Steam & Excursion > Time & Steam Marches On In This Very Historic Railroad Town!

There are just a few railroad places that are so distinctive that they can be identified at just a quick glance.   Here is just such a place.

The distinctive town-site of Colfax, California on Southern Pacific's Donner Pass Route is quite apparent in this view taken in the late 1930's by Mr. W. Sievers of the Bay Area.  We can tell that the photo was taken before 1942 because the narrow gauge track of the Nevada County Narrow Gauge RR is still in place in the foreground.

SP Cab-Forward #4183 has little difficulty powering her train eastbound through this historic town as she climbs over SP's Donner Pass line.  Let's enjoy the scene.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/19 00:25 by LoggerHogger.

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A great start to the day, then and now.

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ

How did Nevada County Railroad get over to the North side of the SP?

Mike Root
Madras, OR

Mike,

The NCNG track curves north just a half-mile east of town and went under the SP bridge.

Martin

Good to have you back Martin. B

I'm a very happy Espee steam fan after seeing this morning's image. Thank you, and welcome back Martin.

It looks like they've got another engine "shovin' on the hind end".

A really NICE and enjoyable shot! Stayed in an old hotel just above this scene back in 1967 and saw a great show.

Larry

There is so much to see in this photo -- not just the railroads, but businesses, Victorian houses, a few automobiles.  This is the kind of image that may not have seemed exceptional at the time it was taken, but has acquired greater significance with the passage of many decades.

Regarding the Nevada County Narrow Gauge routing, you can see it in the map below.  The NCNG acquires grade separation by dropping slightly leaving Colfax, as the SP continues its climb toward Donner. (The map is extracted from the USGS Colfax quadrangle, edition of 1938).

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SP is downgrade Colfax to Long Ravine, so
NCNG must have been downgrader.

Guys....Note that the SP had numbered trains in thse days as this is 482  The numbered trains must have stopped in lat 1949???  I remember seeing 476 EB thru Martinez when i was a runt....

Great, as well as scarce, pre-WWII cab forward steam action photo.
Thanks for your excellent post.
ALLEN 

Really Nice photo.   Not much traffic problems in those days.  Only three cars visible in the picture.  There weren't a lot of cars produced during the war years, and nobody could afford to drive them much because of gas rationing, but the one on the left appears to be early to mid 40s vintage, and so does the light colored one on the other side of the tracks.  Far right side auto. looks like a 30s model A.   Even though we were at war, I sure like the looks of this era better than now.

Craig Hanson
Vay, Idaho

No visor on the engine's headlight, so not
later than 1942?

Second/third-class trains on Donner were gone
by 1946.

Awesome photo!

Never having been to Colfax, I still find the buildings, signage, vehicles, people and the trains to all be of interest.