CJX MARCH,1977 $1.00 ALSO In THIS ISSUE: THE ROYAL HUDson HEADS SOUTH, A mOPAe ROSTER SUmMARY AnD mORE. ,_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_1_._._1_1_1_._. ! NEVER MISS ANOTHER PHOTOGRAPH! I i DON'T EVER MISS ANOTHER RAILROAD EVENT; I I LISTEN ON YOUR OWN SCANNER : : Railroad Radio Scanning At Its Very I Best i • I I -,, ,-, EARCAT® RADIOS • ,__ B I I I "_, � ,/<'- -JIll, I - I: E 1-"0 -(�1 I The Bearcaf® Hand-Held Is B ARCAT I the ideal portable scanner for HAND-HELD � - access to public service and all � I railroad broadcasts. Four frequ"ncies can I be monitored at a time, using crystals, with � . an eight channel/second scan rate. Light ill� I I emitting diodes show channels monitored. �.� , • - I Fou��£R!�'�te'?!tf�l!,:$J��;.�g$4. -; I The Wh ole Worlo OPTIONAL ITEMS FOR SCANNERS Of Scanning Af Your ;� HAND HELD: Battery charger, AC adaptor, $8.95 each. I_ I The model� 210 is a Fingertips. ���i �: Flexible rubber antenna, $7.50. Crystal certificates, $4.00. sophisticated scanning instrument with! �!I! 1 BEARCAT MODEL Mobile power supply kit, $29.95. 1 101: frequency versatility as well as the operational I - I_ ease that you've been dreaming about. Imagine selecting from all of the public service bands, local service frequencies and railroad Most scanning monitors use a frequencies by simply pushing a few buttons. You can forget both specific crystal to receive each I I ...rystals and programming forever. Pick the ten frequencies you frequency. The 101 does not. It want to scan and punch the numbers in on the keyboard. The large is "synthesized." With the 101 a custom integrated circuit can I I decimal display reads out each frequency you've selected. You can - change any frequency at any time, search automatically for any be programmed for up to 16 unknown frequency, or even skip frequencies not of interest. Only frequencies by the user ... th is I I 8earcat's vast experience in scanner technology combined with its Is a capability requiring over expertise in the design and application of solid state circuitry could 6000 crystals to duplicate. The have advanced scanning to this state of the art. Fully mobile, the programming is easy, you need I I 210 operates easily at home or In your car without any adaptors. only to refer to the manual for • NEW ON THE MARKET AND READY TO USE Instructions on any frequency. SPECIAL: $279.00 I $349.95 CHATHA M PUBLISHING CO MPANY I I 1012 OAK GROVE AVENUE (POST OFFICE BOX 283) I BURLINGA ME, CALIFORNIA 94010 U.S.A. i- ! I RadiosBEARCATTING are shipped via United Parcel Service; street address PUTS required. California residentsYOU must add stateTHERE sales tax to their order. i_ - • Prices subject to change without notice. Availability of 210 model may be sU.bject to slight delay. • • _I_I-I-I_I_I_I_I_I_I_I_._._I_I_I_._I-'-'-'-'-'� I 2 MARCH,1977 Pacific No. 185 lie MARCH, 1977 s VOLUME 17 NO. 3 KARL R. KOENIG • EDITOR HARRE W.DEMORO ............ EDITORIAL STAFF TOM GRAy ................. PRODUCTION STAFF • • • HAROLD C.KOENIG ........... EDITORIAL STAFF Inside Chatham DANIEL B. KUHN ............ PRODUCTION STAFF I usually wish that I could begin these paragraphs "Good Evening, JOHN PARSON .................... OFFICE STAFF Reader" - the typewriter used for this part of PACI FIC NEWS seems D.S.RICHTER ................. EDITORIAL STAFF to only work at night- for what we are really after is frequently more of GARY VIELBAUM .............. STAFF LI BRARIAN an impossible fireside chat on a one-to-one basis than a monthly magazine column. The magazine's real columnists are those dedicated Kenneth M. Ardinger .........•..•........ Contributing Staff reporters who regularly write on their favorite western railroads: you'll Edward M. Berntsen .........•............ Contributing Staff find the four pages of this month's columns beginning on page 14, led George R. Cockle .....•.........•........ Contributing Staff off by a new, but temporary, eastern report with western flavor. Doug E. Cummings ...•.................. Contributing Staff Harre W. Demoro is on leave from his usual job across San Francisco Tom Eikerenkotter ....•..•......•........ Contributing Staff Robert L. Hogan .............•..•...•.... Contributing Staff Bay from here - none of the columnists work in this office, their Don Jewell .........................•.... Contributing Staff reports are delivered by the US Mails - on a half-year special task in Joe McMillan ................•........... Contributing Staff Washington, D.C. The result, which will end when Harre returns to Ken Meeker ........................•.... Contributing Staff once again meet western railroading head-on, is Out East. There is a lot Peter J.Replinger ........................ Contributing Staff of west in the east, as you'll be hearing about for the next several Virgil C. Staff .............•..•......•.... Contributing Staff months. No doubt this means PACIFIC NEWS has a Washington F. Hoi Wagner, Jr.. ....................... Contributing Staff J. Harlen Wilson .............•......