Nostalgia & History > mundo et al: The Blythe-Ripley excursion, 1965

Mundo in the subject line means that some of the photos in the following thread were taken by Trainorders.com member mundo.  

On a weekend in early February 1965, the Orange Empire Trolley Museum (currently the Southern California Railway Museum in Perris, CA) sponsored a two-day, rare mileage excursion from the LA area to Ripley, CA via Cadiz, Rice, and Blythe, taking in some of loneliest, most remote Santa Fe branchline trackage in California.  A few photos of this trip were posted recently in this thread:
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,5010110

The train consisted of Alco PA-1's 67L and 58L pulling seven cars identified by mundo as follows:

2544  coach-baggage-express
3029 chair
3016 chair
3019 chair
3366 snack car
1304 baggage-lounge
1509 cafe lounge observaton

Among the photographers riding this trip were Stan Kistler and the late Ed Graham.  Stan has graciously allowed me to share his photos of the trip, and Ed Graham's images appear through the courtesy of the Western Railway Museum Archives, which also supplied the flyer below.  The photo of the drumhead is courtesy mundo!
 

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1 (Ed Graham): Eastbound at Barstow on the morning of February 6th.

2 (Ed Graham): Photo angles at the Cadiz depot were somewhat challenging as the train prepared to leave the main and enter the line to Rice.  Amboy Crater can be seen in the far distance to the right of the tracks.

3 (Ed Graham): Photo runby at Milligan about halfway between Cadiz and Rice.  The weather was overcast for much of the trip.  Here's the same spot years later with an Arizona & Calfornia RR freight as photographed by 3rdswitch:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,4709399
 

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4 (Stan Kistler): Not that overcast is always a bad thing.  Stan grabbed this shot of the Alcos facing a faint rainbow in the distance.

5 (Ed Graham): After a barbecue dinner courtesy the Blythe Chamber of Commerce and overnighting at various local motels, excursionists reboarded the train on the morning of February 7th as it prepared to retrace its steps.  According to the timetable, geographic north was railroad eastbound on the branch from Ripley to Rice, while from Rice back to Cadiz, it was westbound.  The first photo opportunity was of observation car 1509 on the end of the train at the end of the line at Ripley.  Most of these buildings still exist, but the tracks have been gone since 2011.

https://goo.gl/maps/nUASY4G6oygRxHSTA

6 (Ed Graham): Water from the nearby Colorado River feeds a belt of agriculture from south of Ripley through Blythe and on up to Parker.  The first photo runby of the day between Ripley and Blythe featured a bit of green in the foreground while the sand-buried rails and thin scrub on the other side remind us that this is still desert.
 

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7 (Stan Kistler): The Blythe depot was a curious structure.  The passenger and office portions were a hip-roofed, stucco affair similar to the Santa Fe's depot at Fontana, CA, while the south end was a metal clad affair with a completely different roofline.  Most of the depot's windows were sealed up in later years, and it had fallen into disrepair by the time it burned down in 2006. A short stretch of track remained here after abandonment in anticipation of some sort of future railroad-themed display.

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4406662
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1142904
https://goo.gl/maps/tLR2UgVZbyvcPsmZ9

8 (Stan Kistler): About 25 miles up the line from Blythe was the station of Midland, which served a large US Gypsum plant.  The plant and its small station had around two years of existence left when the excursion paused here, with the former closing in December 1966 and the latter in March 1967.  Nothing exists at the site today except foundations and the abandoned grade.  This Google Streetview shot dates from 2007, before the rails were lifted:
https://goo.gl/maps/4vMh8QVj2xuq57d18

9 (Stan Kistler): Beyond Midland, the branch passed through a gap between the Little and Big Maria Mountains at a station called Styx.  A photo runby was staged here, and Stan captured the photo line with the train in the distance.
 

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10-12 (mundo): Ed photographed the excursion arriving at Rice, CA, the junction between the now-abandoned Ripley District and the Cadiz District between Parker and Cadiz that is still operated by the Arizona & California RR.
 

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13 (Stan Kistler): I have to confess I don't know exactly where this one was taken.  It's clearly a runby, but none of our photographers appear to have shot it from ground-level.  The sun has finally come out, suggesting it's somewhere between Rice and Cadiz.  There aren't a lot of curves in that bit except just east of Milligan, but even that doesn't look right.  Edit: Turns out this is west of Cadiz on the main line, in the curvy north track grade-separation at Klondike.

14 (Ed Graham): At the main line junction at Cadiz, a westbound freight behind a mix of GP35's and SD24's passes through as the excursion waits to enter the main.

15 (Ed Graham): GP35 1324 on the point of an eastbound headed toward Parker faces off with the excursion on the wye at Cadiz.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/24 00:17 by Evan_Werkema.

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16 (Ed Graham): A mainline photo stop at Ludlow, which in the early decades of the 20th century was a three-railroad town hosting the Santa Fe, the Tonopah & Tidewater, and the Ludlow & Southern.   

17 (Stan Kistler): One final view of the train from the 1st Ave. overpass in Barstow.

Thanks to Stan and both Eds for sharing their photos of this unique excursion.  While many other trips have since toured the line from Cadiz to Parker and beyond, I don't know of any other excursions that visited Blythe and Ripley.
 

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Wow, what a great group of excellent images of this excursion - thanks to the photographers.
The PA units on the headend were special but how about the heavyweight car consist !
Thanks Evan for excelent scanning and the info writeup.
Gary
 

I echo gcm's sentiments: Great bunch of photos. It's amazing to me how many excursions were run back in those days.

Kim Heusel

awesome images.  the station at cadiz is my favorite.

thanks for posting............

66

Amazing photos, thanks to everyone involved in bringing them to public view. The PAs and the heavyweight consist are great, of course, but also consider the can-do attitude of the railroad management which was willing and able to bring about excursions like this on a fairly regular basis.  It was a different era in so many ways.
Bill

Fantastic presentation!  Thanks so much.

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ

Very nice! LOVE these older Santa Fe views! THANKS for posting.

Was David P. Morgan and his wife on this trip?  I seem to recall references made to this trip by him.  But the most important thing is, this is an amazing spread of photos not only in its content, but size.  THANK YOU!

Very well done!

:^)

The only passenger train and  engine crew change on that excusion was at Barstow, CA with the Barstow based passenger train and engine crews worked to and from Blythe, CA withe crew overnighted in Blythe. Correction are welcome.

Hey Evan, did you or Mundo ever get more photos of the Blythe Station?

I haven't seen too much of the Station. Specially interior photos of the Station

Jerry Martin
Los Angeles, CA
Central Coast Railroad Festival

That Midland shot is a total hoot! There's a station, and trees and the plasterboard plant and it looks so civilized
vs today when you could barely identify the place. And Ripley, it looked that way right up ntil the end. Really liked
the Cadiz station shot, beautiful station and if you saw the area today you wonder why it was there. Excellent
shots, epic post, thanks Evan.

Out 

Evan Werkema wrote:

.  While many
> other trips have since toured the line from Cadiz
> to Parker and beyond, I don't know of any other
> excursions that visited Blythe and Ripley.  
>  

While I'm sure this assertion is true, I doubt that they had Alco PA's for power and only cost $24.00!  Great set of photos, Evan, thanks for posting.  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

What an outstanding bunch!
JB