Steam & Excursion > This City Ordinance Resulted In Some Interesting Railroad Scenes!

When the City of Modesto, California first banned steam locomotives from operating on their city streets, the railfans of the day must have been initially disappointed. However, as the "work-around" presented itself, they started to flock to Modesto to capture unique scenes like this one.

The Tidewater Southern Railroad was most impacted by the new Modesto City ordinance banning steam locomotives from operating through town. Their solution was to have the steam locomotives and their trains towed through town by the small fleet of electric locomotives they had on hand.

Here we see TS electric motor #100 towing TS #132 and her freight through Modesto in the early 1940's. #132 had come to the TS from the Sierra Ry where she had been their #32 assigned to the now abandoned Angels Branch of the Sierra.

Note the extra flags flying on #132 and her fireman out on the running boards making adjustments. The steam crew had time for such things while #100 was in control of their train.


Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/12/17 02:58 by LoggerHogger.

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When was the ordinance first implemented?

SD80MACfan Wrote:
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> When was the ordinance first implemented?

Modesto's anti-steam ordinance appears to have been drafted in 1932 or early 1933 and specifically in response to the Tidewater's abandonment of electric service.

Until the end of mainline electrification, the TS would run a mix of electric and steam powered trains down Ninth Street. With the end of electrification, all trains would be steam powered and that was too much for the city. This law forced the railroad to maintain overhead on about 2.1 miles of track until 1948. After that, diesels would haul the steam trains until late 1953.

One day I need to go digging through the city records in Modesto to find the original ordinance.

Great photo! Always enjoy seeing what Tidewater stuff Martin has. Hoping one day a photo of elusive box motor TS 300 will surface, or their first steam engine, an ex-CP 2-6-2T. Lots of unknowns from this little railroad.

And I love the Santa Fe reefer right up front. Interesting to note that photos I have seen often show ATSF reefers on the Tidewater, right alongside PFE. Considering parent WP was a partner in PFE for many years and PFE had an icing dock on the TS (on an electrified spur no less), one might think that PFE reefers would dominate, but I've seen almost as many Santa Fe cars.

Portola has an SFRD steel ice reefer that wore the Santa Fe map scheme. One day we want to restore that to go with our PFE and FGE cars.

Z
http://www.TidewaterSouthern.com



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/12/17 10:07 by zephyrus.

I wonder if Ernest and Julio were behind the ban?

Great photo, and a story I hadn't heard before. Thanks,

wjpyper Wrote:
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> I wonder if Ernest and Julio were behind the ban?


HI WJ! I was wondering what they would have to do with it?...Just curious.

Their closest facility was over on the other side of the "crik", mile and change from the TS, don't
know if the smoke would bother themn or not. Sure didn't make their cheap wine any worse!

Out

A 1964 article in the Modesto Bee newspaper on the TS revealed that there was a passenger depot on 9th Street in the old Park Hotel (long gone) between H and I Streets. After that, the depot moved a block north into the Hiway Club between J and K Streets. The Hiway Club was apparently a precursor to a number of sleazy bars on 9th Street that became a multi-block area of a skidrow that lasted for decades. The old TS structure at 9th and D Streets was used just for a freight agency and lasted into the Union Pacific era. My last visit there on company business was in 1997. No one worked there but the building housed a company phone, a computer terminal and restroom - all still needful.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/12/17 17:41 by Westbound.