•.... Contributing Staff Correspondent. No doubt a Southern Pacific SD45T-2 will soon show up there to make him feel at home. Pooled motive power, by the way, may prove to boost local locomotive interest for our readers everywhere, but pity the traveler as ©Contents Copyright 1977 summer approaches. We are frequently. informed when foreign-road qx locomotives wander through California, but feel sorry a bit for the ALL RIGHTS RESERVED photographer who recently reported managing to convince the family to make a brief stop adjacent to the Southern Pacific's main line in IN THIS MONTH'S PACIFIC NEWS Nevada on the Overland Route to take pictures. A resident of Idaho, the WHITE PASS AND YUKON ROUTE . ............. 6 allotted train-watching time resulted in westbound tonnage behind OUT EAST . .... .. ....... ... .. ..... ...... .. 14 Union Pacific SD40's. Interrupting the family vacation a short time WESTERN LOCOMOTIVE NEWS/AMTRAK ....... 15 later in response to a..-ed signal- this action takes place where Western UNION PACIFIC/BURLINGTON NORTHERN . .... 16 BC'S ROYAL HUDSON VISITS US ... .... ...... Pacific and Southern Pacific jointly share their trackage to create a 18 ESPEE RELOCATES MAIN LINE IN OREGON . .. 21 double-tracked main line - the WP rumbled past his camera with, you MISSOURI PACIFIC MOTIVE POWER ... ..... .. 22 guessed it, more Armour Yellow SD40's. Another reader, who flew to CAMERA CAR PHOTO SECTION .... ...... ... 24 California from North Carolina to visit relatives in Stockton reports SHORT STUFF ....... ...................... .. 29 taking his one and only look at Western Pacific's main shops there and NEWS PHOTOS ... ... ........................ 30 finding, as the only road power on hand to photograph, Burlington EXCURSIONS/CLASSIFIED ...... ............... 34 Northern locomotives. Western enthusiasts going east, of course, report BOOK REVIEWS/LETTERS . .. ...... .... .. 35 Southern Pacific power virtually everywhere. The moral, if any, seems to be that run-through motive power is appreciated more by natives SUBSCRIPTIONS BY DIRECT MAIL than visitors. Union Pacific, Western Pacific, Baltimore and Ohio, In United States, Canada and Mexico: $10.00 for one Penn Central, Norfolk and Western, and doubtless some others, have year, $18.00 for two years. Single copies $1.00. Foreign: all sent motive power west to wander past our office here in Burlingame $11.00 per year. Foreign - only - First Class and Air at one time or another in recent years, where Soutmrn Pacific Mall rates are available upon a specific written request. maintains the only railroad track between the Bay waters on the east CHATHAM PUBLISHING COMPANY and the Pacific Ocean on the west. We are waiting for our first look at a Post Office Box 283, Burlingame, California 94010 USA Conrail locomotive in Burlingame, but no doubt a visitor from New • York would rather see Southern Pacific. One unsuspecting, and NEWS PHOTOGRAPHS ARE PAID FOR UPON PUBLICATION vacationing, eastern enthusiast stopped at trackside south of here in PACIFIC NEWS is published monthly by the Chatham Publishing Menlo Park recently and not being a regular PACIFIC NEWS reader Company. 1012 Oak Grove Avenue. Burlingame. California 94010. (415) 348-0331. Printed in the U.S.A. Second Class postage paid at was totally surprised by the Royal Hudson on its way to San Jose. He's Burlingame. California 94010. PACIFIC NEWS assumes no responsibility for the safe return of editorial or advertising material. Acceptable a subscriber now, and that was one off-line locomotive that no one photographs are filed for potential future publication and are paid objected to, anywhere! -Karl R. Koenig for upon use. Advertising rates are available on request for rate card . • CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Post office does not regularly forward 2nd Class COVER: Three-foot-gauge White Pass and Yukon 110 awaits a Mail and PACIFIC NEWS will not replace copies not forwarded and southbound departure for Skagway with the mixed at Whitehorse destroyed by the post office - replacement copies, and post office notification charges will be billed. Please allow PACIFIC NEWS at least alongside the Yukon River. (C. G. Heimerdinger, Jr.) four weeks for al/ address changes. PACIFIC NEWS 3 IlEAn FREIGHT CARS CREATEEXCESSIVE RAI. WEAR trackage on the Overland Route. Research is being conducted at the Pueblo Due to excessive rail wear, Union Pacific has Acording to the Union Pacific, the life of Test Center of the Department of discontinued loading 125-ton capacity freight tangent track under normal conditions should Transportation on their FAST test track . cars above the 100-ton mark to haul soda ash be up to 700 million gross tons; but with higher (PACIFIC NEWS, February, 1977) where products out of the FMC Corporation facility capacity cars, track life has been reduced to only excessive wear has been experienced on rail west of Green River at Westvaco, Wyoming. about 35 million gross tons. This was which has only carried about 30 million gross The railroad began using the larger capacity cars determined after the Union Pacific conducted a tons in trains consisting of cars with capacities in this service in 1965 to improve the economics series of tests on their mainline between up to 100 tons each.