Nostalgia & History > Speaking of Willows...

I used to chase the local that ran out to the Manville plant on the old Fruto Branch (or what was left of it). Here is a scene from October of 1988 showing the PTLAT passing said local.

Adam

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Great SP scene! Ron also got the 6811 leading at City of Industry and just posted it a couple of threads below.
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3525226

RplusLJetService Wrote:
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> I used to chase the local that ran out to the
> Manville plant on the old Fruto Branch

I was just looking at that area on Google Earth. What do/did they make at the Manville plant? I can't see what they would be using for raw materials other than peach pits or the like.

Fiberglas insulation. Still very active but seems to be more trucks than RR cars.

'Back in the day' broken glass, or simply discarded glass, would be carried into the plant in RR cars for melting and working into insulation. So I'm told, but it was before I subscribed to the Trainline.

> -----
> > I used to chase the local that ran out to the
> > Manville plant on the old Fruto Branch
>
> I was just looking at that area on Google Earth.
> What do/did they make at the Manville plant? I
> can't see what they would be using for raw
> materials other than peach pits or the like.

Very nice!


This reminds me that I have slides *somewhere* of SP switching the beets at Hamilton City (with a cameo appearance by the Holly S-6). It was a pretty interesting set of moves, what with power being on both ends of the train, and all. Oh heck, where did I put them...

- E.O.

lwilton Wrote:
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> RplusLJetService Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I used to chase the local that ran out to the
> > Manville plant on the old Fruto Branch
>
> I was just looking at that area on Google Earth.
> What do/did they make at the Manville plant? I
> can't see what they would be using for raw
> materials other than peach pits or the like.

They used pelletized resins that came to the plant in covered hoppers. If you look along the tracks hard enough you'll see what looks like clear marbles along the rails. This isthe pelletized resins they would transform into their products.

hogheaded Wrote:
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> Very nice!
>
>
> This reminds me that I have slides *somewhere* of
> SP switching the beets at Hamilton City (with a
> cameo appearance by the Holly S-6). It was a
> pretty interesting set of moves, what with power
> being on both ends of the train, and all. Oh heck,
> where did I put them...
>
> - E.O.

I have slides and video of those good old days when SP experimented by combining two trains out of Redding: a beet train with the West Valley Local. At Wyo the local would be set out and before the lead two units on the beet train as it backed on the Hamilton City Branch to the sugar refinery. The beet power, now on the rear of the beet train, would tag along to Hamilton City. Once at the plant two units would make up the outbound empties while the other two brought in the loads. Then the whole process would repeat inself back to Wyo. From ther the beet empties went north and the local went south.

> I have slides and video of those good old days
> when SP experimented by combining two trains out
> of Redding: a beet train with the West Valley
> Local. At Wyo the local would be set out and
> before the lead two units on the beet train as it
> backed on the Hamilton City Branch to the sugar
> refinery. The beet power, now on the rear of the
> beet train, would tag along to Hamilton City. Once
> at the plant two units would make up the outbound
> empties while the other two brought in the loads.
> Then the whole process would repeat inself back to
> Wyo. From ther the beet empties went north and the
> local went south.

Yup, that's what I'm talking about, kinda low-tech distributed power. Sadly, my brief two years tenancy in Dunsmuir came before the beets started running to Hamilton again. It would have been fun.

But, back to earlier discussion, here is a copy of a 1907 U.S. Dept. of Ag. soils map that depicts the entirety of the Colusa and Lake Railroad (colorfully, I might add), should anyone care. Being a newbie to the board, I'm not sure how it's going to turn out.

- E.O.

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Well, now I see that TO.com has a 1000px limit, too bad.

Note to self: post 1800px version on Dome at some point.

Now, back to Thursday Night Football...no wait, Atlanta is up by 35 on Tampa Bay. Nevermind!

- E.O.

The S6 was still at Hamilton City earlier this summer. Looked in good shape.

Clear resin could be what was told to me as glass. Still waiting for that article.

I'll have to look at that map on a bigger screen.

TonyJ had posted a photo of a Tower out there somewhere.

Posted from Android

TCnR Wrote:
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> I'll have to look at that map on a bigger screen.
>
>
> TonyJ had posted a photo of a Tower out there
> somewhere.
>
> Posted from Android


It wasn't me that posted a photo of a tower. If there once was one it would have to be where the C&L crossed the SP West Valley Line, but I have yet to see a photo, or read something saying there once was one.

OK, I thought it was. I'll see if I can find it.

employee wrote DRGW!

Outstanding shot, Adam. Great look back at the SP.

~Ryan

Alright, back to using a grown up sized PC... not a 'RR Tower' but a 'tall pumphouse', not 'TonyJ' but 'Railbaron'. Some interesting discussion in the two threads:

Date: 11/09/12 11:07
SP Tower Question
Author: Railbaron

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2914205,2914266#msg-2914266

Date: 06/18/07 17:26
Tower Question - SP West Valley Line
Author: Railbaron

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1430012,1430786#msg-1430786