Nostalgia & History > Some Northwestern Pacific memories

Northwestern Pacific's Santa Rosa, CA depot has enjoyed a long and interesting life. The original wooden depot of the railroad burned in 1904 and this stone
structure along with the Western Hotel, in the distance, were built in time to survive the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906.
​This depot is where actor Joseph Cotten as 'Uncle Charlie' arrived in Alfred Hitchcock's 1943 movie "Shadow of a Doubt" along with Teresa Wright. Today it houses
​the visitors center for Santa Rosa. I don't know if SMART trains pass this way today.

​Here it is in the late afternoon hours of September 2, 1965 with its train order boards in 'Stop' position. Photo 2 shows NWP wooden caboose No. 14 awaiting
​it's next run, sitting on a side track which tells me it is possibly assigned to a regular local. NWP had several wooden cabooses in service on locals as
​well as through freights during the 15 months that I lived in the neighborhood.

​DynamicBrake's comment on the classic caboose reminded me that I failed to include this more complete portrait of No. 14.

Charlie



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/16 17:49 by cewherry.

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Near the end of its NWP days in the 1980s, this depot housed an Operating Dept. clerk, a Roadmaster and a couple of Assistant Engineers in the Engineering (M of W) Dept. From its appearance one would think it might have had a nice store room of old files and records but it had none. 

And the film "Shadow of a Doubt" is a must-see four star film, especially the original shot in steam days.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/16 16:22 by Westbound.

Great pair, thanks for the share Charlie.  And a good looking, strong structure too.  The wood caboose is a classic!

Kent in CArmel Valley

 

Thanks for the wonderful photos.

How many non-local trains a day was the NWP running back in the 1960's through this area?

 

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

There were 2 scheduled westbound freight trains, 81 and 85, and at least 2 eastward trains pretty much every day.

​That caboose at Santa Rosa was probably for the P&SR local that went over to Sebastopol then to Graton or Denman on the old P&SR.

​As a note, the Santa Rosa depot is open as a museum and the train order board has been refurbished and you are welcome to change the signal using the original levers.
 

And these were big trains, 100 plus cars

Trains departing South Yard (Del Norte St.) in Eureka in October, 1968 were mostly 170-180 cars, with six engines on head end and two cabooses on rear to hold all the crew.

Cool pics!

Depot also appeared in "Happy Land" (1943) and "Cheaper by the Dozen" (2003).

Here's a somewhat related thread....

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3863713



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/16 20:20 by tehachapifan.

Growing up in Sebastopol, I remember wooden NWP cabooses being used on the P&SR well into the mid-60s. At that time, the job went on duty in Santa Rosa about 4:00pm, although by the early '70s it changed to a morning call. The power was SW8s (usually 1116 or 1128--whichever one wasn't in Santa Rosa was in Petaluma), although an SW900 occasionally showed up. A big surprise was when S-3 #1025 showed up in Santa Rosa in 1969 and stayed about a year--the only Alco I ever saw on the NWP. SW1500s appeared in 1976 or '77 (usually 2592 or 2595), and the P&SR last ran in 1984.

cewherry Wrote:

> ​DynamicBrake's comment on the classic caboose
> reminded me that I failed to include this more
> complete portrait of No. 14.
>
> Charlie

That looks like an old SP C-30 caboose Charlie. I had one on the night Valla" job about 46-47 yeas ago.


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