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Union Pacific 3985's Pacific Limited From Salt Lake City to San Jose 7/13-19/1992

After attending the Union Pacific Historical Society convention in Cheyenne, Wyoming, it was less than three weeks before my next and longer encounter with Union Pacific 4-6-6-4 3985. Union Pacific's steam powered train from Cheyenne was going to be travelling west to San Jose for this year's National Railway Historical Society convention and the trip was named Pacific Limited, a name the railroad used during the 1930's and 1940's for a train that ran between Omaha and the West Coast. I wanted to ride the entire length of the former Western Pacific from Salt Lake City to Oakland so ordered my tickets and upgraded to dome seating on all the Pacific Limited segments westbound from Salt Lake City; my convention ticket would get me from Niles to Oakland.

I had ridden the Salt Lake City-to-Weso segment on Amtrak, but always at night and Weso to Portola would be new trackage, as would Sacramento to San Jose. I would be in a dome car through the Feather River Canyon and after the wonderful excursion over Sherman Hill last month, I could not wait. To pull this trip off involved a one-region All Aboard America fare so I could return from Sacramento after I left my car at my brother Bruce's house, then to Salt Lake City on the Desert Wind and after I returned, a round trip on the Sunset Limited to Deming, New Mexico.

I rode a San Diegan to Los Angeles in order to catch the Desert Wind, this time to Salt Lake City to ride a steam train and the conductor joked that I was not getting off in Barstow again to ride a steam train from there. When he learnt of what I was about to do, he announced it over the public address system that Amtrak can take you to your dreams. The journey over Cajon Pass was one of the busiest I had experienced and we made our way through freight trains all the way to Barstow then passed through Yermo without delay and entered the colourful Afton Canyon. Storms were brewing over the mountains east of Cima Hill, sending flash floods down the stream beds and Ivanpah Lake had much water running into its usual dry basin. We arrived at Las Vegas early and I won ten dollars at the slots and a pint of Kessler picked up for the evening then we made our way up Meadow Valley Wash into the night and I turned in after Caliente and slept until about twenty minutes short of Salt Lake City.

7/14/1992 We arrived at Salt Lake City early and I found a restaurant which provided an outstanding breakfast then walked over by the Mormon Temple before returning to the station to board the Pacific Limited.

The special excursion had nineteen cars, twelve of them for passenger use: concession car 5818 "Sherman Hill", coach 5483 "Texas Eagle", chair car 5486 "City of Salina", dome-coach 7015 "Challenger", museum car 5779 "Western Star", chair car 5468 "City of San Francisco", dome-diner 8008 "City of Portland", coach 5480 "Sunshine Special", diner 4808 "City of Los Angeles", coach 5473 "Portland Rose", lounge 6203 "Sun Valley", dome-coach 7001 "Columbine". I boarded the first dome car and chose a window seat on the right in the front, which would be my home on each of the segments and would provide an unobstructed view of Union Pacific 3985 at work.

We departed on time and reversed to reach the Union Pacific main line before pulling forward and curving at Grant Tower where we crossed the Rio Grande main line, then proceeded west out of Salt Lake City with only 40 through passengers and about 120 going as far as Wendover. We picked up speed as we went through Buena Vista and made a beeline to Garfield then passed the Kennecott smelters at Smelter before we switched from Union Pacific's Lynndyl Subdivision to its Lake Subdivision and the former Western Pacific rails. We ducked under Interstate 80 and started our lakeshore running beside the Great Salt Lake on a causeway between the lake and the highway then veered off and ascended a short rise passing Delle siding before stopping at Marblehead.

We detrained for the first photo runby of the day and the train reversed around a curve with the Marblehead Mountains in the background before it came storming up the grade past us. We reboarded and 3985 pulled west to Clive for runby number two, this one on tangent track with the mountains in the background. We then climbed the hill to Knolls before crossing the southern end of the Bonneville Salt Flats where the land speed records were set and sped west across the flats past Barro, Arinosa and Salduro before we arrived at Wendover, both a passenger and servicing stop. Through passengers had to remain on the train while those going back to Salt Lake detrained for the buses. This was an excellent time to explore the rest of the train and to get to know everyone in our dome car which was becoming a sauna, and we nicknamed such.

