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Hello: More goodies.

Hello: Latest ticket finds. Enjoy! ~Bill Shippen

Hello: Here is an extremely rare San Francisco - Sacramento Railroad Co. ticket for the Danville Branch. Photos of this branch are hard enough to find, paperwork is even more difficult. Enjoy! ~Bill Shippen

MoW 83. June 1956, unknown location. Can someone ID the location?

Friends, As I was doing some follow-up to Nathan's question about the SN's 3rd rail, I found the source of the original article. It is from the JOURNAL OF ELECTRICITY, POWER AND GAS for 23 April 1910. The article runs from page 367 to 391, and includes a detailed description of the line at that time, plus dozens of rare early photos and diagrams. This is well worth bookmarking: https://archive.org/details/journalofele241251910paci/page/n424/mode/1up?view=theater Yours Aye, Garth Groff ?

Friends, While looking for an answer to Bill's question about cab interiors in Wikimedia Commons, I stumbled onto some very interesting SN stuff that probably most of us have never seen. I copied these pieces out and formatted them for ease of sharing. They will be coming your way over the next few days. Today I have a very cool detailed diagram on how the NE/SN laid out the third rail at switches. Please enjoy. And yes, as this is over 100 years old, it is in the public domain. Yours Aye, Garth Groff ?

Bill and Friends, I would say very rare, and also valuable if the slide has a processing date on it. I don't recognize the location. Attached are two photos of 1642 from my collection, both at West Sacramento. The first was taken by my father (Glenn Groff), probably around 1972 (the slide was not dated). Note the reweight date, "SAC 6-70", which possibly indicates when the car was serviced and repainted at the WP Jeffrey Shops. The second is my own shot (it was almost dark) from 1976. Yours Aye, Garth Groff ?

Back in the day of civility transportation, one could enjoy the following gastronomic delights while enjoying a trip on the SN.

Friends, Out of curiosity, I did some internet searching to learn more about the Park Hotel. It is sort of a side issue to our interest in the Sacramento Northern. But it was the "nicest" hotel in Chico, the tracks passed the building on Main Street, and it was a regular stop for both streetcars and interurban trains, the hotel seemed relevant to our (or at least my) interest. The management company was formed in 1887, and the hotel was probably in operation within two years. None of the incorporators were later connected with the Northern Electric, but were likely all local big shots. One of the early investors was John Bidwell, who was associated with the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad. The substantial stone building was located on the corner of Main and 4th streets, with its 4th street side facing Chico's central plaza/park. Nearly all the photos I could locate show the building from the 4th & Main corner. The first photo was taken from the plaza across 4th street. The church was torn down in 1908 or 1909 which puts a terminal date on this photo. Sometime between 1910 and 1915 the veranda, which gave the building great charm, was removed in a fit of modernization. IMHO this made the structure into a rather boring cube, but a still chushy one for the time. The third photo shows a NE train stopped in front of the hotel. Note the sign at left facing 4th Street, possibly for a cafe or tavern? The Park Hotel remained in operation until 1946. In 1947 the property was sold, and the management corporation was dissolved. To what use the hotel was put after that is unknown, but the building was obviously no longer the town's best hotel. The building was razed in 1963. Today, the corner is a parking lot. (Yawn!) Yours Aye, Garth Groff ?

Friends, Today I offer the last of the Northern Electric photos I found searching Wikimedia Commons for Sacramento and also all the larger towns the NE/SN served. This particular view is a postcard from 1906 showing a Northern Electric streetcar on Main Street. The car has just passed the Plaza and is adjacent to the Park Hotel. What is especially cool about this photo is the car itself, NE single-truck streetcar 71. Cars 70-72 were 1895-vintage Holman-built California cars [two open air sections, and a central closed section] built for the United Railroads of San Francisco. 73 was a similar Hammond product [Swett said they were all Hammond cars]. NE bought the four cars for Chico service in 1906. Two were sold off to Santa Cruz, and and two to Monterey in 1914. Photos of them are very, very rare. For comparison, I have included two additional views at approximately the same location. The black-and-white photo was loaned to me for copying by Mrs. Bert Pingree back around 1980 (and the original returned promptly!). The car in the distance is one of the larger double-truck streetcars. Yours Aye, Garth Groff ?

Friends, Yesterday on Wikimedia Commons I found these three photos of Northern Electric's demonstration car 90. They were apparently published around 1912 in PACIFIC SERVICES MAGAZINE, a Pacific Gas & Electric Company promotional journal. They were not cataloged with key words "Northern Electric", which is why they didn't come up in an earlier searches for SN-related subjects. The photos were screened and printed on cheap paper, so the quality is not great. I would love to know if the originals exist in some PG&E archive. Imagine the goodies such a collection might contain. Just as an example, PG&E once owned much of the non-SN/CCT streetcar operations in Sacramento. NE 90 was an 1895-vintage PRR baggage car that the Northern Electric acquired in 1907 for milk, baggage and express service. It was usually hauled on the rear of passenger trains. In 1912 the car was converted to a rolling exhibit for PG&E to promote electrification. The car was frequently displayed at fairs and other public events in cities served by the Northern Electric. At some unknown date the car was downgraded to MW service and renumbered MW 912, though for what purpose I do not know (perhaps a bunk car?). This probably occurred before 1922, as blower car MW 913 was converted to MW that year. According to AFE 39-32 of 9-1-32, the car was written off, though it is noted that MW 912 had already been scrapped in 1927. MW 912 is conspicuously missing from the 1928 ICC evaluation list in my collection. More about this car can be found on page 46 of Swett's CARS OF SACRAMENTO NORTHERNand on page 265 of Demoro's SACRAMENTO NORTHERN. Yours Aye, Garth Groff ?

Friends, While searching for inclined railways under 'Pacific Gas & Electric' on Wikimedia, I came upon some Northern Electric photos that were completely new to me. Here follow the first two, which show damage to the Colusa Branch near Meridian during floods in late 1914 and early 1915. Here is part of the text that accompanied the two photos: . . . The very heavy storm of February 2d and 3d in Shasta and Tehama counties caused the river to rise very rapidly in the vicinity of Colusa, until on February 4th, it had reached the highest known, with the result that a number of breaks occurred. One of these was a few miles above Colusa, two others a few miles below the same town, and another directly opposite Meridian . . . approximately, one mile of line was washed out [misssing text] west approach of the Northern Electric Com-panys bridge over the Sacramento was washed out . . . . I assume that the "breaks" mentioned above were to the levees on the Sacramento River. Some other interesting photos will follow tomorrow. Yours Aye, Garth Groff ?