Once again there was an opportunity to ride in the Feather River on the former Western Pacific route and I decided to participate. The Feather River Railroad Museum in Portola was having a Circle-the-Wagon celebration for their newly-restored California Zephyr Western Pacific FP7A 805A and to top it off, Union Pacific's E9As were visiting and would be pulling the museum's excursion train. Over the Independence Day weekend, the E9s would pull a train several times a day from Portola to Keddie and return, followed by another trip to the wye at Reno Junction to turn the train.
A week later, the Pacific Limited Group organized an excursion from Oroville to Westwood on the Highline. I decided to drive to Portola for the Circle-the-Wagon celebration and a round-trip in a dome car to Keddie and Reno Junction then return home and the next weekend, ride the trip to Westwood with my former friend Brad Tarr and my parents.
7/1/1994 I awoke early for my drive to Carson City, driving over Cajon Pass and taking US 395 north along the east side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It was a beautiful day and I stopped at Big Pine to photograph and see Southern Pacific 2-8-0 18, formerly Carson and Colorado 18 before visiting the Laws Railroad Museum in Bishop. I enjoyed the rest of the drive to Carson City where I checked in to the Motel 6 then went to the Nevada State Railroad Museum before driving over to Virginia City but just missed their last train. I returned to Nevada's state capital for an evening of gambling, all ten cents worth.
Upper Feather River Trip 7/2/1994
I drove to Portola for the first train of the weekend and toured the museum to see the Western Pacific FP7 locomotives, then boarded Union Pacific dome-lounge 9004 "Harriman", built by American Car and Foundry in 1955. The view from the dome was the best a passenger can get on any train, except for a cab ride and I was really excited to be riding in the dome over this trackage again.
Upon departure, we proceeded west past the museum and out into the Mabie Valley and crossed the very high Clio Viaduct before reaching the siding at Blairsdan. We moved swiftly through Two Rivers then went through Sloat and paralleled the Middle Fork of the Feather River until we plunged into Spring Garden Tunnel. We past an eastbound Union Pacific freight at Spring Garden before we traversed Williams Loop and ran high above the expanding valley below to Quincy Junction then wound our way to Keddie, pulling out across the Keddie Wye high above Spanish Fork Creek and through the tunnel until the rear of our train cleared the switch for the Highline.
We reversed up onto the other bridge and slowly moved up the grade of the Highline then once the locomotives were clear of the switch, we pulled forward through the tunnel to complete the wyeing process and made our way back to Portola, where the majority of the passengers detrained, new ones boarded and off we went. We travelled east through The Narrows past Rocky Point then out across the Sierra Valley through Hawley, past the Buttes before going through Chilcoot and into the Beckworth Pass Tunnel to Reno Junction, where we pulled onto the Reno Branch to wye the train. We again cleared the rear switch before we reversed up into the siding then returned to Portola. It was an exciting morning of train travel through some beautiful countryside and I returned to Carson City.
7/3/1994 I drove back to Portola for the Circle-the-Wagons celebration then drove Highway 70 down the Feather River Canyon to my brother Bruce's home in Sacramento for the night.
7/4/1994The next morning I drove home to Santa Ana.
Union Pacific E Units to Westwood7/9/1994 Brad Tarr picked me up in his Ford Bronco and off we went up Interstate 5 over the Grapevine to Highway 99, which we took up the San Joaquin Valley and to Sacramento then changed to Highway 70, where the truck's engine started to act up as far as Oroville, where we stayed at the Motel 6, then had an excellent dinner at the Oroville Depot.
7/10/1994 The day I had been waiting for finally arrived as this would be the day I would ride part of the former Western Pacific's Highline. Brad and I started our day at Denny's with a good breakfast before we drove down to the former Western Pacific depot where the train was boarding. The Union Pacific train arrived on time and everyone boarded the sold-out train. The two of us took coach seats and on schedule, we departed Oroville and proceeded along the Feather River until we crossed it on a curved bridge then started our way around Table Mountain, passing by the sidings of Kramm and Elsey before we crossed under Highway 70.
The train circled to the rear of Glover Ridge before plunging into the first tunnel of the day to James, then we ducked under Highway 70 again, running beside James siding prior to travelling on the lower level of the Highway 70 bridge over the West Branch of Lake Oroville. We entered the tunnel-after-tunnel area with the longest period of daylight at Dark Canyon and finally exited the last of these tunnels onto the North Fork Bridge.
This was my first eastbound trip up the Feather River Canyon and was I certainly enjoying the experience. We twisted along the canyon to Poe before we reached the Highway 70 bridge high above our bridge as we switched sides of the canyon just short of Pulga. We continued to climb the one percent grade of the former Western Pacific, travelling past the Elephant Buttes on the south side of the canyon then reached Merlin before crossing the curved bridge over Rock Creek. We ventured further, crossing over both Highway 70 and the Feather River at Tobin before going northeast to Belden, where the train was stopped beyond the east switch. Everyone detrained for a photo runby with the Union Pacific Streamliner coming out of the shadows.
Photo runby one in the Feather River Canyon.
Photo runby two. We then made our way along Rock Creek Reservoir and through the Honeymoon Tunnels and travelled through the Serpentine Canyon of Spanish Creek to Paxton before going through the tunnels and across the bridges until we popped out onto the Keddie Wye. We switched onto the Highline and once clear of the bridge, started up the steep grade to escape Spanish Creek Canyon on new trackage then climbed along the canyon, crossing a high bridge before plunging into a short tunnel. We passed the siding at Moccasin before we reached Indian Valley as we passed through Crescent Mills and stayed in the valley before turning to the west to reach Greenville with another siding, then followed Highway 89 north and west before making a horseshoe curve to cross over the highway in the middle of the curve.
A second horseshoe curve was negotiated as we descended to the west then made a mini horseshoe curve to cross Sheepcamp Creek as we descended to Canyon Dam, where Lake Almanor came into view for the first time. We turned north, staying above the highway with the lakeshore below and twisted our way to Almanor siding.
Photo runby three. Everyone liked that so much that another was performed.
Photo runby four. Once on the move again, we followed the Hamilton Branch northeast away from the beautiful Lake Almanor and reached Clear Creek, the junction with the Almanor Railroad that ran to Chester. We stayed running east until we turned north at Mountain Meadow Reservoir and on to Westwood, where we had a layover. While passengers explored the town, Union Pacific ran their E9As around the train to pull us backwards to Keddie. Brad and I found somewhere for lunch then reboarded at the appointed time and we returned to Keddie where the E9s ran around the train again before leading us down the Feather River Canyon. We arrived at Oroville on time and Brad and I went for dinner then returned to the motel for the night.
7/10/1994 We drove back down the valley with the truck still having engine problems and drove California Highway 99 to Selma, then California Highway 41 to Allensworth State Park, as Brad wanted to see the town, which was an experimental farming community for former black slaves. The preserved townsite featured nine restored buildings including a schoolhouse, homes and a hotel, which was a very moving experience for me. We then drove into Bakersfield, first stopping at a Motel 6 before dropping the Bronco off at the Ford dealership, who gave us a car to use while the repairs were made. To fill the time, we went to a Bakersfield Dodgers baseball game, one of the original eight franchises in the California League in 1941 and 1994 was their last season.
7/11/1994 The next morning through afternoon found us in the waiting area of the dealership until the Bronco was finally done and we drove home from Bakersfield late in the day and I was certainly glad to be home in Santa Ana.
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