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Amtrak's westbound Feather River Express drifts across Rock Creek on the homeward leg of the 2011 Portola Railroad Days excursion. On this day the heartbeat of the Feather River Route's former owner, Western Pacific, takes the pleasant chords of the turbo-charged 567 prime mover inside former Western Pacific GP20 2001. The pioneering La Grange graduate, the first production GP20 built, today calls the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, CA home. For two consecutive years (2010-2011) the veteran EMD was allowed to pilot the Feather River Express, through its namesake Canyon, between Portola and Oroville, harkening back to an age when the presence of orange and silver painted EMDs was a daily ritual in Northern California.
WP 2001 ~ AMT985 ~ Rock Creek, California
Union Pacific's Canyon Subdivision
08.21.2011
Was vacationing with my wife in California in 1978 and was extremely lucky to catch the Western Pacific "Milpitas F's" working the Ford plant in Milpitas. I caught them working the plant at 7am, followed them down to San Jose, and caught them once again on their way back to Stockton. This is a photo of them on their return trip through Milpitas with the Ford plant in the distance beyond the overpass. At the time of the photo there were only 4 active F's operating on the WP.
F7 913,GP40 3513, F7's 917 and 921. Howard Kent Jr. 08-23-1975.
WP 3524 is eastbound at the west end of the Virgilia siding deep within the confines of the Feather River Canyon in May 1978.
E6 Slide
WP Alco S2 #560 idles the afternoon away in the WP Stockton yard. In scanning my dad's negatives, I have realized the WP's Alco switchers seem to have received the "Pumpkin" paint scheme more thoroughly than their EMD and Baldwin counterparts.
Kodacolor Negative by Bob Black- John Black Collection. 1924
WP Alco S2 trundles out of the service tracks, and is headed off to work the busy Stockton yard on a glorious California afternoon circa 1971.
Kodacolor Negative by Bob Black- John Black Collection. 1927
Of all the interesting relics I've discovered around Utah's Tintic Mining District, this Western Pacific Monocoach trailer is one of the more unusual. Spotted near Union Pacific's Lynndyl Subdivision at Tintic Junction, it was previously used by a Western Pacific roadmaster before the UP-WP merger in 1983. By July 27, 1986, it was in maintenance of way service.