These are all the parts that were salvaged from the cars in Yreka. Although the 539 & 540 are dead, their spirit will live on in other Milwaukee cars.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33672589@N ... 064805560/

Great job, guys. It is often very difficult to step up to the plate and save parts like these when said parts are 2000 miles away. It takes time, money, and the ability to drop everything on a moment's notice and send competent help to where the cars are being scrapped. Normally we hear about the impending demise of a piece of equipment at the last minute, and the scrappers are not going to stand around waiting for very long. But it's frequently now or never, as these opportunities don't come along often. Even if it means renting a storage unit (as it appears these guys did) for a few months until a truck can be rented to retrieve the parts and get them home. Congratulations on a job well done.

And the next time somebody says "Why don't they....", we can hand them the bill for the storage unit for a month...........

From the photos I'd say at least TWO storage units. Glad to see that the unique detail parts were saved. I wonder if any Alco folks are looking for 244 parts--AFAIK, it was a running engine--although on friction bearings (I helped scrape and polish some of those when it was at WPRM.
S'
David D.

Word from some of the YW crewmen was that the #244 leaked oil by the gallon and was very uncomfortable to operate. The YW had the unit listed for sale for at least a couple years now...but no buyer stepped up, hence its current condition. The colors on that locomotive are (or were) nearly identical to the Eureka Southern, because at one time former EUKA owner Bryan Whipple was planning to use the unit on his stillborn Northern Nevada Railroad (one-time prospective operator of the old Nevada Northern mainline).

Fred Stindt's book on the OP&E does not contain any mention of these cars working on that road. According to his book, the railroad got into the excursion business in 1971 with six ex-SP commute coaches. In 1972, the railroad replaced the equipment with two Milwaukee, four IC, one WP, and one CP coaches; however, photographs indicate at least one of the two MILW cars was what appears to be a tap lounge, and Stindt reports the OP&E sold that entire group of cars in 1974 to Los Angeles County for potential use in an Amtrak operation between Los Angeles and San Diego that never got started. Stindt reported the entire group of cars were still stored in the LA area when his book went to press in 1983.

Kent Stephens's small book on the YW indicates Kyle transferred these two cars from the California Western in 1988. I don't believe I have ever seen a single source on the CWR that is specific enough to determine when these cars arrived on that property.

Interesting questions...

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

DANGER: Thread drift ahead!

I remember reading a write-up on a "mystery train" years ago in Rail Classics or Railway Quarterly, which well could have been this set of cars. The cars in question--including a round-end observation--were acquired with the prospect of running what would later be termed a "403(b)" train, where local or state government put up the money and/or acquired the equipment for the operation of a "subsidized" train. I think the first to actually take off was the Pennsylvanian in 1977, but this L.A. project preceded that. Later, of course, we would have successful 403(b) operations in California, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere.

My fuzzy memory says that a Los Angeles politician or bureaucrat acquired the train set quickly and pre-emptively, before Amtrak and California had actually laid out the groundwork for the proposed operation (commuter?). Apparently/allegedly, it was also done under questionable circumstances--lack of authority, misappropriation of monies, whatever. As I recall, the train set ended up parked in some industrial or fairgrounds siding, switched by a SP or UP local every couple months just to keep the bearings lubed.

I have a 1976 OP&E roster showing the following AND alleging that the Black Hills Central owned these cars BEFORE the OP&E:

SP 10 RDC-1 built 1955

IC 2612, 2625, 2628, 2636, and 2637, all Pullman-Standard 1947, all 56-seat coach except for 2612 (48-seat).

IC Obs-Bar-Lounge 3378, ex-IC 3308, rblt. from coach 2211 in 1951, Pullman 1918.

IC 3345, 44-seat coach/grill, ex-IC, nee-MP(IGN) 568, ex-874, AC&F 1948.

The 3378 apparently survives today on the Salt Lake & Rio Grande as the Calumet Club, but this is definitely NOT the round-end observation I saw in photos of the "El Camino" train. The 3345 went to the Illinois Railway Museum in 1998, but again, it doesn't match any "El Camino" cars. 2612 ended up at the Monticello Railway Museum as IC 2612 Carondelet. I can't find anything on the other four IC cars.

And I'm STILL pretty sure these aren't the Los Angeles train set cars. Or are they????

So now I'm stuck wondering 1) whatever happened to the El Camino" train set, and 2) where's the SP/NWP RDC, the one rebuilt with a single cab after a run-in with a truck?


Shall I make this a separate topic?

So, will we see this on an episode of "Storage Wars" in a few months?

Dave

The "El Camino" train set, comprised of cars from the OP&E, did in fact run as intended in LA-San Diego service for roughly 6 months to a year circa 1978. One could make the argument that the "El Camino" was the precursor to the current extensive service we now have along the LA - San Diego corridor. The equipment and schedule was eventually replaced with Amfleet cars and F40's.

The trainset consisted of the aformentioned ex-IC coaches, 2 ex-MILW tap lounges, and the ex-WP Silver Planet. The cars were refurbished at Hoover Industries in Florida. All cars were sold to Mexico circa mid-1980's.

The RDC that the OP&E had was the former SP car that ended up at Galveston. It was flooded in the hurricane, but does not look much worse for the experience interior-wise. It appears that Galveston may be keeping this car as it has not appeared on any recent sale lists that I am aware of.

