This highway-rail grade crossing with
California Highway 89 appears to
be in the process of being dismantled.
The interesting white cages were
sitting on the McCloud right-of-way. Some boxcars were also
nearby waiting to be scrapped. The green one has the marking
"Camino Placerville and Lake Tahoe Railroad" which was an 8 mile short
line in the central California Sierra Nevada foothills.
Our return time at Burney was 2:15
PM. Many motorcars were put
back on trailers and towed 36 miles to Bartle, MP18, about 6 miles
form
the Curtis derailment site. It was at the
set-off time at Burney that I realized that motorcar experience is a
dirty one on the clothing. I had many spots of grease and few
spare articles of clothing. Some motorcar owners stayed at Burney
and ran back to Curtis.
Once the car was set-on the rails at Bartle, we left for McCloud at
4:40 PM. The plan called for a dinner stop in McCloud and the
possiblity of seeing the Shasta Dinner Train.
Above, Bill is driving
with his arms folded as if on auto-pilot. Motorcars do not have
steering wheels. He installed an
intercom system similar to ones used in aircraft. We could talk
to one another and hear transmissions from other motorcars. To
transmit to other cars, Bill would hit a push to talk switch. At
the Sunday safety meeting, Dave McClain alerted participants about
raised wood in the crossing MP13.2 seen below right. Everything
got a heavy coating of dust each time we hit this crossing.
The location Experanza reminded me of a BNSF Railway name in Orange
County California where many trains pass every day on a busy triple
track mainline. The
Santa Ana Canyon east of Esperanza was triple tracked in the mid
1990's. In the last several years, BNSF has installed a
tall sound wall and extended the triple track to the west. I have
railfanned there as well as been on the rails on
Metrolink and Operation Lifesaver special Officer-on-a-train
consists. Click here
to see the other Esperanza.
The railroad is in much
better condition from Bartle to McCloud. Just outside McCloud,
there were storage tracks with a variety of old railcars and one
disassembled steam engine.
Above is an ex-Union Pacific Railroad Maintenance of Way Foreman and 10
man shower and bunk car. Next were several old wooden box cars.
