Nostalgia & History > Book on the Sacramento Shops?

As I recall from SPTrainline, a book was to be published on the Sacramento Shops. Did this ever happen?

The SP Trainline talked about a new book on the Sacramento Div. by Vic Neves. This book is due to be released by the publisher any day now. I heard that there is chapter on the Sacramento Shops.

Actually, it's already available. Here's the publisher's link for it:

http://www.whiteriverproductions.com/1%20Books.html

It doesn't appear that there is a chapter on the Sacramento Shops, but I'm sure there's probably a few pages devoted to it.


350 Wrote:
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> The SP Trainline talked about a new book on the
> Sacramento Div. by Vic Neves. This book is due to
> be released by the publisher any day now. I heard
> that there is chapter on the Sacramento Shops.

cdub Wrote:
>
> It doesn't appear that there is a chapter on the
> Sacramento Shops, but I'm sure there's probably a
> few pages devoted to it.
>
Exactly two ;-)

KMiddlebrook Wrote:
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> As I recall from SPTrainline, a book was to be
> published on the Sacramento Shops. Did this ever
> happen?


Methinks this is in reference to the Trainline articles a while back that contained the interesting stories and some maps of the shops. Haven't heard anymore about the information, would think it would be a Signature Press effort but they have some excruciating requirements, noticed the sStaff has been busy with the Passenger car books. Also curious whassup.
Passed by the area over the weekend and it's a pretty sad sight, but a major, major influence on early California history.

As I understand it, Bob Pecotich (who wrote the article about the Sacramento shops in the Fall 2003 SP Trainline) is working on a book about the shops but it will be awhile before it comes out.

Changing the subject, if "KMiddlebrook" is Ken Middlebrook, here is some info related to the San Jose turntable (in case you don't already know it):

From 1904 to 1910, Tucson had two roundhouses that existed simultaneously, a wood roundhouse and a brick roundhouse built in 1904. The wood roundhouse burned down in 1910. Afterwards, its turntable was used in conjunction with the car repair operation at Tucson. It apparently was this turntable that was moved to San Jose in 1939. A 1919 aerial photo of the Tucson yard showing both turntables can be found on pg. 133 of Myrick's "Railroads of Arizona, Vol. 1."

The brick roundhouse at Tucson had the 100-foot turntable (replaced by a 130-foot turntable in 1942).

JohnSweetser Wrote:
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> As I understand it, Bob Pecotich (who wrote the
> article about the Sacramento shops in the Fall
> 2003 SP Trainline) is working on a book about the
> shops but it will be awhile before it comes out.
>



Good info, thanks. Curious who the Publisher is. FYI MrPhBob is in good health, usual status actually and is posting at that other site. It's ok to e-mail a hello and get the usual ration by the way. Should be mailing away his table reservation for next years WinteRail.

JohnSweetser Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Changing the subject, if "KMiddlebrook" is Ken
> Middlebrook, here is some info related to the San
> Jose turntable (in case you don't already know
> it):
>
> From 1904 to 1910, Tucson had two roundhouses that
> existed simultaneously, a wood roundhouse and a
> brick roundhouse built in 1904. The wood
> roundhouse burned down in 1910. Afterwards, its
> turntable was used in conjunction with the car
> repair operation at Tucson. It apparently was
> this turntable that was moved to San Jose in 1939.
> A 1919 aerial photo of the Tucson yard showing
> both turntables can be found on pg. 133 of
> Myrick's "Railroads of Arizona, Vol. 1."
>
> The brick roundhouse at Tucson had the 100-foot
> turntable (replaced by a 130-foot turntable in
> 1942).

John,

Yes, it is me. Just last week, I found a photograph of the original American Bridge builder's plate for the existing San Jose table dated 1905. Sadly, the plate had disappeared prior to the turntable's relocation to the county fairgrounds in 2000.

Did your information and dates regarding the Tuscon operations come from Myrick's book?

Nonetheless, your information assists in closing to the story on the table's heritage. Thanks.

Ken Middlebrook

Ken:

The 1904 date for the building of the brick roundhouse at Tucson came from the roundhouse data table in "Southern Pacific Lines Common Standard Plans, Vol. 5" and from David Myrick's "Railroads of Arizona, Vol. 1."

The 1910 date (Sept. 30, 1910, to be exact) for the burning of the Tucson wood roundhouse came from "Railroads of Arizona, Vol. 1" and from the Arizona Daily Star of Tucson. In issues of that paper a few days after the fire, it stated that another roundhouse at Tucson had been "recently completed," no doubt referring to the 1904 brick roundhouse(as you have found out, "recent" to a newspaper then could be several years).

As for the turntable of the former wood roundhouse being used for repairing cars, that was related to me by a member of a model railroad club in Arizona that wants to build a model of the Tucson roundhouse. I don't know if he determined this through diligent research, handed-down information or by simply looking at the aerial photo of the Tucson yard on pg. 133 of "Railroads of Arizona." In that photo, there are about 27 cars on the tracks radiating from the turntable at the site of the wood roundhouse.

The original source for the information about the 1942 replacement of the 100-foot turntable at Tucson with a 130-foot turntable came from an SP document called a Circular 4 (I'v never seen a Circular 4 myself, just mention of it on the Yahoo Espee Group).

To TCnR:

What is "that other site" Mr.PhBob is posting on? (after the thread in which I used his regular nickname mysteriously disappeared (i.e., deleted), I am reluctant to use that nickname again. Also, I find it odd there haven't been other posts on Trainorders inquiring of his whereabouts).

TCnR: I inadvertantly deleted your message to me. Could you send it again?