Nostalgia & History > Roy Proffer: SN excursion with Key units, 1965

KeyRouteKen was looking for photos of an unusual excursion the Bay Area Electric Railroad Association ran on October 10, 1965. Sacramento Northern 70-tonner 202 pulled two of the association's preserved Key System bridge units over surviving fragments of the SN empire in the general vicinity of Rio Vista Junction (east of Suisun, CA), where BAERA was beginning to develop what would eventually become the Western Railway Museum. Roy Proffer took the following three photos of the excursion. Unfortunately, he didn't label his slides, and the only location I can identify is the first one at Rio Vista Jct. The second looks like it's out in the boonies west of Dozier somewhere, but the third one I don't recognize at all. Any ideas?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/14 06:09 by Evan_Werkema.

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The flyer and a ticket:

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Second photo is at Montezuma, third is, I think, Vacaville.

1200v Wrote:
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> Second photo is at Montezuma, third is, I think,
> Vacaville.

I agree with 1200V , Sir Evan.. I was going to state the same thing. Photo 2 is Montezuma at end of track. Old cattle shute is just behind us. Photo 3 is definitely VACAVILLE on WEST side of famous Onion Plant operated by Basic Vegetable Products Co. for many years.

Sure be great if you could find more photos of this trip.

KRK

Note:On October 10, 1965 a passenger excursion was operated by the Bay Area Electric Railroad Association on most of the remaining SN trackage in Solano County. The equipment consisted of Key System Bridge Units # 182 and 186 pulled by a Sacramento Northern switch engine. It was an amazing trip and completely sold out. Some 250 railfans took advantage of this opportunity of a lifetime. The main highlight of this excursion was operation thru the Onion Plant property and on into Vacaville proper. As a sidenote, operation at some 45+ mph on the Willotta Branch parallel to the I-80 freeway with “destination signs” indicating Line ‘F’ and Shattuck Avenue, definitely garnered a few looks. It was the trip of a lifetime and a lot of crazy fun too !

3rd photo looks more like Willota to me. Missed out on this trip on account of being away in college.

EtoinShrdlu Wrote:
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> 3rd photo looks more like Willota to me. Missed
> out on this trip on account of being away in
> college.

I was thinking Willota when I saw # 3 as well. That old packing shed burned down when I was in high school (Armijo) but the building(s) to the left weren't there that I remember. You can just make out Rockville Road in the background behind the engine. The flyer says they were going to Willota and I don't remember packing sheds at the onion plant in Vacaville, but they could have been gone by the time I was old enough to remember. Great photos though, thanks for posting these Evan. I still remember the old SN tracks along I-80 between the sheds in Willota and the city of Fairfield. The old right-of-way is now a trail system with a water pipeline underneath. A similar packing shed style building to the one at Willota is still standing along Rockville Road where it turns in to West Texas St under I-80, see the first link and street view. Second link shows where the sheds use to be but there's nothing left, it's now fields. Think the dirt road is the old railroad right of way, but not 100% sure. Glad to see pictures of what things used to look like around Fairfield before I was born. Need to get back out to the Western Railway Museum, maybe our next trip to see my parents.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/3046+Rockville+Rd,+Fairfield,+CA+94534/@38.2496006,-122.0717566,410m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m7!1m4!3m3!1s0x0:0x0!2zMzjCsDE0JzM2LjgiTiAxMjLCsDA2JzM4LjAiVw!3b1!3m1!1s0x8085141aa6e353c3:0x9fb550638e1597c0

https://www.google.com/maps/place/38°14'36.8%22N+122°06'38.0%22W/@38.243548,-122.110556,410m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0

Nathan

The second link was broken, at least for me, but entering 38°14'36.8 N 122°06'38 W in google maps worked. Yes, that's the end of the line at Willota. A great deal of the R/W west of the West Texas St on/off ramp has been paved over for the new Chadbourne Rd overpass and WB Route 12 flyover.

More great photos from the WRM.

Thanks for posting. Wow this is memory lane. I couldn't believe it when I saw the photos of the fan trip from Rio Vista Junction on the SN with the Key Units. My brother and I cleaned the seats on the 182 and 186 I believe with saddle soap and linseed oil. We have 8 mm film of the trip in a box somewhere. I was a fantastic trip hard to believe it was 49 years ago.