Nostalgia & History > SP 4449, a Pleasant Surprise

I was driving up I5 from the San Francisco Bay Area to near Salem, OR when I encountered a fan trip (charter?) with SP 4449 at Mt. Shasta, CA on August 31, 1991.  Helping was SP 7116, a GP40, built in Nov. 1969 as MKT 216 and served the UP as 586. 


Enjoy,
Marty Bernard
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/16 18:10 by MartyBernard.

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This was the Dead Fish Daylight that they ran after a derailment on Cantara Loop.

Adam

MtVernon_Tower Wrote:
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> This was the Dead Fish Daylight that they ran
> after a derailment on Cantara Loop.
>
> Adam

I just did a search on TO and found a little about it -- not enough to understand much.  Any good Internet sources?

Marty

An SP train derailed on Cantara Loop and spilled metam sodium into the Sacramento River killing many fish.

So far so good, but could you connect the dead dish on Cantara Loop with the SP 4449, and train? inquiring minds would like to know, thanks.





 

Two interesting sidelights to the "Dead Fish Daylight" (wish I'd coined that one!):

1) When it was parked down in Dunsmuir, people were allowed to roam freely all over the engine and ex-roundhouse area. Hipshot, the SP bull who used to patrol the area, was nowhere to be seen. Thus, all of the historic M/W equipment sitting north of the take was available for photography without the prospect of a court appearance.

2) At the same time as the open house, the Dunsmuir News came out with an article about how the company had just been fined for another recent instance of polluting the river. Because of many, many decades of dumping and leaking fuel and oil onto the ground in the loco servicing area, seepage into the river was so much of a problem that SP had been forced by the state to install a collection system that emptied into a sump, the contents of which were pumped into a holding tank for disposal.

In a move to save on the power bill, a local official turned off the sump pump! Not a smart move, since Fish & Game watched things like a hawk, aided by local fisherman who took a dim eye towards SP's behavior. He should have been mindful that, a few years before, F&G people had ordered the company to stop parking locomotives on the aptly-named River Track down in the yard, because crater and dripping oil were washing down the river bank.

In fact, IMHO the derailment would have never occurred at all had not the local road foreman convinced those higher on to ignore a hundred years of wisdom and change the Air Brake Rules to dispense with rear end helpers in favor of "Point Helpers". He was shipped off to become a manager at the simulator before investigators had a chance to interview him. The engineer was likewise unavailable for questioning at the time. The company had sent him to Hawaii for some R&R.

In summary, This Was My Railroad. But the photography was good that day, wasn't it?

EO



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/16 05:17 by hogheaded.

MtVernon_Tower Wrote:
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> This was the Dead Fish Daylight that they ran
> after a derailment on Cantara Loop.
>
> Adam

Actually we on the crew dubbed it "The Toxic Daylight".

Martin

Looks like Junior is getty ready to walk through the flange greaser....How do they intuitively know the worst place to walk?

penncentral74 Wrote:
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> Looks like Junior is getty ready to walk through
> the flange greaser....How do they intuitively know
> the worst place to walk?



kids have that natural skill. 

Shasta Daylight Special Labor Day weekend 1991 Friday Aug 30Th to Labor Day Monday Sept 2ND. SP ran three trips with 4449 and train Redding to Mt. Shasta City Park (seen stopped in photo 2 for passenger unloading) and return to Redding. First trip was Friday for media, Sat and Sun was for paying passengers at $100 dollars each. Proceeds went to Dunsmuir chamber of commerce. A weekend that I would love to do again!
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4032347,4032932#4032932

penncentral74 Wrote:
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> Looks like Junior is getty ready to walk through
> the flange greaser....How do they intuitively know
> the worst place to walk?

Had a pair of jeans and my CIF T-Shirt runied because I walked over one near Beallville back in 95, didn't know at the time until I noticed my hands had all the greese on it! Made sure I never did that again!

penncentral74 Wrote:
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> Looks like Junior is getty ready to walk through
> the flange greaser....How do they intuitively know
> the worst place to walk?

LOL.  Yes, boys, especially have a knack for such things!

norm1153 Wrote:
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> So far so good, but could you connect the dead
> dish on Cantara Loop with the SP 4449, and train?
> inquiring minds would like to know, thanks.
>

The SP 4449 train was probably for PR.

EricSP Wrote:
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> norm1153 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > So far so good, but could you connect the dead
> > dish on Cantara Loop with the SP 4449, and
> train?
> > inquiring minds would like to know, thanks.
> >
>
> The SP 4449 train was probably for PR.

Correct!  The whole idea was to, first show the "media", and then the public, that every living thing within 25 miles of the spill into the river was NOT DEAD!