Wx4 Southern Pacific Pages
Last Update 4-7-2023

New Items
Geographic Locations, incl. NWP, P&SR
Right-of-way & structure drawings
Collected Misc. Document PDF's
Maps and Timetables
Rule Books
Train Orders, DTC
SP Railroaders' Pages

War Stories
Locomotives
SP steam loco appliances drawings (120 +-)

Passenger Trains & Equipment
Freight & M/W
Miscellaneous Photos
Advertisements & Misc.Documents
Selected Readings on Bay Area SP










mGeographic Locations

See also:

Coast / Western Divisions Engineering Drawings

Coast Division Misc. Photos (originally posted on 2021 front page
4-5-2023: Coast Division Misc. Photos, Part 2 (originally posted on 2022 front page)

Items, 4-5-2023: San Jose & Santa Clara Valley

San Francisco

San Francisco Peninsula

1Castroville 1974 and a hyndred years earlier

Monterey Branch (part of Del Monte series)

Events in Early Alameda County, CA Railroad History: CP & predecessors, 1861-1873

Niles Tower & Environs; two pages

Altamont Pass, 4-6-6-2's

4-6-2023: Fresno Yard, c1910 - B&W postcard colorized by Wx4; it turned out prety good

Post-Flood on Southern Pacific at Bay Point (Port Chicago), California, 1911

Roseville Yard & RH, 1910 photo

West (Sacramento) Valley Line

Donner Pass

Trackside from Eugene Through the Cascades to Donner and Beyond - a Wx4 friend's photo
xxxxxxxessay of his April, 1969 trip through the Cascades & Sierras (this page originally appeared in 2018,
but the link to it inadvertantly never made it to this index until now. Drat.)

Modoc Line:

SP Northwest (N.CA & OR)

A Triple Meet at Hornrook, c.1912

Brooklyn (Portland, Oregon) Roundhouse turntable replacement, 1925 - photos

Canby Oregon, 1974

Oregon Short Line 4-6-0 #800 on train #20, Roseburg, Oregon, ca. 1910-1913

Oregon Short Line 4-6-0 #800 at Roseburg, Oregon, ca. 1910-1913

Nevada, Carlin & Wells

Ogden,1969 (part of Mail & Express series)

4-6-23: The Riverside Local in 1993 - photos by Steve Donaldson

Tucson Division, Carrizozo Sub

Northwestern Pacific / Petaluma & Santa Rosa

mTrain Orders, DTC & Movement of Trains

see also our Rules & Rulebooks page - muchas SP

Steam's Last Summer at Niles Tower

Last SP Standard Gauge Steam Revenue Freight Train, 12-30-57

Note: a more extensive index of the following can be found HERE.

A Circular of the Times I: The passing of the 40 ft. boxcar

A Circular of the Times II: Roseville Herder Jobs Abolished

4-6-23: Newfangled Signals on Southern Pacific

mSP (& some Amtrak) War Stories

Commute GP9 3187 - "A Swing and a Miss: musings about Caltrain's 1982 paint scheme, Governor Medfly & B.F. Biaggini"

The Last Steam-Powered Peninsula Commute (you say 1957? Wrong!)

E.O. a 'Bo? Oh No! a nostalgic, but uncomfortable, last trip to Ashland

Braking in a Topsy-Turvey World

Tickets...PLEASE!

The Leaning Tower of Newhall

A Switchman's Swan Song

A Short Tale

The Most Absolute of Absolute Signals

Close Call at College Park Yard

A Close Call at Wilmington

How I Came to Embrace Direct Traffic Control

How to Get By A Red Automatic Interlocking Signal Using Rule 663bs

A Puzzling Day at Bayshore, featuring totally unreliable info from a switchman

Lettuce Make the Best of It! GP40X's and Farm-Fresh Produce Delivery [10-2013: photo link now fixed]

Take a Ride on Southern Pacific's OALAC! [Oak-SJ leg,1980]



mLocomotives

(see also: Geographic Locations, Above)

Early San Francisco Bay Area Locomotive Rosters Revisited - San Francisco & Oakland, San Francisco & Alameda, San Rafael & San Quentin revised rosters plus Los Angeles & San Pedro 2nd loco origin clarification - includes extensive notes

SP Steam locomotive rosters for 1935 and 1942

4-6-2023: SP Steam in the Post-Season - photos of post 11-30-1956 active engines

Commute engines used in freight & through passenger service, month of September, 1963
mmmmmmmmmmtestimony before CA PUC by SP for Commute fares incresse

motor car madness - a collection of material related to gas-electric motor cars, mostly SP, mostly Mckeen;: now includes the Mckeen Motor Train! and SP Mckeen roster docs

4-5-2023: Peninsular Railway: A Biography of a Humble Litte Line Car - log book of car #14's activities, circa WWI

Operators' Manuals

Steam Locomotive Blueprints - rescued by Bayshore Machinist Fred Boland - about 120!

