Southern Pacific Maintenance of Wayf
lastest addition 6-15-24
SP Index


A tip of the hat to M/W workers everywhere from a former track department employee: These guys, were/are the least appreciated and paid, but most heavily worked (and some of the nicest) folks in the railroad community. Eight hours with shovel, tamping bar and spike maul is tough enough, but whenever a train scatters all over the real estate, it's M/W people that slave, with no rest for 16, 18, 24 hours or more, to put things right. See the Big Coyote Pileup of '66.



Donner's Unsung Heroes - Early 1980's photos by S.R. Bush of his motor car rides w/ the Colfax section crew.

Earl Hanson's SP Ditcher Gang, 1916-27; many ditcher (steam shovel) photos

Southern Pacific Snow Service revised & expanded

NEW 6-15-24: 1989-05-30 "correct" location of fire cars on the Oregon Division - Shasta Div. Archives



An early (1907) work of famed illustrator Thornton Oakley.
MW 7011 (re# from MW 691 on 12-1-31); Sparks, Nevada, July 1965