Nostalgia & History > C.G. Heimerdinger Slides, Farewell to Steam 1: Josephine

In 1957 and 1958 the Southern Pacific operated a large number of “Farewell to Steam” trips over various parts of its system.  Charles Heimerdinger Jr. rode or photographed a few of them.  I already posted his photos of one such trip, the “Hangtown Express” excursion to Placerville on 27 September 1957, that while not explicitly advertised under the "Farewell to Steam" banner definitely fit the pattern.  Photos and information from that trip can be found at:
 
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,5862410,5863058#msg-5863058
 
In this post we’ll follow another trip, operated on 4 May 1958 that ran from Oakland to Sacramento and then up the Knights Landing/Josephine Branch.  This trip has been discussed on numerous previous threads through the years, the advertising flyer for the trip is posted in the following thread:
 
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3262365,3263335#3263335
 
Other threads featuring photos from the trip, these are just a selection and not meant to be an exhaustive list:
 
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,5012029,5013388#msg-5013388
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,3365751
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,4973663,4973930#msg-4973930
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,6022603,6022603#msg-6022603
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3261475,3261515#msg-3261515
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3075566,3075583#msg-3075583
 
The basics of the trip as distilled from the above threads are as follows.  Southern Pacific’s 4-8-4 #4460, a star on many of the “Farewell to Steam” trips, powered the excursion- operating as Train 224, one of the regular commuter trains on that route- from Oakland to Sacramento.  Veteran “Valley Mallet” #1744 waited for the train at Sacramento, upon its arrival the 2-6-0 powered the train back west to Davis, where it turned on the wye.  The #1744 then ran tender first north from Davis up the West Valley main line to Woodland, where it started the trip up the Josephine branch.  Upon arrival at Josephine the #1744 ran around the train before heading south back to Davis, where the #4460 waited for the excursion.  The two locomotives spent some time swapping cars at Davis, after which the #4460 headed back west to Oakland while the #1744 took the Sacramento passengers back to the capital city.
 
In this first page we have a map showing the location of the key railroad lines, note not all lines are shown.  Next up are two shots of the #4460 at the sanding tower in Oakland getting serviced, possibly for this trip. 
 
To be continued. 
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/26 06:51 by JDLX.

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Charles caught the #4460 heading to the Oakland Mole, and then a couple photos of the locomotive with the train at the Oakland Mole getting ready for departure. 
 
To be continued. 
 

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We’ll start this page with one more shot of the #4460 preparing to depart Oakland with the train.  So far I’ve only found one shot Charles took of the #4460 between Oakland and Sacramento, specifically at Crockett.  I have similarly not found any photos of the train at the Sacramento depot in his files, but I did find one of the #1744 leading the train westbound out of Sacramento. 
 
To be continued. 
 

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We’ll start this set with a shot of the #1744 on the Yolo Causeway between Sacramento and Davis.  Upon arrival at Davis the #1744 took on water and turned on the wye before heading tender first up the West Valley Line towards Woodland. 
 
To be continued. 
 

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Charles apparently did not expend any film frames on the #1744 running tender first, if he did I have yet to find them.  The train ran the ten miles to Woodland, where it entered the Knights Landing/Josephine branch.  The branch ran roughly 31.5 miles to Josephine, much of it running along irrigation canals or cutting through agricultural fields.  The next photos I found in Charle’s files are three shots at Josephine, first a contact print of the #1744 running around the train that may or may not be shot by him and then two photos of the locomotive backing up to re-couple onto the train.  
 
One of the things I find myself pondering when looking at these old excursion photos is the large number of cameras visible and the hundreds to thousands of photos that had to have been shot on this day.  I wonder how many of the slides, prints, and negatives are now in various landfills. 
 
To be continued. 
 

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Final page for this post.  Perhaps the scenic highlight of the excursion was the trestle over the Tisdale Bypass, about five miles south of Josephine.  The train paused for a photo run-by at the trestle before continuing south.  Final photo is another shot of the #1744 taking on water, I’m not really sure of the location on this one though I’m sure someone can recognize it. 
 
Thanks for looking, and thanks to everyone who has posted photos and memories of this trip to this board through the years!
 
Jeff Moore
Elko, NV    
 

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Outstanding series, thanks for all the history too.
—mac

Not to discount all the other photos, but I love those shots of the Oakland sand tower.  I hadn't seen photos of that structure before.

JDLX Wrote:

> In this post we’ll follow another trip, operated
> on 4 May 1957 that ran from Oakland to Sacramento
> and then up the Knights Landing/Josephine
> Branch. 

The date was actually May 4, 1958, more than a year after the end of standard gauge steam in revenue service on Southern Pacific and one of the very last SP steam excursions (before the 1970's, of course).  By the time of this photo, the whole branch was called the Knights Landing Branch, but in earlier days, Knights Landing was on the Oroville Branch that continued northeast through Marysville to Orovile, with the Sutter Basin Branch to Josephine peeling off 2.5 miles east of Knights Landing at a place called Grace (that right-angle bend above the K in "Knights Landing" on your map).