Southern Pacific's Early Remote Control Locomotive Tests, 1961-65

4-5-2023: Historic SP Bloody Nose diesels congregate at W. Oakland, 1959 - don't miss the details!

Commute GP9 3187 - "A Swing and a Miss: musings about Caltrain's 1982 paint scheme, Governor Medfly & B.F. Biaggini"

4-7-2023: SP Fairbanks-Morse Photo Gallery - H12's & T-M's

F7A #6436 in 1968-69

FP7 #6462, system unique

E7A #6003, the last one, 1968

E9A #6051 at Dunsmuir, 1990's, North Bank Fred photo

GP35 #6666, The Devil's Own

GP40X - photos & related stories

4-6-2023: A hot move on the Peninsula - RS-32 fire at Mountain View, 1974

Re Railing the 3029

Krauts & Alcohaulics

photo: SP X2742W on Cordelia Hill, 1966, loco went on to a decade pulling The Permanente Local in 1970

SP Train # 308 w/ Engine #1714 at Willows, California, 1910-11: Online archaeological investigation determines the "where and when" of a classic old photo of the Hamilton City mixed train, as it turns out

Oregon Short Line 4-6-0 #800 on train #20, Roseburg, Oregon, ca. 1910-1913

4-6-6-2's on Altamont Pass

SP 4-4-0 #21 at Castroville c1875, parlor photo - bottom of page

The "roundhouse corollary" of the third law of thermodynamics: SP mountain 4315 takes a nosedive

4449 and the Freedom Train

Locomotive Ratings

Alien Visitors to San Jose

Final SP Peninsula Commute Fleet Roster - 1980

The Last Steam-Powered Peninsula Commute (you say 1957? Wrong!)

Last SP Standard Gauge Steam Revenue Freight Train, 12-30-57

SP locos in manufacturer's ads


steam blueprint rescued by Fred Boland



(click on above for a larger image)





mPassenger Trains & Equipment

See also our Maps & Timetable Pages; Misc. Documents Page

Mail & Express

Coast Daylight Gallery

Del Monte

Oregon Short Line 4-6-0 #800 on train #20, Roseburg, Oregon, ca. 1910-1913







mFreight & M/W
mSelected Readings About SP in the San Francisco Bay Area

Southern Pacific's Coast Line (1994), Southern Pacific's Coast Line Pictorial (1999) and Southern Pacific's Western Division (2003), by dedicated SP historian and man-of-many-talents John R. Signor (Signature Press, pub.); much info on Wx4 is gleaned from his writings. All are in print.

Southern Pacific Bay Area Steam, by Harre W. Demorrow (Chatham Publishing, 1979,
out of print); a fine picture bookwith many early photos, including ferries and NWP.

Prune Country Railroading, by ex WP Engineer Norman W. Holmes (Shade Tree Books, 1985, out of
print); Wx4 depends heavily upon this excellent resource on all Santa Clara Valley railroads (excluding electric).

Tracks, Tires and Wires, by Charles S. McCaleb (Inreurban Press, 1981, out of print); a thorough
history of SP's Peninsular Railways interurbans in the Santa Clara Valley, plus local streetcars and
bus lines. His earlier The San Jose Railroads Centennial 1868-1968 (Local History Studies,
Foothill Jr, College District, 1968) is a very rare spiral-bound booklet covering the same topic.

When Steam Ran in the Streets of San Francisco, by Walter Rice & Emiliano Echeverria
(pub. 2002 by Harold E. Cox, 80 Virginia Terrace, Forty Fort PA 18704, in print?); a fascinating,
absolute-must-have, sleeper of a book that covers the Ocean View Line, amongst many others.

Peninsula Service, by Fred A. Stindt (The Wesstern Railroader, Issue No. 213, July 1957;
reprinted 1967? out of print) The standard reference for vintage SP commute service info.

History of the San Francisco & San Jose Railroad, by Loius Richard Miller (MA Thesis, San Mateo
Jr.College, June 1941) So far, still the definitive work on the SF&SJ. Click title for online link.