Nostalgia & History > Santa Fe grabbing orders at Calwa Tower 1962

This southbound Santa Fe freight has just left the Calwa Yard is about to cross the SP main line just south of Fresno California. I remember this as being one of those 100+ summer afternoons. My buddy and I had just walked to this location from the Fresno Greyhound Depot. Oh to be young and stupid again.

Robert Morris Photography
http://www.snowcrest.net/photobob/index1.html

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Don't tell me. Stupid because you COULD HAVE arrived in Fresno on a variety of SP and ATSF passenger trains?

We took Greyhound because you could catch a Greyhound out of SF for a couple of bucks to most of our railfan locations. When you had a budget of under five bucks for a trip you were limited in your options. We would normally catch a midnight bus and get to where ever we were going before dawn. Its the same distance from the Greyhound Depot in Fresno as the SP depot in Fresno to walk to Calwa.

Here's a set of orders No. 8 received at Calwa 1/29/66:

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All gone when I arrived in Fresno/Calwa in 1975.

Tom Y

Calwa Tower only had a year to live in the summer of 1962. It closed in July 1963, which I guess means those 1966 orders were handed up at the yard office.

Looking at other pictures of the tower, it doesn't appear to have had an order board for the Santa Fe, only for the Southern Pacific:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2381761
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,872554

Did every eastbound Santa Fe train pick up orders at the tower, such that an order board was not necessary?

terrybaker Wrote:
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> Here's a set of orders No. 8 received at Calwa
> 1/29/66:


I have a question about locations. I know the crew should know the territory they run. I don't know the speed they would be traveling in this case. However, how do you know the 8th pole from the 9th or 7th? Just, wondering.

So Bob, just when IS the book coming out? ;>)

As usual, a great photo.

SR...Sid Rogers was Supt....

That wording caught my attention as well. In my past experience, poles had a marker designating them as pole 10, 20, (or 30 depending on how many poles per mile). Depending on your direction of travel, when you got to MP 895 Pole 10 you'd know that pole 8 was two more up or when you passed MP 895 you'd just count up 8 poles. However, I've never seen it written this way. Most railroads would have written this as 40 mph between MP 895 Pole 8 and MP 896.

santafedan Wrote:
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>
> I have a question about locations. I know the
> crew should know the territory they run. I don't
> know the speed they would be traveling in this
> case. However, how do you know the 8th pole from
> the 9th or 7th? Just, wondering.

Rathole Wrote:
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> That wording caught my attention as well. In my
> past experience, poles had a marker designating
> them as pole 10, 20, (or 30 depending on how many
> poles per mile). Depending on your direction of
> travel, when you got to MP 895 Pole 10 you'd know
> that pole 8 was two more up or when you passed MP
> 895 you'd just count up 8 poles. However, I've
> never seen it written this way. Most railroads
> would have written this as 40 mph between MP 895
> Pole 8 and MP 896.
>
This was the prescribed verbiage for a Form U train order on the AT&SF.