Steam & Excursion > Passing A Classically Designed Depot On This Scenic Railroad!

The designs given railroad depots often tell us much about the character of the railroad they served. Here is just such an example.

The date is 1950 and Northwestern Pacific #3227 and her freight train is ready to roll out of town and past the NWP depot in Petaluma, California. The engineer has just blown the whistle to announce her departure.

The big 8-2 has been leased by SP to the NWP for a period of time to meet the power needs of this line that ran north from the Bay Area to Eureka, California.

All along the NWP in the region just north of the Bay Area the NWP depots have this Spanish-style look to them to give homage to the heritage of the region. This was part of the charm of the NWP of that era.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/18 03:42 by LoggerHogger.

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OH! So THAT's why SP used those haystack tenders!!! It was to follow the theme of Spanish architecture!

Amazing <G>

Fantastic photo! So much to enjoy in that scene.

IIRC those Espee 2-8-2s were the largest locomotives to run on the NWP.

TonyJ Wrote:
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> IIRC those Espee 2-8-2s were the largest
> locomotives to run on the NWP.

Could they run them all the way to Eureka?

And another view of that same depot with a passenger train.

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,691596,691596#691596

Earlk Wrote:
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> TonyJ Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > IIRC those Espee 2-8-2s were the largest
> > locomotives to run on the NWP.
>
> Could they run them all the way to Eureka?

Here's what I can find about about SP class MK-4 3227 according to three sources; Fred Stindt and Guy Dunscomb's book "The Northwestern Pacific Railroad--Redwood Empire Route";
Guy Dunscombs "A Century Of Southern Pacific Steam Locomotives" and a copy the NWP's employee timetable #27 effective September 30, 1951 which shows tonnage ratings
of locomotives.


Stindt and Dunscomb's NWP book shows that the road leased a total of 6 MK (Mikado) class 2-8-2's beginning in December 1947 and ending in October 1950.
Dunscomb's 'Century' book shows these Mikes weighed 265,000 lbs with a tractive effort 45,400 lbs each. My employee timetable source,
(courtesy Ed Gibson's website: http://wx4.org/to/foam/maps/and_timetables2.html) does not exactly answer your question of running the Mikes
through to Eureka since it does not show them in the tonnage ratings of September 1951 but it does show however that leased SP P-11's 3100-3109 (4-6-2 Pacific's)
with a total weight of 239,500 and tractive effort of 33,700 lbs were on the tonnage tables between Willits and Eureka. Which only goes to prove that the NWP
did allow some moderately sized Pacific's to wander north of Willits on September 30, 1951. What went on before and after are anyone's guess without looking
at a timetable.

Charlie