Nostalgia & History > SP Black Butte Subdivision Sunday

Here are three 1980s images from Southern Pacific's Black Butte subdivision. In August 1988, I caught a rolling meet at Upton with Mt. Shasta in the background. In June 1987, the PTLAT rolls through Upton with the Trinity Alps in the distance. Lastly, a westbound lumber drag passes the McCloud River 25 at Mt. Shasta City in July 1984.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/24/24 09:44 by Goatboat.

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Good stuff.
Nice locations.
t4p.

Greg,
Great looking trio!  That first shot's a standout.  Thanks for sharing some good SP nostalgia.

Kent in CArmel Valley

Great memories Greg. The McCloud 25 in Dunsmuir was a cool treat for RR days. With the Worlds Fair Daylight on the way home making it a awesome Steam weekend in Dunsmuir. Thanks for these awesome images...

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If Shasta ever blows again, the UP can use their snowplows to push the volcanic ash off the rails instead of snow.  Should work as long as the ash isn't too deep. 

Fantastic images, Greg, thanks for sharing them. 

Shasta blowing up again is one of those when not if propositions.  McCloud sits on ash deposits that are only a couple hundred years old, then there's all the evidence throughout the Shasta River valley of the cataclysmic blowout to the north/northwest. 

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

Thanks Greg good memory's.

Robert Morris
Dunsmuir, CA
Robert Morris Photography

The west coast is an active area for geology of all sorts. Of course we all thought that steel bridges don't burn,

From the current USGS Bulletin.

https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/1503/

Mount Shasta has erupted, on the average, at least once per 800 years during the last 10000 years, and about once per 600 years during the last 4500 years. The last known eruption occurred about 200 radiocarbon years ago.

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+ There's some dispute about the 200 year ago eruption, one story says the sighting was actually a forest fire. There seems to be some geologic evidence that conflicts that. The Mt Shasta Wikipedia is informal but captures relevent information faster than USGS surveys do. The USGS often refers to observations not accessible to regular folks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Shasta

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++ going through the material they seem to point to Hotlum Lava Dome, by way of Mud Creek on the McCloud side and the Medicine Lake complex as the most recent or most active. Hotlum Dome being east of the peak of Mt Shasta, closer to Andesite siding than the namesake siding. They also make reference to the Whitney and Hotlum glaciers, the RR route crossing the drainage at Whitney creek, which is very active during warm summer rains effecting the Glaciers,



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/24/24 14:50 by TCnR.

dmaffei Wrote:
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> Great memories Greg. The McCloud 25 in Dunsmuir
> was a cool treat for RR days. With the Worlds Fair
> Daylight on the way home making it a awesome Steam
> weekend in Dunsmuir. Thanks for these awesome
> images...

I was on the Daylight that day. After we went around Cantara Loop, we could see the MR 25 below us, following just past Small siding.