When we departed, our car attendant asked if we wanted to move to another cooler dome car, but we politely declined as we were really enjoying ourselves. We proceeded out of town and it was announced that there would be another photo runby at Ola, eight miles from town.

We detrained and Union Pacific 3985 reversed down a slight curve before it came blasting by us in more perfect light. Once on the move again, we continued up the grade to Cliffside before reaching the toughest section of the grade at Silver Zone Pass on the way to Arnold Loop and rounded it in a most impressive manner.

The train climbed to Silver Zone, the summit of the grade of the Toano Mountains, before descending into the Steptoe Valley and making our way down to Shafter in the middle of the valley, where the Western Pacific used to cross the Nevada Northern. We travelled west about two more miles west before stopping for the last and most memorable runby of the day. All forty of us detrained and the steam engine started to reverse and out of the scrub, a badger popped up his head, was startled by the photographers and took off running for its life with everyone in the photo line, except me, chasing the poor creature to photograph him.

Here came Union Pacific 3985 doing a fantastic runby with only me paying attention and Steve Lee, leaning out of the cab window, wondered where all of the photographers had gone. They came back and we reboarded after what will forever be called "The badger runby!"

We climbed the grade to the tunnel under the Pequop Mountains before reaching the Clover Valley and Spruce siding; neither of the two grades were much of a challenge for the Challenger as the entire Western Pacific was built with only a grade of one percent. We turned north up the valley, crossing Highway 93 about halfway to Wells, which we passed on the western outskirts before we turned north and running above the Southern Pacific. We were now paralleling the Humboldt River and arrived at Alazon, where we switched onto the Southern Pacific line on the paired trackage that ran as far west as Weso just east of Winnemuca. The Humboldt River was crossed and ran between the Western Pacific main line and us, then we turned to the southwest and steamed through Halleck before we went through Osino Canyon, passing through a short tunnel. 3985 turned to the south before we arrived at Elko and entered Union Pacific's Elko yard where we detrained and were taken by bus to the Red Lion Motor Inn for the night.

I had dinner and walked around town finding Western Pacific GP7 727, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1955, a caboose on display and where Amtrak stops.

With an early afternoon departure planned, this was the morning to sleep in and relax then I walked around town and just enjoyed the morning. Passengers were taken down to the train in plenty of time for pictures then we received word that if we waited for a hotshot Southern Pacific freight, Union Pacific 9362 West, the railroad would be ours. When an estimated time of arrival was announced, everyone boarded and waited for it to pass then once it zoomed by, we slowly moved out of the yard and onto the Southern Pacific mainline for our trip west. We went through downtown Elko before proceeding to Carlin Canyon, the first scenic highlight of the day and plunged into a short tunnel before crossing the Humboldt River then went through another longer tunnel as the river made a large horseshoe canyon prior to our second crossing. We next passed through Carlin with its small Southern Pacific yard and turned to the southwest for our run through the very beautiful Palisade Canyon, where the first photo runby occurred. The Southern Pacific rails run on the north side of the river and the former Western Pacifics rails on the south side.

The sounds of Union Pacific 3985 were incredible. We continued west past the old station at Palisade before crossing the river, plunging into a short tunnel then travelling beneath the former Western Pacific at Barth.

Here we stopped for photo runby two. On the move again, we passed an eastbound Union Pacific freight on the parallel track at Harney before turning to the northwest at Beowawe. It was near the bridge of the fourth crossing of the Humboldt River in Harney on August 12, 1939, which was the site of the famous unsolved train wreck where a rail joint was split and the rails were moved four or more inches and killed 24 people.

