Nostalgia & History > Truckee 1952 snow shots

I got a hold of some negatives taken by the late Gordon Cambell taken on Donner in the Winter of 1952. He was a Communications Dept. Lineman for the SP so he had his camera with him on the job and caught some real gold of what it was like in the pre- "Its all crap now" days.

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Awsome!!!
Got any more ?

Winter in the Sierras - great photo!

Not a diseasel in sight.
Spreader pushed by a cab-forward, very awesome. Looks like a curious platform for the photographer as well.

Looks like a flanger ahead of the Spreader. To bad we can't set the Truckee web cam to look back 53 years. Wonder if they're waiting to cross over to the Ballon track (Was it there in 1952?)and make another go at the mountain. Were they trying to get to the Snowbound "City"? If Mr Gordon was a maintainer he worked with the late Bill Fisher who was working the signal shops in Roseville at the time of the big storm, but was later called to the mountain for the Signal system repair. (Its all in his book "30 Years over Donner")
Priceless photo...Thanks P-Bob
Dave

The balloon was indeed there in 52' The one at the gap wasent installed till that summer though.

What's the building the 3rd steamer formt he left is poking out of. Was that the original full circle round house?

Interesting to note the spreader has the 'crew cab' behind the full width Jordan cab to carry additional workers. I haven't seen this on spreaders of other RR's, all the SP spreaders seem to have this or some similar accomadation. Had been trying to pin down some dates on the SP snow equipment, guess the cab forward is the only date indicator to go by in this photo, and of course the date stated by Bob and the original photographer.
Thought the full circle turntable had a unique center structure of some kind, maybe for venting.

I think they were built in the 20's. Still being used! As far as the Crew cabs install date. Da know..

hold the phone now. .
those are NOT wide cab spreaders. those are stock jordan center cabs with no front cab at all. Indeed they were built in the 20s though. SPs current spreaders for donner were built in 1962 and came with extended cabs from the factory, and are the only ones with extended cabs ( from the factory ). The spreader in the picture is a Type A, all air operated. the current ones are all hydrolic ( spelling )operated.

Nova55 Wrote:
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> hold the phone now. .
> those are NOT wide cab spreaders. those are stock
> jordan center cabs with no front cab at all.


Good call, I didn't catch the vertical frame where the cab would have been.

Here's an interesting collection of Spreaders, Flangers and Snowplows: http://espee.railfan.net/spreaders.html

TCnR Wrote:
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> Nova55 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > hold the phone now. .
> > those are NOT wide cab spreaders. those are
> stock
> > jordan center cabs with no front cab at all.
>
>
> Good call, I didn't catch the vertical frame where
> the cab would have been.
>
> Here's an interesting collection of Spreaders,
> Flangers and Snowplows:
> http://espee.railfan.net/spreaders.html
All spreaders have the verticle frame
For more spreader stuff. . check out my site.
http://www.trainweb.org/rrsnowfighting/

> > -----
> > > hold the phone now. .

> All spreaders have the verticle frame


Of course they do, this photo shows how different they can be: http://espee.railfan.net/nonindex/spmw/spreaders/4047_spmw-spreader-charles_lange.jpg

This site also shows examples of my earlier question about the cabin on the modern Southern Pacific spreaders. Looking for dimensions if anyone has them.

Nova55, nice collection of snow equipment info, the BN Bros Plow was shown in the background of the current GN Historical Society Publication. Looks like its on display somewhere in the Minnesota area, maybe near the Hustle Muscle SD45 (don't have my copy available).

http://www.gnrhs.org/ff71.JPG Thats the one your talking about?
That plow is the ex US Army Bros plow, the Bros GN bought was scrapped ( it wasent really a plow either. . it was a snow melter. )
that RRV&W plow was sold by BN in the 80s
I have the builders diagram. . but no on the computer.

The other surving Bros plow is BN 972560, the original Bros plow, and was a joint project between NP, UP and CB&Q. It proved not very suceesful and NP obtained it, and now BNSF has it. It has its own power source, a 567B, but i dont think it is self propelled. it was built off a tender chassis
http://members.trainorders.com/nova55/spreader19.JPG theres the diagram for it as seen on my site.

AWESOME SCENE!!WONDERFUL GLORIES PAST FOREVER