miscellaneous SP photos...
they don't fit anywhere else
last addition: 4-30-24
When this photo was recorded at the Los Angeles SP depot in 1915, an African American bystander proclaimed, "He de boss fighter on 5th Street!" Lewis W. Hine photo, Wx4 Digital Collection
North Coast Railroad, ex-SP Commute Geep 3190, 7-29-12. Three other close-by ex-SP GP9's likewise served as homeless housing. Staff photo.
You don't see this kind of thing much anymore: Howard Broeders conducting a boxcar sale for Lone Star Appliances; Dallas, Tx 1962; Dallas Times Herald, Wx4 Digital Collection
Just another vestibule shot that I have ignored for many years, part 1: SP #99 at Serrano (thanks for helping me identify the location, Seller!) in late August, 1970 - Two F's & two Geeps;
economy baggage car; semaphore switch indicators; heavy (5 lbs.+) "A" on the absolute (CTC) signal; eucalyptus tress and pockets of chaparral on the grass-covered hills. This was SP's Coast Division!
One has to admire the happy group that we see here for having the fortitude to manage grins despite the absence of the liquid amenities of a lounge car, for its appears that they are aboard the rider coach of the Coast Mail. Given that most people, other than employees and their families, generally eschewed the Mail in favor of just about any other form of transportation, including the dreaded Greyhound bus, one must conclude that these folks were employees and their families. They apparently have availed themselves of copeous libations already, the remainder (if any) residing just out of sight for the photo. Kodachrome slide marked 8-16-53; Wx4 Collection
Coach riders of less fortunate circumstances during the Depression. Staff lost the photo's ID, but we believe it must be Dorothea Lange's work, which came here via Library of Congress.
You can get an idea how exciting the arrival of the new Malleys was to employees from this 1911 view of #4022 still tied onto the train in which it arrived from the East. Note that its windows are boarded up. On the back of this photo, the Roseville yardmaster, or perhaps the terminal manager, wrote, "This is my west end crew." No. 4022 was one of the few Cab Ahead compounds that never was simpled, being scrapped in 1935. - SP Co. photograph? Wx4 Collection
"The Road of "Ten Thousand Wonders Pigeons"; Wasn't there once a yard in Los Angeles called "The Pidgeon Ranch"? Edward H. Mitchell postcard c1915; Wx4 Digital Collection
Woodland's SP depot had seen only Greyhound buses for the prior nine years when I recorded this photo in March, 1980, though the Coast Starlight would continue passing by until 1982. It still had a freight agent at the time, as well. Thankfully, the community mounted a successful effort to save the depot several years afterward. Though its arches we see the earlier California Pacific's (second) Woodland depot that lamentably burned down in 1986. It dated to 1877-78.
Santa Cruz depot, 6-71: The sign on the door is entitled, "The railroad baron is a thing of the past." - Wx4 photo
On #98 in June, 1968 - Wx4 photo
SP #8904 leads a collection of ex-SP FP7's and AMK SDP-40F's on the southbound Coast Starlight at Santa Clara in 1976.
The crowd was awaiting the arrival of the Freedom Train from San Francisco.
Reminant shadow of Owneyo
Roaring Camp & Big Trees RR, Felton, CA, 1967
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Dateline July 4, 2022:
Running Three Hours Late,
Coast Starlight Frogs
Mt. Shasta, CA Fun Run
"OH! My aching ears..."
- Wx4 photo
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(click on photo) NEW 4-30-24: The Fun Run started late, but Amtrak was even later! SP's Mt. Shasta City passenger depot once stood a couple hundred
feet north (photo left) of the Alma St. crossing in the photo. Mt. Shasta itself lies enshrouded in the background gloom.
NEW 4-30-2024: (click on photo for larger image) Ashland, OR Yard, 7-4-1904; photographer unknown; Fred Miller Collection
NEW 4-30-2024: Although larger 4-6-2's ran with uncertain frequency on Peninsula Commute trains in the 1930's, the standard big power was the #3120-29 locos that came from EP&SW,
such as #3121 seen here at Mission Bay Roundhouse on February 8, 1937. A pedecessor of mine who went firing in 1936 related to me that they were "rough riding bastards".
photo: Paul Michaels, Wx4 Collection
NEW 4-30-2024: SP's #3100-3109 Pacifics also came from EP&SW, but were quire diminuative, having less tractive effort than the modern 4-6-0's that held the majority of Commute assignments in the 1930's.
They also powered San Francisco-Santa Cruz trains for awhile during the decade. An unknown photographer took this shot on March 4, 1938, also at Mission Bay Roundhouse - Wx4 Collection
NEW 4-30-2024: Transition scheme?: SP #4268 on August 28, 1946, early-on in the change from "Southern Pacific Lines" scheme to block "Southern Pacific", shows the latter lettering arrangement,
but lacking silver paint on the lower cab front/pilot. Quite likely, the omission was a roundhouse foreman's imminent need for power, which far outweighed cosmetic considerations.
Truckee, CA; photographer unknown - Wx4 Collection
NEW 4-30-2024: Rudamentary servicing facilities at Emoryville, CA in August, 1956, with SP S-10 #1234 and EMD SW8 4603
photo by R. E. Buike
NEW 4-30-2024: Sharp eyes will spot the COSF EMC E2 unit in the background that gives us a late 1930' date for this photo. Due to a lack of
facilities in Oakland to service diesel electric power, the E2's initially were handled by the electric shops at West Alameda.
photo by R. E. Buike