We went straight to Shoshone were we rounded Shoshone Point and turned west then paralleled Interstate 80 to our south and made our way through Argenta, passed the gravel pit east of Romy before turning northwest again to North Battle Mountain. We sped down the rails through Valmy where across the valley was a coal feed power plant then turned to the southwest as we rounded another point to enter Emigrant Canyon, then passed through Preble before reaching Golconda. West of there, we turned northwest before rounding Button Point and then travelling straight down the middle of the valley through Tule to Weso, where we left the Southern Pacific rails for those of the former Western Pacific for the rest of our journey. We crossed the Humboldt River before stopping near the former Western Pacific depot in Winnemucca with Winnemucca Mountain to the northwest then were bussed into town to the Red Lion Inn for another night of gambling and dinner before I called it a night after a short but satisfying day of riding.

Up early the next morning, after breakfast, I went for a walk to the train for the third day of riding behind Union Pacific 3985, which would be new trackage. We departed on time and today, opened the rear vent in the dome, which helped more than yesterday's opening of the front vent. With Mount Winnemucca to the northwest, the Humboldt River was to the south and we slowly moved away it from on our westward journey.

We passed through Mount before reaching Raglan then sped across the Desert valley through Gaskell on the way to Jungo.

The first photo runby of the day was at Milepost 494.5, one-and-a-half miles west of Jungo on the start of the climb up Antelope Hill. Following a great show by the steam engine, we continued wes,t snaking our way to Antelope then turned northwest across the barren desert to Floka, where we curvd by by Pulpit Rock to Sulphur then passed the siding at Ronda before being stopped by a red signal just east of Cholona with Pahsupp Mountain to the south. A call went out to the dispatcher, who was having trouble clearing the signal and telling the crew it might be ten minutes or more, they asked if a photo runby could be done while they waited. A positive answer was given so we all detrained.

At Milepost 464.4 in the Black Rock Desert, two-and-a-half miles east of Cholona, Union Pacific 3985 reversed past us charging by and staying in the red block for Southern Pacific's eastbound EUCHX "Modoc" train to get into the clear. As soon as we were all back on the train, the signal turned green and off we went, passing Trego Hot Spring prior to Trego, then ran along the edge of the Black Rock Desert before arriving at our servicing stop of Gerlach.

With Granite Point to the north, we depareted Gerlach making our way across the valley before we turned to the northwest to Phil, where we rounded the north end of the Fox Range and entered Smoke Creek Desert as we ran southwest to Reynard before turning south to Sano. From here we climbed the grade to Sand Pass and pulled down to the curve to turn west and the third photo runby. It was well over the hundred degree mark as we detrained and climbed up a steep slope for an eighth-of-a-mile , which just also happened to be the location of one of the largest rattlesnake dens in the world. There were holes everywhere but with the heat, we hoped to not meet any of those creatures.

Photo runby three at Milepost 396.8, during which the train reversed far around the curve and with Smoke Creek Desert in the background, came charging and smoking around the curve. It was one of the most impressive locations for a runby and all were raving about it as we carefully walked back to the train, except the Union Pacific steam crew, who were worried about the passengers being put through that experience and it was mentioned that if they did not like the looks of the next runby location, they would not stop. However, the Pacific Limited crew assured the Union Pacific crew that the next location would be easy but it was a wait-and-see situation.

We climbed the rest of the way to Sand Pass with Mission Peak to the north then descended to Flanigan where a Southern Pacific freight was waiting to come off the Modoc Line. We crossed into California and passed Calneva before passing the Herlong Army Depot and turned south down Long Valley through Doyle and under Highway 395. We passed the old station stops of Constantia and Red Rocks prior to stopping for the last pair of photo runbys.

Photo runby four was half a mile east of Pozla at Milepost 349.6 along the east slope of the Sierra Nevadas.

Photo runby five. On the move again, we briefly turned to the west before turning south through Scotts and running to Reno Junction, where we turned west and plunged into the Chilcoot Tunnel and emerged into the Sierra Valley, the largest flat spot in the Sierra Nevada Mountain chain. We crossed the valley to Hawley, where the Loyalton Branch joined us before we travelled through the short canyon by Rocky Point and into Portola, where the train was tied up for its two night stay.

We detrained and walked over to the Portola Railroad Museum to see Oregon Northwestern AS-616 4, ex McCloud Railway 34, nee Southern Pacific 5253 built by Baldwin in 1952, which the museum had acquired since my last visit.

