Nostalgia & History > When UP Inherited the West Valley Beets

The fall sugar beet campaign of Klamath Basin beets shipped to Northern California sugar processing plants via SP's old West Valley line(by then operated by California Northern) had become an annual tradition in the final years of the railroad's independence. The UP merger in '96 brought few changes--mainly just more frequent appearances by UP power. The demise of the trains a few years later was not the result of any traffic department decisions in Omaha but in changes in the economics of the sugar industry.

Three photos taken during that transition period in the fall of '97(these are CFNR trains with UP/SP run through power):
--UP3626 leads an SP motor and loaded beets south through Williams bound for Spreckles Sugar in Woodland, CA.
--That same train is seen two hours earlier and 60 miles north just moments after the CFNR crew took over from UP in Tehama.
--The motive power transition is complete(at least on this train--SP power still remained common) as three UP SD40-2's accelerate beet loads south between Tehama and Richfield.

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Great series as well as images..thanks for sharing.

Mike

Nice shots Shed! I really miss seeing the old wooden beet racks on the coast line. It was quite an aural and visual show to witness two sets of SD's in full dynamics descending Cuesta grade in clouds of brake smoke.......ah the good old days!!!

Kent