Nostalgia & History > John Plytnick: SP diesel excursions in CA

Here are some more heavily color-corrected, 120-format Ektachrome transparencies from the John Plytnick collection at the Western Railway Museum Archives. They are unlabeled except for a processing date stamped on the cardboard mounts, and appear to show Southern Pacific excursions that ran in California in the 60's. Thanks to list of excursions compiled by Scott Inman and others, I think I can identify this first one as the Big Trees Picnic Train that ran on August 1, 1965. The venue is also familiar, Jack London Square in Oakland, CA. The SP station at 1st and Broadway had provided a backdrop for many excursion photos, but by the time of this trip, the station had been leveled and the Jack London Inn had gone up on the site.

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This next one I'm less sure about. The processing date is May 1965, which means it probably one of two excursions that went to Monterey, CA that month. The Northern California Railway Club "Monterey Special" trip from Oakland to Monterey on May 8, 1965 seems the most likely, though the flyer below mentions that they expected to have open-platform obs "Ferroequinologist," and that old heavyweight is pretty clearly not on this train. If anyone knows which excursion used SP 5895, or the location of either of these photos, please let me know.

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Ektachrome had evidently become more color-fast by 1969, as this last one with a processing date of February 1969 required very little in the way of correction. The unmistakeable (though decidedly white) Black Butte looming in the background makes me suspect this is Mt. Shasta, CA and the excursion is the Bay Area Electric Railway Association trip from Oakland to Mt. Shasta and McCloud partially described in the flyer below.

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Great stuff thanks for the discovery and posting.

Regards, Jim Evans

The Norcal Monterey trip was a case of not selling enough tickets, but enough to run the train at break even, so minimal equipment.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/15 08:30 by WAF.

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> Here are some more heavily color-corrected,
> 120-format Ektachrome transparencies from the John
> Plytnick collection at the Western Railway Museum
> Archives. They are unlabeled except for a
> processing date stamped on the cardboard mounts,
> and appear to show Southern Pacific excursions
> that ran in California in the 60's. Thanks to
> list of excursions compiled by Scott Inman and
> others, I think I can identify this first one as
> the Big Trees Picnic Train that ran on August 1,
> 1965. The venue is also familiar, Jack London
> Square in Oakland, CA. The SP station at 1st and
> Broadway had provided a backdrop for many
> excursion photos, but by the time of this trip,
> the station had been leveled and the Jack London
> Inn had gone up on the site.


The photos seem to indicate they were taken in winter based on the trees on the left hand side. The shadows also indicate this is an afternoon photo, whereas the timetable indicates a morning departure from Oakland.
Great photos and story, thank you for sharing.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/15 09:01 by ATSF3751.

ATSF3751 Wrote:

> The photos seem to indicate they were taken in
> winter based on the trees on the left hand side.
> The shadows also indicate this is an afternoon
> photo, whereas the timetable indicates a morning
> departure from Oakland.

I'm glad somebody's paying attention. You're right - while it may not technically be "after noon" just yet, the light angle also definitely makes it later than 8:30am. The processing date on these slides was November 1965, and that tree's foliage is more consistent with November than August in Oakland.

November...hmmm...what did Cal-Stanford Big Game trains look like in the mid-60's?

Probably it is. A few lounge cars on the train

The second pic of your second post is the west switch at Castroville, where the Monterey branch [used to] connect to the Coast line. The guy is probably the head brakeman rolling the freight by -- he doesn't need to line the main line switch for the train coming off the branch because it's a spring switch ("poor man's CTC").

Ektachrome's color shift phenomenon was a result of the processing chemicals used: http://www.kodak.com/global/en/service/tib/tib5200.shtml

Don't know if it will help, but the set of images of X5622 east in Oakland also includes this one of the middle of the train:

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First pic of second set is near Lapis.

Roger

Posted from Android

Was the Picnic Train the last excursion that SP ran on the Santa Cruz Branch, or was there a later one that summer? I kinda recall the last one being billed as a "Suntan Special".

EO

The 1st-Broadway pics look later than 0830,
but they're not afternoon-- 1100 looks good
a guess as any. A reasonable time for a Big
Game special? Did SP run them from Oakland
that late? But they wouldn't have coffee-shop
cars or whatever those are?

Guess we have to believe the flyer, and
fan trips originated at 1st-Bwy in 1965--
wonder how long the train would stop there.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/15 11:49 by timz.

timz Wrote:
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> The 1st-Broadway pics look later than 0830,
> but they're not afternoon-- 1100 looks good
> a guess as any. A reasonable time for a Big
> Game special? Did SP run them from Oakland
> that late? But they wouldn't have coffee-shop
> cars or whatever those are?
>
> Guess we have to believe the flyer, and
> fan trips originated at 1st-Bwy in 1965--
> wonder how long the train would stop there.

1969 was the last year for the 1st and Broadway stop. Joint club picnic special to Big Trees ended with the 1966 trip. 3 lounge cars on that Football Special



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/15 12:54 by WAF.

Has John gone to the other side so that we can't ask him about the details? If so, I'm sorry as he was a was a good man. That said, I see that BAERA's Gomez shows up on some on some of the flyers and I think he can straighten out any conflicts.

Great thread and photos! Thanks, too, for including the trip flyers.

I like the first flyer which urges fans to "Bring the girl friend, wife, kids, grandma and the whole family." Yup, bringing the girlfriend AND wife (along with everyone else) would make for quite an interesting trip!

I agree, the first one isn't a Big Trees train. The Big Trees Special had a dozen or more Harriman subs, 2 baggage cars, one on each end and a lounge and snack car. It too originated in Oakland with a cross platform connect with commute train 114

Last that I knew John was in a 24 hour care facility.