Feeder line of the Southern Pacific's Sacramento Southern RR
From: PaddlingBooks@aol.com
I am researching background information on the SP Southern RR feeder line from Hood to Walnut Grove CA. Specifically on the section that crossed the tule marshes at Delta Meadows. What type of trestle crossed over the marshes, and if any photos exist of the area. Is this the line that had the McKeen Motor Cars on it? Was the line abandoned in 1957? or earlier? & finally what was Locke's role in the RR line.
—Bill Van der Ven
posted from CPRR Discussion Group at 8:30 PM
2 Comments:
From: PaddlingBooks@aol.com
I am researching the area around the present day Delta Meadows State Park need help in finding following information:
Specifically any info on the trestle bridge over the tule marshes at Delta Meadows, now Delta Meadows State Park. Are there any photos of that line, the trains & trestle?
—Bill Van der Ven
From: "Kevin Buckner" mikadobear45@yahoo.com
Subject: Feeder line of the Southern Pacific's Sacramento Southern RR between Walnut Grove & Hood
I hope you'll hear from a staff member of California State Railroad Museum since some of them tend to monitor this list – CSRM maintains extensive historical files on the Sacramento Southern Railroad's history.
To basically answer your question, however, there was a timber pile trestle across the marsh you indicated although portions of it were filled over the years. The steel bascule lift bridge remains as an isolated artifact as far as I know.
The entire Sacramento Southern did see McKeen cars in revenue use, although it is perhaps more interesting to note that the earliest McKeen car trials, including the first pre-purchase trials of the McKeen demonstrator car, were done on the SSRR before moving on to other SP branch lines and the main line to Colfax and the other main lines down the San Joaquin Valley and up towards Marysville. The Sacramento Bee ran a series of intriguing news articles when the novel McKeen first showed up for the SSRR test runs; those articles are on microfilm (California State Library has those Bee microfilms for reference use).
That's as much as I can recall off the top of my head. If you don't get a response here from California State railroad Museum staffers, by all means contact the museum library directly.
—Kevin Bunker, Portland, OR
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