Steam & Excursion > A Sunday Excursion Brings Out The Entire Roster And Even More!

One of the great aspects of the Sunday railfan trips in the early years of the hobby when Steam still ruled the railroads was the "pull out all stops" attitude of the host railroads.  This usually meant that the entire roster of steam motive power was pulled out so the railfans could photograph all the railroad had to offer.  Sometimes, as this photo shows, the entire motive power roster was put on the excursion train itself.

The date is April 2, 1939 and a large group of Bay Area railfans has come to visit the little Bay Point & Clayton Railroad of Cowell, California.  This little 8.2 mile railroad boasted only 2 standard gauge locomotives over it's entire lifespan.  Both were steamed up and run for the visiting railfans on this sunny Spring day.  The lone passenger coach of the BP&C was included int the train along with some Sacramento Northern interurban cars that were brought along by the railfans.

In this fine L. L. Bonney photo we see Cowell Portland Cement Co. #1 and her sister engine, BP&S #2 ready to depart with the railfan special for the end of the line at Clayton.  Both engines were thuroughly polished and freshly lettered as was the practice of most railroads hosting one of these early railfan events.

Such was the early days of railfan excursions.

Martin



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/16 14:37 by LoggerHogger.

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Martin, your subject matter just keeps getting rarer and rarer, neat shot of an almost unknown operation.

Out

Martin, do you have any more photos of the BP&C that you can post?

As requested, here are a couple more BP&C photos.  I have many more and will post those from time to time in the future.

This a favorite line of mine.  I have the builder's plate off BP&C #2 and the oil burning headlight off her as well.  They had converted her to electric headligts by the time of this excursion.

Martin

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That combine looks a little.......................bent.....

Great photos, not many traces left of this little railroad anymore.