Nostalgia & History > Necrophoaming the SN #12

SN 12

Molena to Creed.

Not too exciting, but then again- a true necrophoamer is easily thrilled.

Photo 1. Apx MP 52.25, the bridge just east of Molena. Note the PG&E steam plume back near Mallard.

Photo 2. Apx MP 53.25, still moving RR east, but looking RR west. Again, you can still see that plume.

Photo 3. Apx MP 54. The Western Railway Museum has been busy restoring both track and catenary, and I think they've gotten to about here.

Photo 4. Apx MP 54.25 Looking towards Sacramento. (I think)

Photo 5. MP 60.78. Creed. We're over the former junction at Creed. To the left is Sacramento, and San Francisco is to the right.
The line that runs under us was the branch to Vacaville- until Travis Air base came along during WWII. The connection had to be moved east to Dozier, about 4mi, so as to pass around the new air base runway.

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Great stuff as usual !
Tom

>Photo 3. Apx MP 54. The Western Railway Museum has been busy restoring both track and catenary, and I think they've gotten to about here.

The wires stop at Birds Landing Rd, which is just east of the trestle in pic 1.

Pic 3 location as it looks today. Well, as it looked in 2003, since then the barn in the background blew down.

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Creed (MP 60.78) Site of a former Sacramento Northern Railway wye (1929-1946). This wye and its
connection to the Southern Pacific Railroad was relocated to Dozier during World War II to allow expansion of
nearby Travis Army Airfield (now Travis Air Force Base). A 3523’ siding was adjacent to the wye.

KRK

Creed [wye] was the connection to Vacaville Jct. No connection to the SP existed until about 1961, when the Lisbon Trestle was severed by the deep water ship channel and the SN got trackage rights from Sac to Cannon.

EtoinShrdlu Wrote:
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> Creed was the connection to Vacaville Jct. No
> connection to the SP existed until about 1961,
> when the Lisbon Trestle was severed by the deep
> water ship channel and the SN got trackage rights
> from Sac to Cannon.

Well, then you better get your boys at RVJ squared away, because I got my quote "verbatum" word for word, from THEM !! What say thou ?

KRK

I have this to say: a bunch of us, including you, had quite a discussion about this last year or the year before because of all the wyes involved (four or five of them). The chain of events re Creed/Cordero/Dozier/Cannon is: the V&N (a NERy subsidiary) built the line between Vacaville and Willota, the intent being to run through Jameson Canyon (parallel to the Cal-P) to connect with the Napa Valley Route near Napa Jct. This never came to pass, and this segment remained isolated until after the NE-SN merger of 1929, when a connection was built from Creed to Vacaville Jct via Cordero in mid 1930 (no mention of Cannon in ETT #21 of 11/1/1940). During WWII, the line between Creed and Cordero was replaced by the Dozier - Cordero connection (the runway expansion at what became Travis AFB).

When Corps of Engineers was building the deepwater ship channel in the late 50s/early 60s, it had to cross the freshly rebuilt Lisbon Trestle, and the Corps wanted to avoid the cost of a drawbridge (the ferry was gone, which meant the line didn't see a lot of use anymore). According to Interurbans Special 26 of Sept, 1962: "At [this] time of writing, negotiations are . . . [underway] . . . whereby the SN will operate via trackage rights over the SP . . . permitting the abandonment of the line from Riverview to Libfarm . . . ". Riverview to Libfarm is essentially the Lisbon Trestle, and this segment of track was going to be severed by the ship channel. Out of these negotiations came the connection to the SP at Cannon and the 1/2 mile or so of track tieing into to the Dozier - Coredero line.

The folks at RVJ need to brush up on their history a little bit.

Edited to add: the 1929 merger was between the SF-S and the SN (former NE), not SN-NE, as I stated.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/14 21:04 by EtoinShrdlu.