Friends,
Something rarely talked about are SN's highway trucks and other light service vehicles, so today I present you several photos from my collection to ponder and enjoy.
I photographed the speeder in the Feather River Canyon (possibly near Belden) on the WP sometime between 1977 and 1980. I believe it is a Fairmont. The colors were light blue and silver. The car is pretty badly nicked and dented, but actually some of those dings are bullet pocks (look closely!). Pretty chilling, but they were probably made by vandals while the speeder was unattended at some distant location. Also note that the windshield is intact, maybe because it was repaired after the motor car was used for target practice.
The second is another of my photos. This is from a color slide (now in the FRRS collection) which would date it to around 1976, The truck is a WP-owned Ford pick-up. This truck was near Elverta on the soon-to-be abandoned Rio Linda stub.
Here's another oddity, a WP crew trailer. I found this parked in the West Sacramento yard at an unknown date. No more nasty old converted passenger cars for the MW gang.?
Finally, we have a shot by my late father, Glenn Groff,?taken?in the 1960s of a hy-rail pick-up on the SN in Chico. The original slide is now also in the FRRS collection. This may be SN HR1, a "Fairmont A32 Highway-Rail motor car, pick-up body" which the SN acquired in 1953. The SN bought a similar unit in 1954, but it was resold only a year or so later.
Company-owned trucks and automobiles were quite common on the SN by the late 1920s. Most were used for maintenance service or by supervisors for other duties. Some were actually used for revenue purposes by the crews at SN freight stations. P. Allen Copeland's AFE record compilation lists the acquisition or disposal of many of these vehicles, and sometimes their uses.?
One example was AFE 28-36 dated 7-3-36. The SN traded in a 1924 1-ton Model T ?(probably with a stake body) in exchange for a 1934 Ford V-8 stake body. The exchange was with Ellesworth Harrold, possibly a local auto dealer (other vehicles were also bought from Harrold). The truck was assigned to the Sacramento freight station, and probably was used for local deliveries and to service the Woodland freight station. A later entry, AFE 21-42 of 6-18-42, records this truck as "retired on account of wreck 4-16-42."
Another interesting purchase was on AFE 30-37 dated 8-5-37. A 1934 Plymouth coupe was purchased for the Holland Branch agent, with a 1929 Ford Model A coupe as a trade-in. Note that the Plymouth was a used car, and the SN was being its usual frugal self.
Lots of interesting fodder here for details on an SN model railroad.
Yours Aye,
Garth Groff ??
