Russo Loco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hello again -
>
> As usual, the displays had been shut down at ten
> p.m. the night before, and by two or three a.m. on
> the morning of November 23rd the concessions
> wagons had been loaded on their flats and the
> train re-assembled into its traveling
> configuration. This time S.P.'s centennial SD-40
> and two additional "Tunnel Motors" were along as
> helpers for the long journey from Eugene, Oregon
> to Reno, Nevada - roughly 500 miles over three
> mountain passes.
>
> Somewhere along the way I had acquired a Graflex
> flashgun and several big Press-22 bulbs
;
> the first shot below shows my first fairly
> successful attempt at capturing a moving train at
> night - #4449 exiting the tunnel at the summit of
> 5,125-foot Willamette Pass, just west of the water
> and service stop at Crescent Lake. The
> second one was taken about two hours later as the
> train approached Chemult, Oregon, where the S.P.
> and B.N. lines join for the eighty miles or so
> south to Klamath Falls
:
> [attachment 33454 751123a06+10.jpg]
>
> I made the mistake of stopping too long for lunch
> while the engine was being serviced in Klamath
> Falls, and was too far back in the chase pack to
> get a good shot as the train crossed into
> California and climbed toward the tunnel just
> north of Dorris. But luckily for me, most of
> the pack veered off to follow the train up the
> grade through Mount Hebron, and I was able to get
> ahead and set up at Grass Lake, just shy of the
> day's second 5,100-foot summit on the northwest
> shoulder of Mount Shasta
:
> [attachment 33455 751123b05+06.jpg]
>
> This next photo was taken from Dunsmuir's small
> city park at Lookout Point, formerly the location
> of a small, rustic motel where my family stayed
> for two or three weeks each summer for several
> years beginning on July 4th, 1952, when I was just
> ten years old. I remember watching the big
> cab-forwards and 2-10-2 "decs" blast upgrade here,
> and how our little cabin would shake when a
> three-engine freight charged north in the middle
> of the night
:
> [attachment 33532 751123b10.jpg]
> The step at the far right of the insert above is
> the beginning of a trail that leads down into the
> canyon, splitting halfway along with the left
> branch leading to a deep pool in the Sacramento
> River and the right branch leading to a small but
> very scenic grotto at Hedge Creek Falls. The
> train was heavily overgrown when we first stayed
> at the motel; I borrowed some tools from the owner
> and off & on over the next three weeks cleared the
> brush enough to gain access to the river and the
> falls. Within two or three years my
> "discovery" was completely cleared; SFAIK the
> trail is still maintained for use by visitors to
> the city park.
>
> A few miles south of Dunsmuir, hub of S.P.'s
> Shasta Division and once the home of a twenty-four
> stall roundhouse,* there's a rest stop on the
> northbound lanes of I-5 that overlooks the
> railroad and the Sacramento River near Castella,
> with Mount Shasta - at this point more than 25
> miles distant - still dominating the
> background
:
> [attachment 33457 751123b11.jpg]
>
> I again got lucky when the Freedom Train took the
> siding near LaMoine - another ten miles or so to
> the south - giving me time to take the dirt road
> down to Dog Creek and across a small bridge to the
> pool on the Sacramento River well known to locals
> where I had learned to swim as a young
> whipper-snapper more than twenty years
> before. The passage of the southbound Shasta
> Daylight in the late afternoon was the signal for
> my dad to end the day's fishing, hike back
> upstream, and gather the family for our return to
> North Dunsmuir, which - back before I-5, when
> Highway 99 still crossed this concrete arch bridge
> and was mostly just two lanes - could take well
> over an hour from Dog Creek
:
> [attachment 33458 751123b12.jpg]
>
> Both the railroad and the highway were relocated
> when Shasta Dam was built in the late 1940's, and
> are close together at only a couple of locations
> from Lakehead (just south of Dog Creek) to
> Redding. In any event, I was now well behind
> the chase pack and didn't see the train again
> before dark. I finally collapsed in the back
> of my VW van somewhere between Chico and
> Roseville, and didn't catch up to the train until
> long after it had crossed 7,000'-plus Donner Pass
> in the Sierras during the middle of the night and
> arrived in Sparks, Nevada - just east of Reno -
> the following day.
>
> (To Be Continued.)
>
> -
Roosso
>
> * See Dr. Robert Church's book,
'Steam
> Days in Dunsmuir', for an excellent account of
> railroading on S.P.'s Shasta Division. Bob
> is only a year or so older than the
> JéBêWèX, and about two years
> older than me; his personal memories of Dunsmuir
> closely parallel my own.
I'm quite tardy with a comment here, but I'm pretty sure that you offered me access on the roof of your VW bus and we both got the same vertical shot as the train eased down the hill into Dunsmuir.
That sound right? Did i get the right person? You were using a medium format camera IIRC.
Thanks for your generosity Russ.