Hello all I am a huge Southern Pacific fan and live here in Bakersfield CA and I need help with trying to figure out what towns are along the Southern Pacific in Northeastern CA. I have the following towns that I want to use: Lakeview OR, Klamath Falls OR, Stronghold CA, Alturas CA, Wendel CA, Flanigan NV, Reno NV, Keddie CA, Susanville CA, Marrysville CA, Oroville CA. I got the towns from an old Southern Pacific route map from the mid 60’s but its not 100% accurate as all the lines on the map are straight lines and going from town to town. Im modeling the SP in the mid 80’s to the mid 90’s and I don’t know what towns are still served by the SP in that time period. The only other reference I have found is the images from googlesightseeing so as far as things go I feel that I have a good idea but not enough to get started on layout planning.
Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am in the design process of a multi level SP layout.
Go to the MapQuest web site, type in the name of any of those towns as your search area, then select Aerial Image.
Enlarge the image and you can trace rail lines in any direction from that starting point. Following along with a road map, you should be able to identify the towns that the lines are passing through.
A really good, informative DVD about that area is called Extreme SP, available from Charles Smiley videos at http://www.trainmovies.com The video features the Modoc, Shasta, Donner, and Cascade lines.
There is a book out about the Modoc Line by Tom Dill. Another book by John Signor called The Shasta Route that also covers the Modoc line. Best is if your’re planning a layout take a trip there to get the lay of the land.
I agree that your best bet is to buy one of those books mentioned and then take a trip there. I model the Klamath Falls branch of the SP in 1910. Unfortunately I live in Memphis and it is difficult for me to travel there. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I have found that good reference books with plenty of pictures, a camera, a GPS and a trip to the location is worth 1,000 words raised to the third power. This approach has also hooked me on one of the most interesting aspects of our hobby; historical research. Peter Smith, Memphis
HI, there. Most of the towns you mention are on the old SP Modoc line in Eastern California and Nevada, except for Marysville, Oroville and Keddie. Marysville is on the north-south Shasta line, Oroville is on an SP branch, and Keddie isn’t touched by the SP, it was a junction on the WP Feather River route. Susanville was served by a branch of the Modoc Line that ran from Wendel, NV to Westwood, CA. If you’re interested in modeling the Modoc Line (which sounds like what you want), there is a terrific book about it, that another person on this thread has reccommended. By the '80’s and '90’s, however, the Modoc Line was fairly dormant. After UP bought SP, the line was abandoned from Wendel, NV to Alturas, CA.
hey guys thanks for the replies it has helped me out a bunch. I think i have that DVD of the Southern Pacific “Extreme SP” lying around here somewhere. That was originaly what got me interested in modeling that area of California. Although I live 30 mins from the tehachapi loop modeling the san joaquin route of the SP seemed a bit much for my limits. And when I looked into how that region is layed out it made since to model that area for me of the simplest reasons. That area is all interconnected in a loop style fashion so modeling after that area would be the best route for me without taking away from the realistic operations I want to achieve. I wanted to do Bakersfield north to Roseville but when I looked at how huge the yards were and the amount of freight in each of those yards overwhelmed me a bit. So I figured I still wanted to model something that could be considered main line modeling but without a giant layout needs. So thats what turned me on to that region of the SP.
For northern Ca, not necessarily northeastern, go from Davis to Dunnigan, Winters, Williams, and Artois up to Red Bluff, Redding, Dunsmuir to Black Butte where the Siskiyou to Medford and up to Roseburg and Eugene, branched off from the Klamath route to Klamath Falls Or that went on up to Oakridge and they rejoined at Eugene for the run up to Portland. Little mention made in other responses was the WP Highline from Keddie up to Beiber, Ca. where it interchanged with the Great Northern. The Highline was (is) crossed by SP’s Modoc line. jc5729
The SP didn’t run trains between Keddie and Bieber unless there was a closure on the Shasta Route and then they ran on trackage rights between Marysville and Klamath Falls. The “Highline” was always a WP/Great Northern proposition from the beginning. After UP took over WP, there was talk of closing the Highline, but thankfully, BNSF bought the route from Keddie to Bieber, with trackage rights from Stockton to Keddie. It’s now part of the BNSF north-south route between LA and Portland/Spokane, and traffic has increased a great deal. In fact, BNSF is giving the now UP Shasta Route a run for its money between California and Oregon. The last I heard, the Highline was sporting about 10-12 trains a day. Between Keddie and Greenville, the line is one of the most spectacular pieces of mountain railroading in California, at least IMO.
WP and SP had a mutual track agreement. If The feather river canyon was closed WP could use the Donner route and vice versa as WP had a line into Reno. Both roads required home road pilots on these trains…