Stindt's book credits the OP&E with three sets of passenger equipment, as follows.

1. The OP&E initially purchased six ex-SP 72' "sub" cars and leased a Canadian Pacific mountain observation car. This equipment was used for the 1971 season (OP&E's first) and maybe part of the 1972 season before being retired and sold or scrapped.

2. In 1972, the OP&E replaced the original train set with a second set consisting of the two ex-MILW tap lounges, four Illinois Central coaches, a Western Pacific rear end dome lounge, a Canadian Pacific open car, and two ex-Western Pacific generator cars, and the ex-SP/NWP Budd car. The CP open car was leased and returned to its owner after the 1973 season; the balance of the equipment lasted through the 1974 season, at which time the railroad sold the entire set to Los Angeles County. Tofuel covered the rest of this story fairly well.

3. Prior to the 1975 season, the OP&E purchased the train set that would carry it through the rest of its excursion years- five coaches, one snack car/coach, one lounge car, and one heavyweight car, all ex-Illinois Central equipment. Stindt does not indicate from where OP&E purchased these cars. These would be the cars on your 1976 roster, as Stindt does identify the #2612 in a photo caption.

The RDC car lasted until 1978, when the railroad sold it (along with a substantial collection of other equipment) to the Moody Foundation for the railroad museum in Galveston. Reports I've heard is that the hurricane caused extensive water damage to this car.

I hope this helps,

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

Yes, the 244 was to have gone to the Nevada Northern, one reason for the paint design on the nose--the NN diamond would have been in the center. Also, the running board edges were to get reflective tape for road crossing safety.
This was a long time ago (well, relatively speaking) and my memory is somewhat fuzzy on the whole thing. I drew out the design for the paint scheme, but was gone during the time it was to be painted, and when I came back there were the "circus" colors in all their glory! I forget what colors I had originally thought it would be.
Hmm, I probably have print photos somewhere in my files.
S'
David D.

Anyone still listening?

I found a partial roster of the El Camino trainset in the second issue of Railway Quarterly:

101 Sierra Madre IC Coach 1942 ACF
102 Crescenta Valley IC Coach 1940 Pullman-Standard
103 La Miranda IC Coach 1947 Pullman
104 Santa Monica IC Coach 1947 Pullman
105 Los Angeles IC Coach 1947 Pullman
106 Palos Verdes MILW Cafe/Lounge 1948 MILW
107 Montebello MILW Cafe/Lounge 1948 MILW
108 San Fernando WP Dome/Obs 1948 Budd

Subsequent history account of "Silver Planet" from http://trainweb.org/web_lurker/WP/ :



Another report: "The private cars are now kept in the premises of Silver Creek International in that city. The dome ob, now undergoing restoration, is called Silver Creek 100 San Luis. NdeM 3518 Presidente López Mateos (ex-NYC Sunrise Brook) is also being restored as Silver Creek 200 Real de Catorce. "

A bit of Googling revealed some more information on the coaches:

IC 2612 - Monticello
IC 2625 - apparently IAIS "Silver River" as of 1988, now New York & Greenwood Lake 2995 (info from http://passcarphotos.info/Indices/N2.htm)
IC 2628 - ?
IC 2636 - said to be on Idaho Northern & Pacific according by http://www.icrr.net/passenger6.htm
IC 2637 - ?

Those 6 ex SP Subs were the ones used in the well known Movie E.O.T.N. filmed on the OP&E....seems odd they would scrap them in favor of the other equipment listed.

The 2 remaining Subs on the YW are now owned by the Oregon Coast Scenic, which also owns the MCRRR #25 and bought 3 Subs that were on the YW property from Fred Kempner. I'm not sure if these were the cars that the YW used on their Blue Goose, but they did use SP Subs. The one OC sub was lettered for the YW but is now beautifully restored and in operation on the OC, while the other two remain in Ywreka awaiting transit, I would assume.

Should the YW ever get back into operations, and run passenger trains, what will they have to use?! Seems they are selling off or scrapping everything they can to keep their bills paid.

A little more information on this...the Oregon Coast Scenic acquired the three "subs" on the YW as part of the trade, I think OCSR's part of the deal was to move the ex-Sierra #38 from McCloud to Merrill. YW used two of the subs on their excursions, the third has been sitting in Yreka in derelict condition since arriving on the property back in the mid-1980's. The OCSR has done a remarkable job with the coach in Garibaldi.

YW's principle passenger train was the two MILW cars, the two subs, and a passenger flat. The railroad always leased the subs and the passenger flat from the Great Western museum. The passenger flat is now on the City of Prineville Railroad, where it is used in occassional excursion service behind the Mt. Emily Lumber Company Shay.

As for what the YW may use if it ever gets back into the passenger business...that's an interesting question. The only operable equipment they will now have is an open air car they rebuilt from an ex-McCloud boxcar and the ex-McCloud half open caboose. They do have the six or seven other cars acquired from the CSRM, but those need work before they can be used on a passenger train.

This still doesn't answer the question if the two MILW coaches starting this thread ever saw service on the OP&E...

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

Attached is a photo of the 539 being cut up on 8/31/11...Sad day...Its sister the 540 was cut up the following day...photos of hat car to come.

Regards, J.L. Nelson