Railroaders' Nostalgia > Mad Dog Chronicle #161 The NWP 1/1/1980

#161 The NWP in 1980.

The NWP had been managed as part of the Western Division since the mid 1960s. However, it was never identified as District 6. It did, later become part of District 5 once the north end had become the Eureka Southern.

On 1/1 1980 when I became the Superintendent of the Western Division, I also became the Vice President and General Manager of the NWP. At that time, the senior operating supervisor on the NWP was the District Superintendent, H B (Hi) Fowler. He had been an operating supervisor on the NWP since at least 1964. He is shown as the Trainmaster at Eureka on timetable #48, issued in March of 1964. He had been the District Superintendent since at least 1977. Physically, there had been very few changes to the NWP, just a lot less business.

There are any number of available reference sources on the NWP. Three of the best sources are “Redwood Railways” by Gilbert H. Kneiss and the two volume “The Northwestern Pacific Railroad – Redwood Empire Route” by Fred A Stindt.

My best resource for these chronicles are my old track charts, timetables, notebooks and calendars. The NWP track chart has notes and information carried down from Superintendent to Superintendent from at least the days of Charlie Neal. These notes in particular deal with the results of previous Eel and Russian River floods. They also detail the various slides and sinks along the right of way. Most SP track chart pages cover ten-mile segments. However, the NWP chart covers only five-mile segments on each page. Even so, many pages have three supplementary pages of notes opposite each five-mile segment.

Hi Fowler would be the first of my old time, experienced supervisors to retire. In his place, the new District Superintendent would be W E Corbett, my old boss from the San Antonio Division.

I have posted two sample timetables for reference.

(cf: NWP TT #48, NWP TT #6)

1/29/06
mdo

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NWP TT #6

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Where did the NWP end and the SP start? Thanks.

Craig

The wye at Schellville. MP 40.6 on the NWP or MP 72.6 on the SP's Schellville Branch. SP had trackage rights through the yard at Schellville to NWP MP 39.0 for purposes of interchange.

Mike: As NWP VP and General Manager were you given constant weekly and monthly carloading reports? I would guess that in 1980 things were looking grim...


AM

Mike:

The "Chief Surgeon" @ San Francisco.. Dr. V. M. Strange... Was his first name "Very"?

(Just a little "SP" humor.)

Take Care, Stay Safe, Have fun!

Larry

sploopconductor Wrote:
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> The "Chief Surgeon" @ San Francisco.. Dr. V. M.
> Strange... Was his first name "Very"?

His initials shoulda been "I. M." instead.

> (Just a little "SP" humor.)

And just a little more.

bradleymckay Wrote:
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> Mike: As NWP VP and General Manager were you given
> constant weekly and monthly carloading reports? I
> would guess that in 1980 things were looking
> grim...
>
>
> AM


AT first, the reports were weekly, by station and customer. Remember that the Island Mountain tunnel had opened less than two weeks, after being out of service for well over a year.

intend to cover some of this in detail in the next several chronicles.

mdo

Following and photographing the NWP for three years, I didn't notice a decline in car counts until the winter of 81-82. Keep in mind however, after 1980, the ERRVY out of Eureka was tri-weekly, but trains left with a solid 100 cars plus and six 9's.
At Willits without the helper job, trains were limited to 4700 tons on Ridge Hill (between Willits and Ukiah, SD-9s were rated about 800 tons each on the Hill), so on heavy days, it would make two trips to Redwood Valley and put the train back together. Saturday was usually cleanup night, so multiple trips were made. On the days the north end didn't go south from Eureka, the tonnage was whatever Cal-Western brought in and leftover cars off the previous day's ERRVY out of Eureka.

The south train out of Eureka left about 6-7am and made it to Willits after 2p. Pickups (and setouts) were generally made at Scotia (the big PALCO mill and Alderpoint) In 1982, with all the slow orders and slipouts, plus budgets cut to the bare, lots of north and south trains would dump ballast along the way. When it was daily service, the meet between the north and south trains occurred at Ft Seward, but depending on the length of trains, it could occur anywhere in the Canyon. The North man left Willits about 7:30a and arrived after 3p. North trains were much smaller than the south trains because of the natural flow of empties towards the NWP.

After arriving in Willits, the south end connection was called and around 5p, the crew would begin to block the train into Roseville/West Colton (prior to the tunnel fire in 1978, there were two trains south each way, a smaller ERWCY and a larger ERRVY. Both trains had helpers, a very high seniority job held by the senior south end engineer who lived in Willits.The WC train left about 4p and the RV about two-three hours after that, provided a north train wasn't coming and needed helpers). Any bad ordered SD- 9's were removed and good ones added so they would have usually 6 going south (starting in the mid-70s, big six axle SD-40/45s would come to Willits and turn back to Roseville/Oakland. They were prohibited north of Willits). Again, anything over 4700 tons was left behind for the next day (service was daily on the south end).

The climb up the two percent plus on Ridge Hill was one that you had to hear, plus the steady whine of the dynamics brakes down the steep three percent from Ridge to Laughlin. The SD-9 was a very vocal locomotive (had a throaty roar) and 50 plus cars going 15 MPH with smoke billowing to the sky made for great pictures. The railroad was fairly accessable on the Willits side with a couple of overpasses and county roads. Those with telephoto lens would love the Laughlin sags north of Redwood Valley. For those who have my Northwestern Pacific Pictorial book ( either the originial( not the best printing) or the reprint ( best printing and hard bound) can attest to this ( sorry, out of print. Copies going for $100 in the used book market!!)

From Ukiah, pickups (and setouts) were made at Ukiah, Healdsburg and Petaluma, put together by the locals out of those towns during the day. Until 1983, Geyersville was the usual meeting point for the north and south trains and for one reason only, the company beanery was there (one also at Ft Seward.. nothing like a little pie and coffee and social chi-chat to make the trip go faster). Before dawn, the south train would pull into the small yard at Schellville where(hopefully) a SP Western Division crew was waiting. The north train for Willits left Schellville in the mid to late afternoon or even later depending on crews and connecting trains. Prior to the tunnel fire, they would leave on NWP crew's rest, usually either at night or early morning. South end crews went on duty at Petaluma and were carry-all'ed to/from Schellville.

So that gives you a little railfan opertating history. Now back to Mike and the decline of the NWP....

Thanks for all the info WAF.

I remember December 7, 1979 as the day the Island Mt. tunnel was reopened. How ironic is was that the tunnel was reopened just as the economy was starting into the early 1980's recession period...

BTY the NWP/SP interchange was flooded in mid January 1980 closing the line 3 or 4 days as I recall. There was also a derailment near Ft. Seward at about the same time.


AM

If it rains, it pours, I guess. On opening day, two RVERYs ran with over a hundred cars each.

WAF Wrote:
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> If it rains, it pours, I guess. On opening day,
> two RVERYs ran with over a hundred cars each.

It's understandable that SP wanted as dramatic a reentry into the market as possible after spending the money to reopen the tunnel. The more interesting question is how quickly those 200 cars got loaded and turned around. What did the ERRV's look like over the next week or so.

JBW

From what I heard, those ERRVYs ran pretty heavy, but again service was still daily ot least six days a week. It wasn't until 1981, things slowed down. Interesting enough, there was enough West Colton/Long East Traffic to keep using the ERWCY symbol (in addition to the ERRVY sysmbol) until the summer of 1980. It was one train south of Willits, but two trips a night to take everything.