Nostalgia & History > Loading the Baggage Car on the Shasta Daylight 1961

The Portland bound Shasta Daylight is about to depart the Oakland 16Th St Station.

Robert Morris
Dunsmuir, CA
Robert Morris Photography

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Lots of stuff for the TBM to sort.  I wonder how far they went on this train.  Not covered by Hours of Service. 

sphogger

sphogger Wrote:
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> Lots of stuff for the TBM to sort.  I wonder how
> far they went on this train.  Not covered by
> Hours of Service. 
>
> sphogger

They went from Oakland - Gerber, CA. I worked w/ one when he was my Conductor years ago on Amtrak and he told me about the job.

His name’s Bill “Rotten” Cotton, “R.C.”for short. He was far from rotten — a true gentleman and hard working pro. He’s still around, although understandably very “up in years” now — he had a ‘64 date on Espee, IIRC.

Looking back, I worked w/ baggage handlers Bubba and Don when I worked train #14 as the head man, and bag man, in the late 1980’s loading a ton of luggage— even movie film canisters on occasion! They still had those same carts that Photobob captured in this wonderful photo.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/22 20:19 by IC_2024.

nice, busy SP days!

Larry

This post and picture sure brought back some memories!!
In 1962, I was working for SP as a brakeman and baggageman in Los Angeles.  The baggagemen on the San Joaquin Valley trains worked Oakland to LA, with the "home" terminal being Oakland.  The four seniority districts on this route ( Western District - Oakland to Tracy, Valley District of Western  Divsion (Tracy to Fresno), San Joaquin Division ( Fresno to Saugus), and Los Angeles Division (Saugus to LA 26 miles) all got their share of those jobs.  Problem was, no one from LA wanted to work a job that was based in Oakland.  That meant LA would send an "extra" man to deahead to Oakland to protect the LA Division jobs, work two round trips over 8 days,  and then dead head home.  I was a foot loose and free young man and I found this assignment right up my alley, so the crew clerks in LA and I had an understanding - I would deahead to Oakland to protect the "LA" jobs as needed, and they would not have any problem finding someone to send to Oakland.
If I was due out of Oakland on train 52 on say Monday morning at 745am, I would arrange my schedule to be there.  I deadheaded to Oakland in a variety of ways, such as Santa Fe thru Barstow, or Santa Fe's bus from LA to Bakersfield, then the Golden Gate trains to Richmond, then the Santa Fe bus to the Leamington Hotel in Oakland.  Another route was fly on PSA - they had a 530am flight from Burbank to Oakland, fare was $12.00, airport bus from Oakland to 14th Street in downtown Oakland, then catch the SP crew bus to West Oakland Yard in time for the 7:45am departure.  That one was a little close on connections.  Of course, I rode the Daylight, Lark, Owl, and even the San Joaquin too.
The best connection I ever made was to accompany a friend who was riding the California Zephyr from Oakland to Chicago on business.  We left Oakland the morning of one of my three day Oakland layovers, and I rode with him to Glenwood Springs, Colorado.  I stepped off the train, bid him farewell, and entered to depot to wait for the Westbound Zephyr.  I called "long distance" to the crew office in LA and asked them "Do you need someone to deahead to LA tomorrow to protect #52 Wednesday?"  I knew they did, so I volunteered to take the trip.   I wrrived in Oakland the next afternoon, well rested for the next day's work.
TIOGA PASS

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar

Great stories, Norm, as always!  Where are your pictures from all those deadhead moves??

Great photo, Bob, and wonderful story, guys, thanks!

Very unique and timely catch on SP 6600. New in 1958 as a baggage car (6000 series) with two-tone gray, it's been changed to solid gray here.. 
It was converted to an RPO in 1963 and renumbered into the 5000 series.

A classic scene!

IC_2024 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> sphogger Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Lots of stuff for the TBM to sort.  I wonder
> how
> > far they went on this train.  Not covered by
> > Hours of Service. 
> >
> > sphogger
>
> They went from Oakland - Gerber, CA. I worked w/
> one when he was my Conductor years ago on Amtrak
> and he told me about the job.
>
> His name’s Bill “Rotten” Cotton,
> “R.C.”for short. He was far from rotten — a
> true gentleman and hard working pro. He’s still
> around, although understandably very “up in
> years” now — he had a ‘64 date on Espee,
> IIRC.
>
> Looking back, I worked w/ baggage handlers Bubba
> and Don when I worked train #14 as the head man,
> and bag man, in the late 1980’s loading a ton of
> luggage— even movie film canisters on occasion!
> They still had those same carts that Photobob
> captured in this wonderful photo.

I suppose Triple Zero Readout was stuck in the yard in the SP days.  He would have trouble in a busy baggage car anyway.

KA7008 Wrote:
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> Very unique and timely catch on SP 6600. New in 1958 as a baggage car (6000 series) with two-tone gray, it's been changed to solid gray here.. 
> It was converted to an RPO in 1963 and renumbered into the 5000 series.

Were the exteriors of these cars built to the same specs as the 1949 Shasta Daylight RPOs? I see a large, Shasta-style window near the end of the car.

Loved to watch that process.
—Mac