The scene was only on the tip of things, one would guess, given that it involved one or more trailing sections. The lead sections of these trains were scheduled to depart Hornbrook within 10 minutes of each other - opposing #13 and #16 simultaneously at 2:47 pm, with #14 departing 10 minutes earlier. The latter train actually left Oakland a full two hours behind #14, but it had traveled "Via Willows" on the West Valley Line, while #16 took the lengthier route through Sacramento. If all went as planned, #14 would have beat #16 by eight minutes into Tehama, where the two routes converged. Thus, the triple meet that we see here may have been a repeat of a similar event of earlier in the afternoon.

Judging by the leaves on the trees near the depot, the bicycle tire ruts through the mud in the foreground and the apparently green in the background, this wondrous event must have occured on a spring day considerably later in the afternoon than the first sections' scheduled times.

We even can come up with a fairly reliable date range. This scheduled convergence of trains does not seem to have lasted very long either side of 1912 (see box at left). The MK-2 on #14 went into service no earlier than May, 1911, while the lettering below the "Southern Pacific" on #2571 does not include the loco's so-called "nominal class", something that did not begin showing up until May 1913.* This period coincides nicely with a set of photographs possibly taken by the same unknown photographer that appear in John Signor's Southern Pacific's Shasta Division (starting on page 76.)He also includes a nice, more encompassing diagram of the yard area.

When we contemplate SP big time mountain railroading, Donner and Tehachapi always seem to eclipse Siskiyous Summit in our thoughts, perhaps because traffic has been, at best, marginal for so long. But when we do remember the Siskiyou Line, it always seems to be in terms of 2-10-2's pounding out of Ashland and the De Autremont brothers robbery at tunnel 13. Despite once being a rip-roaring railroad town that hosted an enormous amount of traffic, Hornbrook tends to be overlooked, no doubt due to its remote and uninspiring environs.

But when you have daily events such as this (nevermind otherwise watching freight crews put together eight engine freight trains - see box at right) who needs scenery?

No discussion of Hornbrook in the Teens is complete without a look at The Photo, the well-circulated image that has long defined SP's attack on the Siskiyous. Photographer Greene stood right where Interstate 5 now crosses underneath the tracks, in this southward facing view. In a few car lengths, the lead engine (of eight) will begin traversing a short length of 4% grade, as mentioned in the text. It is possible that Greene exposed the Hornbrook photo, since #2642's cab lettering / train indicator arrangement falls into the same 1911-1913 period.

*locomotive data from Diebert and Strapac's Southern Pacific Steam Locomotive Compendium

Hornbrook's engine facilities clearly were inadequate to the task before World War I, causing SP to contemplate a major revision, even though the Cascade Cutoff was on the radar. This plan which originated no later than 1915, was rejected, perhaps by USRA. Eventually, a smarter solution prevailed: a wye located towards the right end of the map. - Shasta Archives