Western Railroad Discussion > Save me some gas $$

I need images of structures on the Espee line from Mojave to Bakersfield. I would like to cover the time period 1945 through today. Stations, depots, operator shacks, towers, water tanks, semaphores, etc. And I need some really good depictions of the color scheme Espee used on its buildings. Has anyone reproduced that scheme with MS Paint?

Please DO NOT POST the images on TrainOrders.com. Preferably, send me the URL of related sites. None of the images will be reproduced or used for any purpose other than to create 3D models for MSTS and other simulation software. And maybe I can come up with a freebie product for those that help out.

I head out in about a week with my Polaroid and would like to keep my mileage under a thousand miles *grin*

For those that responded to earlier requests, I still have your mail.

ron

http://espee.railfan.net/espee.html

Ive got photos of just about all the stations your looking for showing all four sides of each at "http://www.snowcrest.net/photobob/sjd.html" but they aint free.

I don't know what you plan to photograph,
but 95% of the buildings are GONE!
You may get some good foundation photss...

Save your gas!!! The depots remain only at Bakersfield and Tehachapi. There is a water tower at Tehachapi (like many, its just flat black) and the operator shacks, towers, semaphores, etc. are long gone.

The hills are still there, and beautiful. Especially in the spring.

Best of luck in your efforts.

"None of the images will be reproduced or used for any purpose other than to create 3D models for MSTS and other simulation software."

Your statement is an oxymoron. If the photos will not be reproduced, how can you reproduce them for MSTS (and other) without copyright infringement?

For SP semaphores, the adage "If you've seen one semaphore, you've seen them all" probably applies. The main problem is figuring out where they originally were located, then determining which ones had one semaphore blade vs. two. For the stretch from Tehachapi to Mojave, most of the present searchlight signals were probably once semaphore signals (with the masts cut shorter), with the conversion coming in the 1950s. Prior to the conversion, though, the signals were more numerous (i.e., not so far apart as today). It should be noted that for most of the '50s there were no signal bridges between Tehachapi and Mojave, including the much-photographed one several miles north of Mojave. These came only after the south track was reverse-signaled between Cameron and Mojave (one could probably determine roughly when this happened by looking at old San Joaquin Division timetables).

For the stretch from Bakersfield to Bena, it is also probably true that the present searchlight signals were once semaphore signals, but I have no idea when the conversion was made. Steam-era photos of the line between Bakersfield and Bena seem to be almost non-existent.

The still-surviving Edison depot is painted in the standard SP paint scheme of colonial yellow walls, light brown trim and moss green roof, but all faded to some extent (this of course is the paint scheme of the restored Chico depot). This was the standard scheme for most surviving Tehachapi structures up until 1966, when the SP started painting other colors on some of the buildings, such as the turqoise blue it painted the depots at Tehachapi and Mojave that summer. DO NOT follow the partly-inaccurate paint scheme of the Bena depot at the Kern County Museum in Bakersfield.

One little-known surviving structure from the Tehachapi line is the Monolith flagman's shack (used by train crews switching the cement plant). It is now in the "back forty" at the Kern County Museum (behind the Pioneer Village area) and was moved to the museum sometime in the 1980s.

I forgot to mention that most sidings in the Tehachapis in the 1950s had concrete telephone booths somewhere. A standard SP concrete telephone booth can be found at the Kern County Museum, but unfortunately, some crazed museum employee got carried away and painted it yellow and brown. It should be in its natural concrete finish.

A photo showing the Monolith flagman's shack is on page 47 of the May 1989 issue of Trains.

Some sidings had 5'x5' (OK, actually 64"x64") stove-equipped wooden shacks at their ends, which were possibly used by track workers clearing switches during snowstorms. These shacks were located at the east end of Walong (see the Tehachapi Loop time exposure on pgs. 110-111 of the November '90 Trains), at both ends of Marcel, the west end of Cable (and likely the east end of Cable also, though I've never seen a photo of it), the west end of the old Tehachapi siding (see pg. 152 of Signor's "Tehachapi" (north side of tracks)) and at Summit Switch. In addition, when the Tehachapi-Cable double track was put in around 1964, a shack (not sure which one) was moved to the Cable crossover. Some of these shacks, such as the ones at Marcel, lasted until the 1980s, but the Walong one disappeared in the 1950s. One or more of them have been saved by the Tehachapi Museum (open Tues.-Sun. 1-4 pm at 310 S. Green Street. Best to phone ahead at 661-822-8152 to make sure they are open).