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Trip to the former Southern Pacific Sacramento Shops 6/11/2022



by Chris Guenzler



Elizabeth and I woke up at the Quality Inn in Santa Clara and after doing our Internet duties, we checked out and Elizabeth drove us to Denny's where we enjoyed breakfast. Afterwards she drove us to the Caltrain parking lot and we paid a very reasonable five dollars and fifty cents to park, using the Caltrain ticketing machine where the options are tickets or parking. We then walked through the tunnel and went up the platform to wait for our train.





The Southern Pacific Santa Clara station.





Oregon, Washington and Navigation Company cafe-lounge-observation car 184, built by Pullman in 1912.





My very beautiful wife Elizabeth enjoying the morning sun.





Future Caltrain electric trackage.

Capitol Corridor 724 6/12/2022



The train arrived at Santa Clara and we boarded the rear car with other NRHS members. Steve Ferrari gave each person their nametag and a reproduction of a Western Pacific timetable for our reading enjoyment.





Levi Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers.





Crossing an arm of the San Francisco Bay.





The buildings at Drawbridge are sinking into the mud.





The blimp hangar across San Francisco Bay.





View across San Francisco Bay.





A hang glider floating across the sky.





The Leslie Salt Plant.





The Mulford line takes off as we turned to go the Fremont station.





Looking out the rear door near Niles.





Oakland Alameda County Coliseum, home of the Oakland Athletics.





Amtrak California P32 8-40BWH 2051 built by General Electric in 1991.





Amtrak California P32 8-40BWH 2052 built by General Electric in 1991.







San Pablo Bay.





Capitol Corridor train at Martinez.





Train display in Martinez which we had visited and photographed the day before.





The bridges across the Carquinez Straits.





A few boats of the United States Mothball Fleet.





Near Bala.





A train waiting to be run at Suisan-Fairfield.





The former Southern Pacific station at Davis.





Sacramento Valley Station. We all walked over to the California State Railroad Museum where other participants in today's outing were waiting for us; there were 26 in all. Everyone was required to sign a release then Paul gave an overview and safety briefing before we walked over the road and through a locked, gated tunnel over to the Sacramento Shops.

Central Coast Railway Club Trip to the former Southern Pacific Sacramento Shops

Central Coast is again pleased to offer a rare guided tour of the former Southern Pacific Sacramento Railroad Shops. This will take place on Saturday June 11, 2022 at 11:30 am. The Sacramento Shops were constructed beginning in the late 1800's. The shops provide space for indoor storage of dozens of locomotives, railroad cars, and related equipment. In addition, the shops allow space for locomotive repair and maintenance as an essential component of the operation of the California State Railroad Museum. The tour and time in the shops will be about 2 hours and will allow for photography. Our last tour on September 18, 2018 was covered in the November 2018 Ferroequinologist. It will be interesting to see what has changed since that time. In honor of our 70th Birthday, there will be no cost for the tour itself!





Sacramento Locomotive Shops. We went inside and were given hard hats to wear during our tour.





A wheel turning machine. We were divided into three groups for our tour.





Views looking both ways in the Boiler Shop/Erecting Shop. The group was split into three and Elizabeth and I were in Group One which was led by Bob.





We walked across the transfer table and into the Erecting Shop.





Views looking both ways across the transfer table.





We walked into this building





Western Pacific wooden box car 18428 built by the Mt. Vernon Car Company circa 1917/1918.





Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe F3B 347B built by Electro-Motive Division in 1949.





Southern Pacific Idler Car maintenance-of-way 7071.







Sacramento Northern SW1 402 built by Electro-Motive Corporation in 1939.





Southern Pacific DRS66-1500 5208 built by Baldwin in 1949.







Nevada Copper Belt Gas-Mechanical 21 "Yerington" built by Hall-Scott in 1911.





Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe RS-1 2394 built by American Locomotive Company in 1950.





Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe RSD-15 9820 built by American Locomotive Company in 1959.





Union Pacific Track Evaluation EC-1 built by Plasser American in 1974.





Left over from the Southern Pacific days.





Shop equipment and a tool chest.





Foley Bros Construction 10-1 ton Boxcab 110 built by General Electic-Ingersoll-Rand in 1929. It spent its career at Northern Pacific's Rosebud Mine located on the Colstrip Branch east of Billings, Montana.





Southern Pacific SW1 1000 built by Electro-Motive Corporation in 1939 later Holly Sugar 1.





Sacramento Southern Railroad maintenance-of-way 50 Track Speeder A5.





Sacramento Southern Railroad maintenance-of-way vehicle.





Southern Pacific Wrecking Crane MW 7070 Wrecking Crane built by Bucyrus-Erie Company in 1944.





Shop view.





Southern Pacific Idler Car maintenance-of-way 7071.





Central Pacific 2-6-2T 233 built by Central Pacific in the Sacramento Shops in 1882.







Southern Pacific observation car 2902 "El Dorado" built by Pullman in 1924, originally Union Pacific 1536.





Southern Pacific F7A 6402 built by General Motors-Electro-Motive Corporation in 1952.





The prime mover of Southern Pacific F7A 6402.





Electro-Motive Corporation prime mover.





Wheel sets.





Shop view. We thanked Bob for an excellent tour and would now switch group leaders out on the transfer table so that Paul was our guide.





Unknown passenger car.







Denver and Rio Grande Western combine 812 built by Pullman in 1888 and rebuilt in 1905 as Denver and Rio Grande Western 550.





