Nostalgia & History > Sacramento Northern Excursion Listing

The late Bay Area railfan Robert Townley kept detailed notes on the various railfan excursions or "trips" that were held on Key System, Sacramento Northern, SP-IER and many others. He had listings of well over "three hundred" railfan excursions in a 27-year period from about 1938 to 1965. He kept his notes on simple 3 x 5 index cards. The railfans enjoyed upwards of 13-trips per year!
How many do you guys operate today ??

Again, for all you folks that save records or misc railfan data, here is Bob's listing for trips that were taken on the Sacramento Northern during that famous 27-year span. The sponsoring organization is shown along with some of the primary equipment if known and the date. Enjoy!

KRK

Sacramento Northern Fantrips

Cal-Nevada 5/8/1938 Mystery trip to Colusa
ERHS of C 9/25/1938 Bidwell Oakland to Chico
Nor Cal 4/2/1939 1010, Moraga San Francisco to Bay
Point and Clayton
Cal-Nevada 5/4/1939 Bay Area to
Sacramento and Stockton via SN and CCT
??? 6/16/1940 Sacramento Colusa Branch
Cal-Nevada 5/25/1941 1010, 1024, 1005, 1025, 1012, Bidwell
San Francisco to Chico (1009 added at Sacramento)
Cal-Nevada 6/29/1941 1005, 1014, Bidwell San Francisco
to Pittsburg
BAERA 10/20/1946 60 and 62??? Chico
BAERA 12/14/1947 60 / 62 End of streetcars in
Chico
BAERA 9/12/1948 MW 302 Oakland to Pittsburg
Nor Cal 9/18/1949 MW 302 Oakland to Pittsburg
BAERA 9/25/1949 MW302 / 751 Sacramento to Chipps,
Holland branch and Dozier to Vacaville Jct
BAERA 1/29/1950 RDC-1 Sacramento to Chico
BAERA 7/4/1950 MW302 / 751 Oakland to Sacramento
and Holland Branch
BAERA 6/3/1951 Sasky #12 Mystery Trip[
BAERA 7/6/1952 1005 / MW302 Oakland to Pittsburg
V. Sappers 8/10/1952 1005 / MW302 Oakland to Pittsburg -
private charter
BAERA 12/6/1952 1005 / MW302 / 751 Oakland to
Vacaville and Willotta
BAERA 11/29/1953 MW302 Oakland to Pittsburg
BAERA 5/2/1954 MW302 Oakland to Pittsburg
private trip 6/12/1954 MW302 Oakland to Pittsburg
Nor Cal 10/24/1954 MW-302 / 660 Car cought fire
BAERA 7/8/1956 1005 / 751 Oakland Bridge Yard
to Pittsburg
BAERA 11/10/1956 1005 / 751 Oakland to Pittsburg
BAERA 1/13/1957 1005 / 751 Oakland to Pittsburg -
end of electric operation
OET 6/14/1958 BCER 1225 Marysville / Yuba City
OET 6/15/1958 BCER 1225 Marysville / Yuba City
BAERA 5/3/1959 Muni 178 Marysville / Yuba City
BAERA 3/26/1960 Colusa Branch
BAERA 4/14/1962 Sacramento to Chico
BAERA 4/12/1964
BAERA 10/10/1965 Key System 182,186 Solano County SN Trackage
BAERA 10/26/1969 NCB 21 / 751 ARM Convention; Solano County Trackage

Thanks for publishing the dates of the BCERy 1225 excursions--imagine running such a trip today! The Railway Preservation News website has a link to a video showing 1225 as it is today, completely restored and running on home rails in Surrey, BC.

And the thought of running Muni 178 on SN track--those streetcar-tread wheels will find the slightest wide spot in the gauge.

DNRY122 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for publishing the dates of the BCERy 1225
> excursions--imagine running such a trip today!
> The Railway Preservation News website has a link
> to a video showing 1225 as it is today, completely
> restored and running on home rails in Surrey, BC.
>
> And the thought of running Muni 178 on SN
> track--those streetcar-tread wheels will find the
> slightest wide spot in the gauge.

"And the thought of running Muni 178 on SN track--those streetcar-tread wheels will find the slightest wide spot in the gauge."

They did the same type of thing in 1951 when they operated the "City of Saskatoon # 12" streetcar on the SN for their "Mystery Trip"...

KRK

>BAERA 4/12/1964

I'm fairly sure this is the day long trip when the 1005 ran all around on all the electrified trackage in Yuba City and Marysville. It was while being brought back from this trip that the underframe was damaged in a switching incident.

>And the thought of running Muni 178 on SN track--those streetcar-tread wheels will find the slightest wide spot in the gauge.

I wasn't on this trip, but several who were related that the car was "lively", what with running on 750v instead of 600, and that it made several loud bangs somewhere in the track, the cause of which they were never able to determine. It turns out that they were caused by the narrow treads allowing the wheels to drop into the gaps of switch frogs in some of the switches in the the main line (at the time, the WP didn't use spring rail frogs). Birney 62 has MCB (AAR) tread, cast iron wheels, which is why it had so many problems both times it ran in SF.

Fantastic list. We have really lost a lot in getting here to the present. Twitter, Facebook and even Trainorders certainly can't take the place of these great trips which can't be done today on any railroad let alone on the abandoned lines.