by Interurban Press (a corporation), Call Board . ... From the Past .... ...... 43 ... .. .... .. .7 1212 South Brand Blvd., Glendale CA 91204. Railroads . ..... ... Photo Stop ... .... ..... ...44 ...... Second·class postage paid at Glendale CA 91209. 22 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Transit . Interurbans Newsletter . .... .. .... ......35 ....46 Pacific RailNews, P.O. Box 6128, Glendale CA Out West . .. ...... .. .... 38 Letters .. .. .. .. ..... .. .. 47 91205. ISSN 87 50 ·8486. Preservation . ... ........ Extra Board Classified Ads ..47 39 CORRESPONDENCE: Please use P.O. Box 6128, Glendale CA 91205for ALL correspond· ence. UPS deliveries only to 11 5·C E. Palmer Av e., Glendale CA 91205. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: U.S. $2 5. 00 for 12 issues, $4 7.00 for 24 issues, $6 7.50 for 36 issues. COVER PHOTO-UP GP30 805 leads the Park City local through the curves at Peterson, Foreign $2 9.00 for 12issues, $52.00 for 24 issues, Utah, on January 9, 1986. -D. B. HARROP $7 9.50 for 36 issues. First class/air rates on request. Single copy $2. 50 (subject to change without notice). 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.