Nostalgia & History > WP Wednesday with some SN and CCT

Western Pacific RDC-2 375 is on an excursion through Sacramento when it meets up with an idle CCT 44 ton 25 and SN steel boxcab 420 pulling a train into the small yard.  My guess is this is the D Street facility at the north end of Sacramento.  The 375 has paused in the yard to give the riders a chance to look around.  Such a scene would only have been possible between mid 1950 and end of 1951. WP 375 was delivered in May 1950 and 1915 built SN 420 would be retired and sold in January 1952.  

Photo courtesy of the Feather River Rail Society Archives, Western Pacific Corporate Archives - Kenneth J. Meeker Collection.

If you still want a 2021 Western Pacific photo calendar, there are only about 5 left!  Order online at: https://wplives.org/news_items/WP_Historic_2021_Calendar_Pre_Order.html

Z

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The lack of cameras among the riders and the attire that's too formal even for 1950's California railfans makes me suspect this is a company inspection trip rather than a railfan excursion.  Are there more photos of this trip in the collection?

The only railfan excursion I know of that used 375 in the 1950-52 time frame went from Oakland to Stockton and then down the Tidewater Southern to Turlock in March 1951.  It didn't go anywhere near Sacramento, the SN, or the CCT. 

Super scene - Well-crafted.
Bob

Fabulous shot, I have a 1/4" scale model of the 420 and I had never seen a shot of it in use in later years, much appreciated post.

Out 

Hi Evan,

I suspect you are correct, but the description with the photo said excursion so I went with that.

There are more shots.  Let's talk off board on this one.  I'm curious to figure it out.

Z

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> The lack of cameras among the riders and the
> attire that's too formal even for 1950's
> California railfans makes me suspect this is a
> company inspection trip rather than a railfan
> excursion.  Are there more photos of this trip in
> the collection?
>
> The only railfan excursion I know of that used 375
> in the 1950-52 time frame went from Oakland to
> Stockton and then down the Tidewater Southern to
> Turlock in March 1951.  It didn't go anywhere
> near Sacramento, the SN, or the CCT. 

Didn't one of the RDCs go to Colusa on the SN once?

wpamtk Wrote:

> Didn't one of the RDCs go to Colusa on the SN once?

Each of the WP RDC's went to Colusa once.  The Bay Area Electric Railroad Association ran an excursion to Colusa using WP 375 on October 31, 1953:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3437718,3438478#3438478

...and another using WP 376 on March 26, 1960:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3437718,3438490#3438490

Neither of those is what is shown in the photo above.

I was aboard a railfan trip in 1959 from Oakland to Quincy Jct. (I don't recall which organization sponsored the trip) thence a roundtrip on the Quincy Railroad.  We returned to Oroville for an overnight stay before returning to Oakland the next day.  On the return trip a man tried to run across the track in front of the car, WP 375, and was struck and killed.  That put a damper on what had been an enjoyable weekend. 

goldcoast Wrote:

> I was aboard a railfan trip in 1959 from Oakland
> to Quincy Jct. (I don't recall which organization
> sponsored the trip) thence a roundtrip on the
> Quincy Railroad. 

Sorry to hear about the pedestrian death.  The only Oakland - Quincy RDC excursion I'm familiar with was a Northern California Railroad Club trip on July 10-11, 1954, but if you're sure of the year of the trip you were on, that can't be it.  The FRRS has a few photos of an RDC excursion in the Feather River Canyon using car 376 that I haven't been able to identify.  Do you recall if your excursion included a photo stop under the bridges at Pulga?  Any photos to share?

About the photo that started this thread, I'm pretty sure the location is Yuba City, CA looking east by the depot's freight platform.  Zephyrus, have a look at the photo that preceeds this one in the collection, catalog number WP 425A-004 R, which you shared with me some time ago.  You can see CCT 25 and also the Yuba City depot behind the caboose on the left.  Compare the visible structures in that photo to the ones in this Dudley Westler photo at Yuba City during the March 26,1960 BAERA trip, and I think you'll agree the visible structures are the same.  I can't explain why CCT 25 would be in Yuba City, but that's what it looks like to me.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/21 20:59 by Evan_Werkema.

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