Railroaders' Nostalgia > Crew Portrait on the Last NWP/SP train out of Willits

The date is September 25,1993 and the last NWP/SP train out of Willits is about to leave.The crew posed for pictures with a few onlookers closeby.From left to right are D.G. Poet,Brakeman,G.P.Howard,Conductor and P.D.Schimdt,Engineer.A Railfan friendly crew after years of photos,although we were fellow railroaders, I think they were or are plain nice guys.I chased the train all the way to Petaluma.As I waited for the train to leave I actually felt sadness when the actual departure came,because I then knew it was soon to be over.The Conductor planned to go to Roseville and finish out his career.Maybe somebody can update us as to the where abouts of these railroaders.The first image is in the Willts yard with the farewell sign and the second image is the train on the move about to pass the Willits Depot and after a brief stop at the interchage to pickup their CWRs will depart Willtis for one last time.Bill Webb

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SP 4409 was once on the Turlock Western at Chemergic (sp?) Where is it now?

Paul Schmidt was in my 1971 Eureka "new hire" class; G.P. Howard was either Local Chairman or President, as I recall, of the UTU Local in Eureka at that time.

Looking forward to hopefully reconnecting with some old acquaintances this coming Nov. at the combined NWP/SP convention.

wp1801 Wrote:
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> SP 4409 was once on the Turlock Western at Chemergic (sp?) Where is it now?

Chemurgic, and it's still there. Check out the Google Street View for a 2012 picture.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.464883,-120.9216767,3a,76.5y,94.89h,90.36t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s1oajmkWJFYK1EJ9CxthXSw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Paul finished out his career as a MYO or MTO at West Oakland. Retired around 2010. Good man. Didn't know the other two.

Don Poet was a switchman from W Oakland.

Those are two wonderful photos. That is a good
but very sad record of the end of a great era.

The second photo is superb -- the train, the depot,
all very nice composition. And I absolutely love
SP scarlet and grey Geeps and SD-9s.

The former SP 4409, now the BUGX 4409, is alive and
well at Chemuirgic, CA -- or she was on June 25 of
this year when the photo linked below was taken:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4770522

According to "rrpicturearchives.net", she was built
back in January, 1955. EMD built really great locomotives!
62 and still going strong!

Without going through timebooks and hunting, Don Poet was my conductor on a run from Roseville to

Fresno in late 1989 or 1990 ( not quite sure of the year). We were bedded down in the Fresno mods for some dark sleep when a pounding on my

door in the morning produced Don. He told me to grab my stuff account we were on duty in 20 minutes to

pilot an Amtrak San Joaquin from Fresno to Stockton. We grabbed the train at the interchange track in the

Santa Fe yard and did finally make it to Stockton. If memory serves, Earl Friend was the Amtrak hoghead.

Not 100% sure, but Don may not be with us anymore, someone else may have more info on that than me.

Would have loved to have had the train list from this run. When SP transferred the inventory to CFNR they neglected to include this train.

That crew provided some funny banter on the road channel.

q--"Hey, did you see that?!?"
a--"Better not tell ____ about stuff like that, he's celibate!"

q--"Who left that switch lined for the siding?"
a--"Must have been that other guy."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/17 16:31 by Bowknot.

Very nice report and shots of an unfortunate event. Strange all boxes appear to be RailBox, not an SP box in sight?
JB

> Not 100% sure, but Don may not be with us anymore, someone else may have more info on that than me.

Don was still around in May of this year, although showing the effects of age.

Thanks Bill. Love photos of people...

ble692 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> wp1801 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > SP 4409 was once on the Turlock Western at
> Chemergic (sp?) Where is it now?
>
> Chemurgic, and it's still there. Check out the
> Google Street View for a 2012 picture.
>
> https://www.google.com/maps/@37.464883,-120.921676
> 7,3a,76.5y,94.89h,90.36t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s1oajm
> kWJFYK1EJ9CxthXSw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Here is a slightly older but better picture of it.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2195614