> Final photo is another shot of the #1744 taking on
> water, I’m not really sure of the location on
> this one though I’m sure someone can recognize
> it. 

This would be on the wye at Davis again, looking up the line to Woodland.

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> JDLX Wrote:
>
> > Final photo is another shot of the #1744 taking on
> > water, I’m not really sure of the location on
> > this one though I’m sure someone can recognize it. 
>
> This would be on the wye at Davis again, looking
> up the line to Woodland.

I was having trouble reconciling the two watering photos at first. I guess the first one (with the water spilling) must be on the Cal-P main line.

I wonder if the photo sequence is correct. Both watering photos, along with the shot of the engine passing the tower, seem to be taken in morning or midday light, not the afternoon light we would expect after having been up the branch all day. The shot posted by fmaffei in one of the linked threads shows the afternoon light (as well as the cars still coupled to the engine on the west leg).

The shot of the engine passing the tower and the shot of the water spilling are probably from about the same location (looking in opposite directions), but the engine turned around between the two photos. I wonder if they tried to get water on the west leg during the wye move and had trouble with it, and so completed the wye move and then backed down to get water on the main line instead. Curious.

Changed the date, Evan. I knew that, just didn’t catch it while typing things out. Fixed now.

And I’m not 100% on the watering sequence either, I was guessing Davis on the last photo based on the curved platform but without notes or, in this case slide sequences since these are almost all medium format slides Charles may have mounted himself I can only make educated guesses.

Thanks again.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

Posted from iPhone

Super thread !!

Thanks for the SP steam so early in the day.  Seeing SP 4460 made me remember her back in 1958 when she was running off her last fan trips.  Sigh.  She's now sitting in St Louis.  If I ever win the lottery, she's going to Silvis for a tune-up :-)

jkh2cpu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for the SP steam so early in the day. 
> Seeing SP 4460 made me remember her back in 1958
> when she was running off her last fan trips. 
> Sigh.  She's now sitting in St Louis.  If I ever
> win the lottery, she's going to Silvis for a
> tune-up :-)

She will need a LOT more than a "tune-up"! One of the processes that museum has done in the past was to sand blast the entire locomotive prior to repainting. Thus, there is sand everywhere in her running gear.

In May 1958 224 was due out of Oakland Pier at 7:40 PDT
and 52 was due out ten minutes later. We don't seem to see
52 in the pics, which suggests "224" is actually 2-224.
But Mr Sweetser said that's an RPO behind the engine,
and looks like it and the Daylight cars got left in Sacramento,
suggesting "224" is 224. Which means it stops Crockett

https://wx4.org/to/foam/sp/maps/zukasETT/1958-04-27Western268-TimZukas.pdf

and flag-stops Richmond.

Wonder why different kinds of handrail on the
two sides of the Yolo Bypass trestle. (Surprised
to see it was single track until 1913.)

Great post. These end of steam excursions were just incredible. And the photos superb. The explanation for the watering at both plugs seems like a good one. I was thinking they might have done it for the benefit of the photographers but then you would imagine Heimerdinger would have a spillage shot at the first watering location. 

TimZ maybe the railings are the same type but just look different on account perspective?  

Great series of photos! Thanks for posting all these and for the promise of more to come.

Despite that Charley was an artist with a camera, the one huge photo (about 50" x 30") he had behind his desk at the SP was not one he had taken. It was of one of the early streamlined 4-8-4 GS-2s pulling the Coast Daylight, taken by SP's old Photo Dept for publiciity purposes. The photo and frame were given to him when one of the old SP depot's closed along the coast route. It followed him from San Jose to Oakland to San Francisco.Wonder who has it now?

 turned out to be a busy engine after retirement. spent time in Alamosa, Co,  and Ft Worth and somewhere else.

Anyone have a valuation map that would show what the building to the left is from this detail of the Crockett picture? The Cal P mainline originally ran that direction, following the curve of the shoreline cove.  

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Could be the original Crockett depot.  Henry Bender wrote that when the new depot was built in 1929, half of the old depot was moved across the tracks to be used as an office by the inspector in charge of car repairs.  Here are two possibly pertinent plans at the Calif. State RR Museum Library:

Oct. 1929 - Alter old station building and move to new location.  Drawing number:  Western Division C 264

Aug. 27, 1943 - Remodel old station building to accomodate section men.   Drawing number:  Western Division C 528 

The library has many plans for Crockett.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/26 17:06 by johnsweetser.

Here's a view of the old depot dated 1928 got this from a FB historical page for CC County. Angle of the roof seems to match! Good idea, JohnSweetser. Thanks for relaying that info. on what happened to the old depot. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/26 18:16 by phthithu.

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