Where did the Western Pacific run? I dont know a whole lot about this railroad. Which states did it run through? Where was the companys headquarters at? And Ive never seen any pics of their locomotives and other rolling stock. All I know is UP bought them. Any info would be helpful. thanks.
Well, I guess the place to start would be San Francisco. That is where their headquarters were and milepost 0. San Francisco was reached by ferry. The last one used was named the "Las Plumas." It plied the SF bay between Oakland and San Francisco. Oakland was milepost 5 and the start of the railroad for all intent and purposes. WP traveled south to Fremont then swung northeast to head for Livermore. From there it went east to the Altamont pass. Once over the pass, it traveled through Tracy then on to Stockton. Stockton was a major yard for switching at the end. From Stockton it went north to Sacramento and on to Oroville. From Oroville it headed northeast and up the Feather River Canyon. At Keddie, it had a mainline that went due north to meet the Great Northern railroad at Bieber. At Keddie it went east to Portola. Keddie is known for the Keddie Wye, a bridge of some fame. Portola was the division point between seniority districts. Working west out of Portola you were under western seniority. Working east put you under different seniority. At Portola the dispatcher division was made. One would dispatch from Oakland to Portola and the other Portola to Salt Lake. Once you left Portola you would end up in Gerlach and then Winnemuca NV. From Winnemuca, headed east you come Weso. Weso is where the paired trackage with the SP began. SP owned one set of tracks the WP the other. Essentially it was a double track arrangement. The paired trackage ended east of Elko at Wells. The small town of Wendover is on the boarder of Nevada and Utah. From there is on to the Salt Lake and Salt Lake City. WP was merged into the UP in December of 1982. The mainline milage for the WP was 930 miles long. Portola has a museum dedicated to the WP. WP had no six axle power. The mainstay of the fleet was GP40's and GP35's. They also had U30B's and U23B's. The switcher fleet at the end was two NW2's, six SW9's and three SW1500's. WP had the last operating F units on the west coast. I believe BN's were all sidelined by 1981. Hope this answers some questions. Greg Elems
Here is a picture of the FP-7 805 used on the California Zephyr. She is preserved in the FRRS museum at Portola CA. This is probably the most thought of paint scheme associated with the WP. Greg Elems
Thanks Mr.Elms, that sheds a lot of light on this "fallen" railroad. So they had the infamous cali. zepher? Did they have any coal trains or intermodal trains.
This date is really close, if not right on. I recall strings of those remaining units. Deadlined at their Auburn, WA facilities about 1981. I don't have my photo and slide collection at hand to look for dates. Isn't there a web site also with some WP history? Or a WPHS page? Or? BoxcabE50 [ 21. August 2002, 18:07: Message edited by: BoxcabE50 ]
Did the F series have air conditioned cabs? B/c some pics i've seen of other F's , I dont see a/c grills like in the ac4400's and sd9043ac's. Those cabs look kinda hard pull air throught
Here are some web pages on the WP. http://wprr.railfan.net/ http://www.wprrhs.org/ http://groups.msn.com/thewesternpacificpages/_homepage.msnw?pgmarket=en-us http://www.wplives.com/ As for the F units, WP's never were air conditioned. They were hot in the summer and we would often have the front door in the nose cracked open for air flow. That made for a dusty trip usually. They had good heaters in them though, which was much appreciated in the winter. Greg Elems [ 22. August 2002, 04:58: Message edited by: Greg Elems ]
Every time I'd see the F7's and passnager locomotives on TLC, It showed them storming across the desert at 80 m.p.h. and the passangers back there all comfortable smoking and eating while yall got cooked. Not much has changed since then.
I forgot to mention, the WP did have inter modal trains and a coal train. We had the OMW and OME which stood for the Overland Mail East or West, depending. We had the TOFC, which stood for Trailer on flat car, out of Oakland that picked up in Stockton and some times Sacramento. We had a COFC that was container on flat car out of Oakland and I believe that was a Sealand train. Not very exciting names, but fast trains to catch. Before that we had the Bay Pig which was before I hired out. When it became the TOFC I don't know. The lone coal train ran from Salt Lake City west to Valimie where it was off loaded for a coal burning plant. It was an east end train, never getting to Winnemuca. We also had three trains each direction out of Stockton to Beiber that interchanged with the BN and Santa Fe. We also had the usual drags and the hot manifest, the Golden Gate Merchandiser. Greg Elems
