Steam & Excursion > This Little Train Was A Friend To Fisherman & Railfans Alike!

While not the intended purpose for the Western Pacific launching the Feather River Express, this train quickly became loved by both fisherman and railfans.

The "Express" would pull out of Oakland at 9:20pm each day and would then arrive in Portola, California 12 hours later. Since it would not leave on it's return trip as the #11 until 8:20pm that day this gave fisherman 11 uninterrupted hours at Portola to do some angling. This also gave railfans of the era the same 11 hours to catch all the activity in the Portola yards.

In this fine 1947 photo we see WP #83 heading the Feather River Express though Hayward one sunny morning on her return trip. Who knows how many trout and spent rolls of black & white film are on board?

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/17 03:47 by LoggerHogger.

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Wow, what a nice scene. I feel sorry for the younger fans who never saw real "Railroady" scenes or places.
As Photobob sez, Its all crap now.

Martin:

Thanks for the post and the narrative.

As someone who enjoys railroads as well as fishing, I still am not sure spending all-night in a coach seat would get one uch sleep - either heading up the hill or coming back. True, there is some great fishing up in Plumas County, but even if I had been around and able back in 1947 I would have re-confgured my travel plans. Maybe I would have departed the Train at Quincy Jct. spent a few days fishing and then headed back. Too many places to fish, and a much more relaxing place to be than Oakland! Then again, there would have been some great stuff to just watch over in Portola too, so maybe I'd spend a week!

Nice thinking about what it would have been like!

John

Just for curiosity I went to the Amtrak site and checked Oakland to Dunsmuir, price listed as $46 or $86 in coach, not sure what the value and flexible levels are all about:

outbound: 9:39pm - 4:56am (Apr 29)
7 hr, 17 min: 14 Coast Starlight

back to work: 12:35am - 8:35am
8 hr, 0 min: 11 Coast Starlight

Not sure I could bring a fish to work though. However, the intrepid PhotoBob was known to often make the run to Eugene or Reno overnight. I did one trip to each destination, no fish though.

Well, how about bringing along camping gear and get off #12 somewhere in the Canyon, either below or above Keddie? Not sure if I'd want to get off at Quincy Junction, as you're quite a ways from the water, and besides, you're up on Spanish Creek by that time. Either off down at Belden at 6:59am (June 1941 Guide) on the North Fork of the Feather or maybe Sloat at 8:55am on the Middle Fork. Going all the way to Portola is pretty far up there.

But riding a coach seat isn't anything for serious fishermen. In 1970, I rode the Oregon Trunk mixed on the opening day of fishing season, and although there were only two guys riding from Wishram south, there were about 60 waiting for the train in Maupin. SP&S, or actually BN by that time, had put an extra coach on the train just for these guys who got off at places up the Deschutes River Canyon. It should have been a middle of the night pickup 2:53am in Maupin, but the train didn't get there until about 10am, and was running so late we died on the law near Redmond, and had to be hauled into Bend by the Redmond local switcher, 12 1/2 hours late! Since it was the same crew going north, after their rest, instead of a 7:00pm departure in Bend - that we'd already missed, we left at 6:30am the following morning! Sure, the fishermen all grumbled about the late train, but there had been so much alcohol consumed, I'm surprised they managed to get back on the train for the ride back. They should have been back at Maupin on Saturday night at 10:20pm, but I think it was something like 12 hours later when the train actually showed up to pick them up. Oh, to be able to do that again - behind an RS3 and C415!

Lee Hower - Sacramento

sixbit Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Martin:
>
> Thanks for the post and the narrative.
>
> As someone who enjoys railroads as well as
> fishing, I still am not sure spending all-night in
> a coach seat would get one uch sleep - either
> heading up the hill or coming back. True, there is
> some great fishing up in Plumas County, but even
> if I had been around and able back in 1947 I would
> have re-confgured my travel plans. Maybe I would
> have departed the Train at Quincy Jct. spent a few
> days fishing and then headed back. Too many places
> to fish, and a much more relaxing place to be
> than Oakland! Then again, there would have been
> some great stuff to just watch over in Portola
> too, so maybe I'd spend a week!
>
> Nice thinking about what it would have been like!
>
> John



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/17 21:24 by mcfflyer.

mcfflyer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Oh, to be able to do that again - behind an RS3 and C415!
>
> Lee Hower - Sacramento


Yeah, Lee, me too. I really enjoyed working that job but I'd go for two RS-3s and forget the lousy Century 415.

We have a series of diaries in the archives at the WP museum that were kept by I believe the head of MOW. They span about 30 years.

One week he documents a trip taken with the WP's M-601 inspection car where he and the car operator go fishing in the Feather River. He records catching a staggering number of trout, and then documents how many he dropped off to the workers at each station from Westwood down to Oroville.

Very cool little narrative and another WP and fishing story.

Z

Ooops. I forgot to thank Martin for another great photo!

Lee Hower

Wonderful look back at Hayward! I grew-up in that area and still remember the old WP Depot before it was torn down for the building of BART. Down the tracks a bit were two old rock crushers on the east (downtown) side of the WP just north of where Jackson Street went under the tracks on a two lane road. One of the crushers was a dull silver and the other a dull red. Both were removed for the building of BART. If anyone has any other photos from along the WP in downtown Hayward, or along SP over at the Hunts Cannery, please share them here on TO! Thanks again Martin!

Best wishes,

ShastaDaylight