Nostalgia & History > Completion of Northwestern Pacific RR

http://archive.org/details/Completi1914

http://archive.org/details/Completi1914_2

You may or may not have seen this before, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

As near as I can tell, this is the first gala trip thru the Eel River canyon, filmed mostly from the back of the caboose looking backward. Lots of interesting scenes of the bridge workers pulling themselves back up onto the top of the bridge after the train has passed, from where they quickly dived over the side when they heard it coming.

I don't recognize any of the locations here (never having been in the canyon) but I bet there are people here that could label every foot of that ride. It should be interesting though, since it is taken completely during the daylight and there isn't a washout or turned rail in sight!

BTW, about half way thru the second reel is footage of cab-forward 4144 pulling 117 loads of redwood off to the eastern states. I suspect this was not on the NWP itself, and may have been a little later than the 1914 date given for the rest of the film.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/12 22:11 by lwilton.

Fascinating look back. Man, the effort it must have taken to build that line...

The shot coming out of the tunnel and over the high bridge is at Island Mountain Tunnel.

I rode the North Coast Daylight press train in 1985 and the ride down the Eel River Canyon is nothing short of Spectacular.

The 1964 flood wiped out the original bridge and riached a height more than 20 feet above track level at the tunnel.

px320 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The shot coming out of the tunnel and over the
> high bridge is at Island Mountain Tunnel.
>
> I rode the North Coast Daylight press train in
> 1985 and the ride down the Eel River Canyon is
> nothing short of Spectacular.
>
> The 1964 flood wiped out the original bridge and
> riached a height more than 20 feet above track
> level at the tunnel.

If the water reached a height of 20 ft. above the track then my body is still in the Eel River. I stood on the South (Island Mt,) end of this bridge and watched it sink into the river. The water jusr barely reached the top chord of the truss and about 5 ft below the Tunnel Portal. December 21,1964.

lwilton Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> http://archive.org/details/Completi1914
>
> http://archive.org/details/Completi1914_2
>
> You may or may not have seen this before, but I
> thought it was worth mentioning.
>
> As near as I can tell, this is the first gala trip
> thru the Eel River canyon, filmed mostly from the
> back of the caboose looking backward. Lots of
> interesting scenes of the bridge workers pulling
> themselves back up onto the top of the bridge
> after the train has passed, from where they
> quickly dived over the side when they heard it
> coming.
>
> I don't recognize any of the locations here (never
> having been in the canyon) but I bet there are
> people here that could label every foot of that
> ride. It should be interesting though, since it is
> taken completely during the daylight and there
> isn't a washout or turned rail in sight!
>
> BTW, about half way thru the second reel is
> footage of cab-forward 4144 pulling 117 loads of
> redwood off to the eastern states. I suspect this
> was not on the NWP itself, and may have been a
> little later than the 1914 date given for the rest
> of the film.

Cab forwards were never used on the NWP

WAF Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Cab forwards were never used on the NWP

Can anyone place where this footage with the cab-forwards and boxcars was actually filmed?

lwilton Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WAF Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Cab forwards were never used on the NWP
>
> Can anyone place where this footage with the
> cab-forwards and boxcars was actually filmed?


Final views of the Cab Foreward were taken in the vicinity of MP 134