Nostalgia & History > Necrophoaming the SN #14

SN 14

Lisbon Trestle.

The SN's Lisbon Trestle is probably most famous for collapsing. The trestle crossed the Sacramento River flood plain (Yolo Bypass) that fills with water most Springs when the Sierra snow melt combines with spring rains. In 1951 the thing collapsed under the the weight of motor 650 and a steel train bound for Pittsburg. This was the last through electric train between Sacramento and the Bay Area as the trestle was not rebuilt with catenary. (Yeah, okay- the train BEFORE it was the last through electric train) (I guess that's like calling the Donner Trail the Donner Trail. The Donners sure never used it.) (Just say'n.)

Photo 1. Before the collapse, the trestle had been one long 14,000ft span. When rebuilt it was done as series of short spans between short fills, I suppose to act as “firewalls” so that if there was another collapse- it wouldn't take out the whole thing? The only way I could figure out how to properly convey this was to shoot it from the air. I wanted to include the ponds that resulted from the building of the fills, so I shot it at sunset to get the reflections. It worked out pretty well.

Photo 2. The road along the power line is NOT the railway. Look closer and you'll find the mounds of fill to the left. Both these shots are looking towards Sacramento.

Photo 3. See- the mounds aren't as impressive at grade. There are trestle pilings on the end of the fill.

Photo 4. The last span crossed this ditch just before reaching the Deep Water Ship Channel that the SN never crossed. The building of the Channel severed the SN Main and forced the use of trackage rights on the SP.

SR Bush
Dutch Flat



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/14 09:37 by BoilingMan.

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Your continuing program on the SN is wonderful! After looking at your images, if I ever thought about driving to visit these area, they disappeared... unless I had a swamp buggy!

Steve-- NOT to be a nit-picker, BUT, I submit this info to correct the original length of the Lisbon Trestle. (later on, Arcade Trestle):
"When the Lisbon trestle was completed in 1913 it was nearly 14,000 feet long (over 2½ miles), and was entirely of conventional wood design."

Cheers.

KRK

Oops, I dropped the "1" and missed it! It's fixed. (I wonder why spellcheck doesn't catch stuff like that?)
Thanks Ken
SR

For those of you who, like me, are thoroughly enjoying "Boiling Man's " wonderful series on the SN, here is detailed info on the Lisbon Trestle and how to take a tour of the area and see leftovers for yourself:

Since we have been talking about bits of the Sacramento Northern lately, in Solano County, here is a historical piece provided by Bruce Eldridge regarding the fate of SN's famous Lisbon Trestle:

"There are few geographical features of the Sacramento Valley more recognizable than the Yolo Bypass. Millions of drivers cross over the bypass in their autos each year traveling Interstate 5 and In¬terstate 80. Most people know that the bypass floods during periods of heavy rainfall and that part of it is a wildlife refuge. Probably few know when the bypass came into being or what the area was like before there was a Yolo Bypass. Not many peo¬ple realize that Putah Creek ended in the marshes east of Davis, and never emptied into the Sacramento River, or that Cache Creek met the same fate east of Woodland. Fewer still know that the Sacramento Northern Railway crossed the by¬pass twice on long trestles, and that the Southern Pacific crossed it once, all in Yolo County.

I have long had a fascination for the southern-most railroad cross¬ing of the bypass – the Lisbon (later Arcade) trestle – built originally by the Oakland, Antioch, and Eastern Railroad, a predecessor of the Sac¬ramento Northern Railway.
The Lisbon trestle was built early in 1913, and regular train service was begun from Sacramento to the San Francisco Bay area September 3, 1913. Power was from 1,200 volt DC overhead wires. When the Lisbon trestle was completed it was nearly 14,000 feet long (over 2½ miles), and was entirely of conven¬tional wood design.
After electric interurban passen¬ger operations over the trestle were discontinued in 1940, freight trains hauled by electric locomotives continued. This lasted through the 1940s, but eventually, the hauling of heavy steel coils from Pittsburg to Sacramento proved to be too much for the trestle to handle, and on July 24, 1951, a large section of the trestle collapsed under the weight of a 21-car steel train hauled by electric motor 650. The trestle was re-built, this time with sections of trestle punctuated with short islands created by digging holes ad¬jacent to the trestle and depositing the material onto the roadbed, but electric overhead was not replaced on the re-built section. I lived in Sacramento during the summer of 1953, and my fascination with the trestle began when I stopped my car on Jefferson Blvd. at the east end of the trestle and marveled at the sight of it curving into the dis¬tance to the west.

Diesel freight operations contin¬ued for a few more years, but the trestle was eventually doomed by the building of the Sacramento Ship Canal. SN originally planned to build a sharp curve off the trestle and run north to West Sacramento along the west bank of the canal. However, for some reason, prob¬ably economic, SN elected to operate instead from Dozier to Canon (on the SP), and proceed to Sacramento via trackage rights on the so-called Cal-P. The sad end to the Arcade trestle came late in 1962, when it was burned down rather than scrapping it for its timbers. An aerial view of the trestle in its last days can be seen on page 86 of the Images of America volume on the Port of Sacramento.

Although little now remains of the trestle, its location can be seen from most airliners flying from Sacramento to southern California if you are on the right side of the plane and know where to look. The small island sections are readily visible. On July 16, 2006 the manager of the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area invited people interested in the history of the SN in Yolo County to take a tour of the trestle site. Six people (including me) accepted the invitation. I was amazed at how much evidence of the trestle is still there. Pilings remain at both ends of most of the “islands”, some still with caps on them. The depres¬sions from which the soil was taken to form the islands now support a lush growth of trees, and these are also visible from the air. The PG&E high voltage transmission towers visible in many earlier photographs of the trestle are still there to mark its path. We also visited the site of Saxon station at the west end of the trestle and found its foundation among the weeds.
The Yolo Bypass is a place well worth visiting. The variety of wildlife and vegetation, plus the many railroad-related historical artifacts, make it a must-see for those interested in these subjects.

Story courtesy of Bruce Eldridge-- Editor, BAERA "Review" ...

Contributed by KRK.

Well, there's your plethora!

Is the Lisbon Trestle site in the wildlife area now?
At the time I took these I knocked on a ranch/farm house door and asked permission to go out there and shoot. I can't remember if this was actually necessary, or I did it as a courtesy knowing I'd be seen and didn't want to worry them. The man that answered the door remembered the trestle collapsing. He was out on his tractor working and was the first on the scene. He wasn't clear about whether he'd phoned for help, or the train crew had radioed. He said they were pretty "busted up".
SR

The Yolo bypass was built to divert floodwater around Sacramento after extensive flooding in late 1861/early 1862, when it rained virtually unabated day and night for 43 days. In addition, the entire downtown area was raised by one story and many levees built, like the one the SP runs on between the east end of the causeway to Elvas Tower. There is another such by-pass on the south side of Sac, but I forget it's name, and it's nowhere near as large.

EtoinShrdlu Wrote:
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> The Yolo bypass was built to divert floodwater
> around Sacramento after extensive flooding in late
> 1861/early 1862, when it rained virtually unabated
> day and night for 43 days. In addition, the entire
> downtown area was raised by one story and many
> levees built, like the one the SP runs on between
> the east end of the causeway to Elvas Tower. There
> is another such by-pass on the south side of Sac,
> but I forget it's name, and it's nowhere near as
> large.

Probably the Fremont Wier (aka Sutter Bypass) near Woodland.
http://www.water.ca.gov/newsroom/docs/WeirsReliefStructures.pdf

KRK