Missouri Kansas Texas coach 644 built by American Car and Foundry in 1923 which operated previously on the White Mountain Scenic Railway in Arizona.







Southern Pacific SD45T-2 6819 built by General Motors-Electro-Motive Corporation in 1972.





Trailer Train 75 foot Trailer Flat Car 470963 built by Pennsylvania Railroad Samuel Rea Car Shop in 1957.





Southern Pacific combine 3178 built by Pullman in 1912 as chair car 2523 and converted to combine 1926.





Southern Pacific 2-6-0 1771 built by Baldwin in 1902.





Klamath Northern 40-ton 206 built by Baldwin in 1954.





Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe wooden caboose 1321 built by American Car & Foundry in 1923.





Kiso Forest Railway 0-4-2T 6 built by Baldwin in 1926 for the Imperial Forestry Bureau in Agematsu, Japan. Purchased by Henry L. Sorensen in 1960, it was shipped from Japan to San Francisco and trucked to McKinleyville. He converted it from 30" to 36" gauge. It operated on his farm until loaned to the California State Railroad Museum in 1999.





Under this tarpaulin is Northwestern Pacific 4-6-0 112 built by American Locomotive Company in 1908.





Southern Pacific E9A 6051 built by General Motors-Electro-Motive Corporation in 1954.





California Bullet Train Mockup.







Union Pacific Business Car 102 "Overland" built by Pullman in 1926 for the Harriman family car and later Union Pacific 107.





Southern Pacific snow flanger MW 318 built by the railroad in 1928 as Central Pacific 740.





Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe 2-6-2 1010 built by Baldwin in 1901 and pulled the 1905 Death Valley Scotty Special from Seligman to Winslow.





Mattole Lumber Company 0-4-2T 1 built by Vulcan in 1908. This was also bought by Henry Sorenson before it came to the museum.





Cab of Southern Pacific 1771.





A traction motor.





A rather large redwood log.





West Side Lumber tank car 3 built by West Side Lumber circa 1920s.





Pacific Gas & Electric Company Tram Car built the company circa 1920s.





A shop truck.





Another prime mover in this shop.





We crossed the transfer table and thanked Paul for an excellent tour. After that we went into the other shop and met Art, Chief Mechanical Officer.





The 25 ton crane in this shop building.





Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe F7A 347C built by General Motors-Electro-Motive Corporation in 1949.





Sacramento Southern SW8 2008 built by General Motors-Electro-Motive Corporation in 1951 as United States Army 2008. It was purchased in 2005 from Aberdeen Proving Grounds.





Granite Rock 0-6-0ST 10 built by Porter in 1942, originally United States Army 5001.





Central Pacific Railroad of California coach 12 built by the Harlan & Hollisworth Company in 1866 and shipped around Cape Horn by steamer to Sacramento. The car was set on the Central Pacific's rails in Sacramento where it assisted in construction of the railroad eastward until it met the westward building Union Pacific Railroad at the historic Golden Spike Ceremony in Promotory, Utah on May 10, 1869. The great Transcontinental Railroad was completed causing accelerated western expansion of America and the settlement of the west.

Coach 12 was retired from active passenger service in 1905 after more than a million miles of travel and placed in railroad maintenance service. In 1926 it was permantly retired and placed without its wheels in the Stockton Railroad Yard as an employee storage building. It was obtained just prior to its planned demise by Calistoga Depot Association in 1977 and was brought to Calistoga where it was restored to its 1880's state in 1978 – its 112th year.





United States Air Force 80-ton switcher 1655 built by General Electric in 1952.





Missile Master lathe for turning locomotive wheels which was used for the country's missile program. The wheel you see is from Southern Pacific 1744 which is being restored in partnership with the Niles Canyon Railway.





Sacramento Southern 44-ton switcher 1240 built by General Electric in 1953, originally United States Army 1240 and later United States Air Force 1240; California State Railroad Museum 25 ton switcher 2 built by General Electric in 1952 for American Creosote Works 2 in Winnfield, Louisana.





Union Pacific coach 437 built by Pullman in 1926 painted as Union Pacific 532.





Southern Pacific Rotary Plow Maintenance-of-Way 205 built by Alco-Cooke in 1920.





Santa Cruz Portland Cement 4-wheel 2 built by Baldwin in 1914.





Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific motorcar 674 built by Fairmont in 1937.







Another one of the lathes in the shop.





Wheels of Southern Pacific 1744.





Union Pacific Bus 27 built by General Motors Coporation in 1949 which met UP trains in the Los Angeles area. We all then took a short ride on the transfer table.





My camera was used for a group photograph. This was the end of the tour.





A Union Pacific freight train came through Sacramento. I went back to the the waiting room in the train station while Elizabeth went to Steamers for lunch. At 2:25 PM I did the long walk out to the train platform where Elizabeth soon joined me. Before the door opened most of our group came out to the train.

Capitol train 743 6/12/2022

We took seats in the cab car and sat together. Before we left I enjoyed a hot dog, chocolate chip cookie and a Coca-Cola.





California Northern GP15-1 1570 still sitting in Suisan-Fairfield from this morning.





This boat was scrapped on this spot east of Crockett.





San Francisco across the bay.





The Golden Gate Bridge with the fog moving into the Bay Area.





Amtrak P42DC 160 in the 50th Anniversary paint scheme. We returned to Santa Clara and Elizabeth then drove us to Tracy where we checked into the Best Western Hill House for the night. Today had been a truly fantastic rail adventure. A big thank you to Steve Ferrari for all of his organization of this Central Coast Chapter 70th Anniversary event.

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