The buses arrived so everyone boarded for the journey to Reno for a two night stay at the Sands, where my room overlooked the Southern Pacific main line through town.

All passengers assembled outside the hotel and waited for the buses but after an hour, a group of us decided to get a taxi and split the cost to Portola and upon our arrival, we had an opportunity to visit the Feather River Railroad Museum. The rest of the passengers on this sold-out train arrived and we all boarded. I chose my now-usual front right dome seat and was ready for my second trip down the Feather River canyon. Today, we opened both end vents about halfway and had our best results yet of keeping the "sauna" cool. With an on-time departure, we passed the museum then travelled west down the Humbug Valley, through the old station site of Mabie before passing a narrow canyon and staying high up on the canyon side as the stream dropped below. We then crossed the high Clio Viaduct over Willow Creek before reaching Blairsden siding and were now in the valley of the Middle Fork of the Feather River as we made our way through Two Rivers to Sloat and entered the Long Valley.

We went past the old sawmill and entered the tight canyon before we plunged into the long Spring Garden Tunnel to switch watersheds and passed through Spring Garden siding before we rounded the Williams Loop, making a 360 degree turn. Photographers were everywhere along the route but were concentrated here and I knew that they would be out in full force at the Keddie Wye. We ducked under California Highway 70/89 and passed the former station site of Massack before winding above the Quincy Valley to Quincy Junction.

It was here, at Milepost 284.9 at the east end of the former siding site of Sierra, four miles east of Keddie, that the first photo runby of the day occurred; the location was chosen by Steve Lee. We stayed high above Spanish Creek as we made our way to Keddie then passed through the small yard before passing the switch for the route through the tunnel to the High Line of the former Western Pacific. We curved out onto the bridge with Union Pacific 3985 whistling as we crossed the wye with photographers on every possible location of the hill. Add to that people chasing the train and Keddie was a very busy spot.

We plunged into Tunnel 32 right after the bridge before crossing another bridge prior to entering Tunnel 31. Across the canyon along the wall was the High Line, gaining elevation, while our route continued to drop as we made our way to Sloat and the highway was jammed with pacers while the photographers made many an illegal move to pass and it was quite a show. We proceeded down Spanish Creek through Grays Flat before reaching Virglia and entering the Serpentine Canyon before we passed above Rich and French Bars, where a large amount of gold was mined. We then curved our way to Belden where we joined the North Fork of the Feather River and came to the lake of Rock Creek Reservoir before going through the Honeymoon Tunnels along its shore. We passed the dam before winding our way down the Feather River Canyon by Badger Flats before reaching Tobin where the railroad went over both the Feather River and Highway 70 at the same time on a truss bridge. We now wound our way along the north side of the canyon above the busy highway below and curved over the Rock Creek bridge before arriving at Merlin.

Photo runby two in the middle of the siding at Merlin at Milepost 247.3. Unlike the site at Sierra, this location had just enough room to get all 450 participants into a halfway organized photo line.

Photo runby three. Union Pacific 3985 sounded incredible as it echoed off the canyon walls and looked fantastic as it put out a great plume of smoke. Once back on board, we passed Elephant Buttes on the other side of the canyon before we reached Pulga where we crossed the Feather River on a truss bridge while California Highway 70 crossed high above us. We then made our way along the south side of the canyon to Poe before crossing the Feather River on the concrete arch bridge at North Fork. We plunged straight Tunnel 8 before bursting into daylight at Dark Canyon and going through Tunels 7 through 5 that put us on the lower level with California Highway 70 on the upper level of the decked bridge over the West Branch of Lake Oroville. We then went through James before ducking under California Highway 70 and entering Tunnel 4 which made a 180 degree turn to take us again under California Highway 70 as we ran on the north slope of Table Mountain.

We wound our way around to the west side of Table Mountain, crossing Coal Canyon and later Cottonwood Creek before stopping for photo runby four at Milepost 217.8, one-and-a-half miles west of Elsey. Once on the move again, we rounded the south side of Table Mountain with Thompson Flats below before going through a few deep cuts to cross the Feather River, pass the diversion dam to enter Oroville and our next servicing stop, where the passengers obtained their meals.

