Steam & Excursion > This Remote Area Was Worth Visiting For Steam Scenes Like This!

For anyone who has visited the now-abandoned Southern Pacific Modoc Line, you know how remote and isolated it is.  While the towns are small and few and far between, the railroading that could be witnessed there, made the trip certainly worth it, no matter what time of year.

A fine example of this spectacle was captured on May 9, 1954 by Victor DeBrutz at Wendel, California as SP AC-9 #3807 worked as rear-end helper on a long freight train.  Her 3 cabooses are wisely cut in behind #3807 as she pours on the power for the grades ahead.

Who among us today wouldn't make the trek to Wendel  if there was a chance to catch steam in action like this?

Martin



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 03/24/20 10:54 by LoggerHogger.

---

A Gila Monster shoving on a Milwaukee Rib Side no less. What a wonderful photo. 

Sign me up for a trip on the wayback machine, Mr Peabody! 

Thanks for this posting.  AC-9 is one of my favorite large locomotives.

Smoke pattern indicates there is another engine in the far away area

tomstp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Smoke pattern indicates there is another engine in
> the far away area

Looks like a cab forward in the distance.

Spoony81 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Looks like a cab forward in the distance.

You are quite right.  I had not spotted that.  There also seems to be a 2-stall enginehouse there.  That now makes me think this is not Likely, but probably Alturas.

Martin

I don't suppose that anyAC-9s were saved?
George Andrassy 

what a great image.  back in the good old days...........

66

A searchlight signal down there? Any of those at Alturas?

Auburnrail Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't suppose that anyAC-9s were saved?
> George Andrassy 

Nope.

Great shot, and thanks once again for sharing this, Martin.  

As for the location, my guess is that this is a freight leaving Wendel heading towards Alturas.  I read somewhere that the signal you see in the background had to do with the yard tracks entering Wendel.  I know of no other signals on the line other than the crossing signals of the GN at Stronghold.

Lee Hower - Sacramento  

I agree with the logic stemming from the signal in the picture.  Wendel.

Stan Praisewater

mcfflyer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great shot, and thanks once again for sharing
> this, Martin.  
>
> As for the location, my guess is that this is a
> freight leaving Wendel heading towards Alturas.
>  I read somewhere that the signal you see in the
> background had to do with the yard tracks entering
> Wendel.  I know of no other signals on the line
> other than the crossing signals of the GN at
> Stronghold.
>
> Lee Hower - Sacramento  

What a sight and sound that must have been!

Wasn't there a signal coming off the Susanville line into the yard? Don't know why I remember that.

Out 

Very nice..!!

GUYS...It was early in the A.M. and the sun was just coming up wen the 4233 came blasting out of town withthw AC9 3807 working as the helper....Wendle was a crew change point and added helpers to north bound trains, there were some times 10 enginges gathered at Wendel for helper service ad power changle out...This was the way to start a fan trip, espically to see a AC( working as a helper..The fan trip had the 3804 as the power, but she delveloped problem and a AC too over...And we were doubleheaded out of Wendel with a pair of AC's....

mcfflyer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> As for the location, my guess is that this is a
> freight leaving Wendel heading towards Alturas.
>  I read somewhere that the signal you see in the
> background had to do with the yard tracks entering
> Wendel.

Correct. It was a Letter Type Indicator at MP 359.08, Wendel, and displayed a T.

"If letter 'T' is illuminated, stop and call operator at Wendel for instructions. If letter 'T' not illuminated, proceed to fouling point of roundhouse lead unless hand signal received for movement into yard track." -- Special Instructions No. 5, Salt Lake Division, April 26, 1953.

> I know of no other signals on the line
> other than the crossing signals of the GN at
> Stronghold.

There were signals protecting the WP crossing at Flanigan.

LoggerHogger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Who among us today wouldn't make the trek to
> Wendel  if there was a chance to catch steam in
> action like this?

I'd make the trek just to see a train, no matter what was pulling it. Another wonderful line gone.

M-420 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A Gila Monster shoving on a Milwaukee Rib Side no
> less.

If you look at photos of trains on the Modoc during this time period, you'll find that the vast majority of the freight cars were off-line cars and mostly from the eastern railroads. I'm not sure why this is. Was there some disincentives for the SP to use its own cars? Was there an incentive or an agreement to use off-line cars as back hauls? Lumber loads used to be dispatched on the railroad without a consignment and it would be sold somewhere on the journey, not un-like perishables.  

Looks like beautiful down town Wendel to me lol. The extra crummies were pretty common then, due to the imbalance of traffic. Might even be some crews deadheading back to Alturas. The engine crew would ride home with their train crew back there in the caboose. The train crews loved seeing enginemen get a “taste of their own medicine” when they’d get a big ol run in or run out! Sometimes someone’s wife would drive down from Alturas and take them home.