Nostalgia & History > WP Passenger Potpouri

Thought I'd share a few WP passenger car photos from my collection. These aren't anything real special or unique other than they are WP - and collecting WP passenger car photos is not always the easiest subject to target. Especially heavyweight cars.

Top photo is WP 110 after it became an instruction car- seen here in February of 1970 in either Stockton or Oakland. Not sure what happened to this car.

The next two cars were on display in Oakland, in the same park that housed SP P-8 Pacific 2467. WP baggage car 128 and coach 302 posed for mug shots on a warm August 12, 1975. Who can tell me where these cars are now?

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And lastly, a photo taken of Budd RDC car No. 376 during a station stop at Gerlach Nevada on June 29, 1951. There is much to love about this classic view of the WP in simpler times.

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Can't tell you where they are now but I like photo 2, looks like a local denizen waiting for his clothes to dry draped over the door of the baggage car. Also, what park is this? Having lived in Oakland during that time period I thought I knew them all. Mike

Looks like a crew change for 376 as well. Wonderful machines, those two Budd cars. Whenever I'm at Sand Pass or Hogan Tunnel near Shafter I try to imagine one of them approaching across the desert basins.

hogantunnel Wrote:
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> Can't tell you where they are now but I like photo
> 2, looks like a local denizen waiting for his
> clothes to dry draped over the door of the baggage
> car. Also, what park is this? Having lived in
> Oakland during that time period I thought I knew
> them all.

This equipment was in the park at Jackson St and Interstate 880. There was an SP Pacific and an SP business car there too. I heard there was a live-in custodian in the business car.

Best regards,

Rob L.

IIRC the 2467 was in the park
between 6th-7th, Harrison-Alice.

rattenne Wrote:
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>
> The next two cars were on display in Oakland, in
> the same park that housed SP P-8 Pacific 2467. WP
> baggage car 128 and coach 302 posed for mug shots
> on a warm August 12, 1975. Who can tell me where
> these cars are now?

The WP cars 128 and 302 that were in Harrison Park in Oakland are currently at the Western Railway Museum at Rio Vista Jct. They are inside, a new car barn that was built a few years ago and coupled to the WP 94.

The Espee business car that was also in Harrison Park is the #121 "Western" and is at the Brightside yard of the Niles Canyon Railway, reportedly undergoing restoration.

Oh, and thanks for posting the photos.

Hope this helps.

Bob



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/12 17:45 by up421.

Funny, putting a coach and baggage car on display in a municipal park! The coach appears to have been open for people to just wander through. Imagine what they'd look like today! Thanks for the look. Kurt.

I remember either stumbling upon or being directed to the park when I was a teenager. It felt like a grassy railroad museum! The big Pacific (SP 2467) was swell, and I flipped out over it for quite some time. But the business car actually captured most of my attention.

Yes, they were just standing there for all to see... in the open, accessible enough to walk up to, as I recall, and seemed un-vandalized even in the late 1960s. (Vandalism had been invented by then, trust me.)

Glad they've all survived. I do miss the public aspect sometimes. Engines and cars in parks used to be fun to encounter. You still can, but so many have been extracted (and many preserved or restored). Everyone by now knows I don't use the "S&M" phrase just because something's on public display, but I do get the point of wanting to rescue things from unappreciated decay or horrible presentation. When I saw this equipment, it was experiencing neither.

Brian Wise did a lovely writeup on the SP 4-6-2 which sat with these cars. Good reading, as always!

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2724309

~ BZ

kurtarmbruster Wrote:
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> Funny, putting a coach and baggage car on display
> in a municipal park! The coach appears to have
> been open for people to just wander through.
> Imagine what they'd look like today! Thanks for
> the look. Kurt.


Actually Kurt, if you look closely there is a wire mesh that prevents getting inside the cars. The really amazing thing is the totoal lack of vandalism.

I found the "Harrison Railroad Park" back in the late 60's-early 70's while exploring the East Bay area. I've forgotten whether I found it by chance or looked for it after seeing it on a map, but according to the above reports, it's now in the "Things that aren't there anymore" category.

The park caretaker, Roy Tallman as I recall, lived aboard the car Western for many years.

The park where these cars were stored is now the site of the Hong Lok Senior Center at 275 7th Street in Oakland's Chinatown, about a ten minute walk from the Jack London Square Amtrak Station.

From a pedestrian safety perspective, this is a horrible place for a Senior Center as it is situated within what amounts to a two-lane high-speed spiral freeway on-ramp between the northbound Posey Tube (from Alameda beneath the Oakland Estuary) and the northbound Nimitz I-880 freeway.

In the Google aerial view of this park you can still see where two of the cars were parked on either side of the orange roofed senior center.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=275+7th+Street+Oakland,+CA&hl=en&ll=37.797581,-122.27016&spn=0.001317,0.002064&sll=37.79713,-122.270396&sspn=137.833563,270.527344&t=u&gl=us&hnear=275+7th+St,+Oakland,+California+94607&z=20

The WP Instruction Car, aka WP coach 320, is now at the WP Museum in Portola. Plans are to restore it back to a coach.

Z

Ah, so there was a loco with 'em--that makes it all come together. Neat idea! Nowadays, impossible. Kurt.

stash Wrote:
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> The park caretaker, Roy Tallman as I recall, lived
> aboard the car Western for many years.

I was but a lad of 10 or so when my family stumbled upon this park. I had a great old time climbing all over 2467 and looking at the passenger cars. We were looking at the "Western", when the caretaker saw us, (I assume it was Mr. Tallman), popped out and asked if we wanted a tour. I can't recall much except being fascinated by the little stainless steel sinks and kitchen appliances. I remember thinking how neat it would be to live in a railroad passenger car. That was forty years ago. Glad to hear all of the cars are preserved.

Thanks for posting these, Ken.