We were off again passing the Oroville yard with the dredge tailings to the west then split the hills before passing through Palermo to cross Wyandotte River to Craig siding. Miles later, we crossed the South River before reaching Tambo then crossing Southern Pacific's East Valley main line at Binney Junction, curved onto the levee of the Feather River around Marysville and crossed the Yuba River on the south end of town. We passed through Olivehurst, under California Highway 70 then over Bear Creek and Ping Slough to reach Pleasant Grove. Straight as an arrow, we crossed Curry Creek through Rio Linda and stayed on a levee through Del Paso and entered northern Sacramento before crossing the American River and entering the state capital of California. We crossed all of the unqiuely-named streets which are only the letters of the alphabet, then went by the former Western Pacific depot before ducking under the light rail line and Business Route 80 before arriving at the Western Pacific yard where the train would be tied up for the night. I was taken to the Amtrak depot where I called my brother Bruce to pick me up as I would be spending the next three nights with his family.

Bruce followed me in my Geo Metro to the Amtrak station where I left my car and he drove me back to the train for my final day on the Pacific Limited. We all boarded our usual seats with our efforts having paid off, as our dome car was nice and cool. Another on-time departure found us proceeding south out of Sacramento, traversing Morrison and Laguna Creeks before passing through Franklin with most of the town waving us through. We crossed the Consumnes River followed by the Mokelumne River prior to our passage through Thornton then sped down to California Highway 12 before crossing Bear Creek and entering the north end of Stockton. We crossed the Southern Pacific at El Pinal before passing the former Western Pacific depot then made our way to Stockton Tower, crossing the Santa Fe to reach the former Western Pacific yards. At the south end at Ortega, the Tidewater Southern tracks took off before we crossed over French Camp Slough and ran along the east side of the Sharp Army Depot then crossed Southern Pacific's Fresno main line. Next we bridged the San Joaquin River followed by Raine Slough before reaching Carbona then crossed the California Aqueduct prior to ducking under Interstate 5 and reaching the Altamont Hills then curved our way to Midway siding.

We detrained for photo runby one at Milepost 63.9, then reboarded for a few minutes.

Photo runby two near Midway, which was quickly performed.

Photo runby three just short of the Redmond Cut. This one had a funny moment when one of the photographers wanted complete quiet and became upset by the sound emanating from the windmills. He became rather angry until I jokingly said that we would wait here for you while you unplug them all. Everyone laughed before we settled down and the steam train ran by. Below us was the former original Central Pacific transcontinental right-of-way that was abandoned a few years ago.

We climbed the last few miles before crossing over the former path of rails and the road to the summit of Altamont Pass, where a large group of people were waiting then started our descent with the cars pacing us down the parallel road as we wound our way down the west slope of Altamont Pass. Near the very west end, we crossed over the Greenville Trestle and dropped into the Livermore Valley then made our way west through Livermore with many people watching our passage and travelled by the gravel pits at Radum. We curved to the south at Pleasanton before starting our trek through Niles Canyon and went to Hearst before turning west, passing the Niles Canyon Railway, which runs on the former Central Pacific route across the canyon, and their train was out whistling at us. We passed through the long Tunnel 2 which led us to the west end of the canyon at Niles Junction then pulled forward across the Southern Pacific, where a former Western Pacific GP35 coupled to our rear and pulled us backwards south down the San Jose Branch.

We then moved through Newark and Warm Springs before we crossed Coyote Creek and entered the yard at Milpitas, where Union Pacific 3985 was removed because a bridge on the way to San Jose would not support the great weight of the Challenger. The diesel pulled us the remaining six miles through the outskirts of San Jose and I detrained after an exciting ride all the way from Salt Lake City. A special thank you to the Union Pacific Steam Crew and for the Pacific Limited Group, made up of Feather River Rail Society volunteers, for making this all possible.

A group of us were taking Amtrak to Sacramento, so we taxied to the depot to wait for an on-time Coast Starlight and I had an enjoyable dinner in the diner prior to Oakland and rode the lounge car the rest of the way to Sacramento then drove my car down to my brother Bruce's house for the next two nights.

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