Steam & Excursion > It's Time For This Locomotive To Take A Spin And Then Bed Down!

The small 4-stall Western Pacific roundhouse at Keddie, California certainly saw it's share of steam activity over it's years of operation. 

In this view, we witness WP 2-8-0 #40 arriving back at the roundhouse after her days work is over.  The crew has turned the locomotive and lined her into one of the roundhouse stall for servicing and to give her a rest before she is called back out for the next assignment in the Feather River Canyon.

Martin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/20 03:03 by LoggerHogger.

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Am I seeing many curved rails in the pit?  Was the table not strong enough to handle engines with just the normal outside rail ring?

tomstp Wrote:
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> Am I seeing many curved rails in the pit?  Was
> the table not strong enough to handle engines with
> just the normal outside rail ring?

Remember, that turntable was long enough that it carried even the WP 2-6-6-2 baby mallets.  That would be quite a load.

Martin

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Was this east of the  Y at Keddie? 

czuleget Wrote:
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> Was this east of the  Y at Keddie? 

Yes, it was.

Martin

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Yes, it was east of the wye.  The wye is at the beginning of the west side of the yard.  The yard stretched east and curved around a corner.  The roundhouse was around the cornerand down a little ways.  The station was in the middle across from the dual water tanks.
See the google link below:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0079552,-120.9569835,380m/data=!3m1!1e3

Look at how many people are in the picture of the roundhouse area.  The railroad employed a lot of peole there.  You go to Keddie today and it's a ghost town by comparison. 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/20 08:45 by wingomann.

It also handled the 2-8-8-2's.

Having never been to Keddie, I've been trying to get oriented as to where the engine facility was in relation to the town and the wye.  The section of topo map below is pretty clear.  The locomotive shop appears at the bottom of the map, around the corner from the town of Keddie. That matches the map coordinates above, but all that's there now is a bare patch of ground. The overview photo is looking railroad west (also compass west). 

I still haven't figured out where the station was.  "The station was in the middle across from the dual water tanks."  Is that in the photo?  I don't see either a station or dual water tanks.  Seems likely it was around the curve at the town of Keddie.

That is one convoluted piece of railroad!

One more comment.  The train stopped in the third photo looks like it might have been a fan excursion, judging by the number of people wandering around.  Also, thanks Martin for posting such interesting photos!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/20 12:21 by Elesco.

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It looks to me that most of the people in the photo have come in on an excursion with the passenger train to the left.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

wingomann Wrote:
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>
> Look at how many people are in the picture of the
> roundhouse area.  The railroad employed a lot of
> peole there.  You go to Keddie today and it's a
> ghost town by comparison. 

Elesco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Having never been to Keddie, I've been trying to
> get oriented as to where the engine facility was
> in relation to the town and the wye.  The section
> of topo map below is pretty clear.  The
> locomotive shop appears at the bottom of the map,
> around the corner from the town of Keddie. That
> matches the map coordinates above, but all that's
> there now is a bare patch of ground. The overview
> photo is looking railroad west (also compass
> west). 
>
> I still haven't figured out where the station
> was.  "The station was in the middle across from
> the dual water tanks."  Is that in the photo?  I
> don't see either a station or dual water tanks. 
> Seems likely it was around the curve at the town
> of Keddie.
>
> That is one convoluted piece of railroad!
>
> One more comment.  The train stopped in the third
> photo looks like it might have been a fan
> excursion, judging by the number of people
> wandering around.  Also, thanks Martin for
> posting such interesting photos!

The Keddie depot is at the west end next to the wye.

wabash2800 Wrote:
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> It looks to me that most of the people in the
> photo have come in on an excursion with the
> passenger train to the left.
>
> Victor A. Baird
> http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

Yes, that was an excursion that stopped at the roundhouse.  I have seen several photos from that day.  I think it was May 1951.

Z

What an awesome shot of WP 40 at one of my favorite railroad locations.

Keddie was and still is fascinating, even though a lot of its features are now gone.

The whole complex stretched over about 1.5 miles or line, from the wye at the west to the roundhouse at the east.  First image is a map I drew for a WP Historical Convention presentation a few years ago.

In the second image, you can see the twin water tanks on the east side of the track and the depot and yard office on the west side.  This is looking railroad east with the wye behind the photographer.

The third image is a track chart of the Keddie area.

Thanks for posting the photos, Martin!

Z

 

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Interesting that the west switch of the wye was shown as taken out in the 1957 map.  It forced all trains to go into Keddie yard. 

LoggerHogger Wrote:
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> czuleget Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Was this east of the  Y at Keddie? 
>
> Yes, it was.
>
>

Martin

Beautiful scene.

wingomann Wrote:
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> Interesting that the west switch of the wye was
> shown as taken out in the 1957 map.  It forced
> all trains to go into Keddie yard. 

Some info and a photo on that:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,251622,251664#msg-251664

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1849866,1849908#msg-1849908

zephyrus Wrote:

> Yes, that was an excursion that stopped at the
> roundhouse.  I have seen several photos from that
> day.  I think it was May 1951.

Same excursion: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,5049315