I visited the WPRR museum in Portola, CA today. Very few people there, and it was a bit chilly and windy. But no prob; and they had power, because they get it from Nevada.
They have a big collection, almost all outdoors. A lot from the WP (which got folded into the UP in the 80’s), but since they have space, numerous donated pieces from other RR’s. It’s a long yard, maybe 12 tracks wide, and quite filled with equipment. I’ll show some of my fave’s, roughly in the order I took the pics.
A critter:
I thought this sign was interesting, as I walked into the museum ticket office:
Love this, I started a similar model for the V&T, but have been neglecting it:
Their only steam loco is this WP one, housed in their small barn.
Lots of diesels and cabeese, many of which were open.
When in Truckee, I was bummed to see that the rotary there had been moved. Well, here’s where they moved it to! It’s SP MW 8221. The cab doors were locked, but it was great walking around her.
A Western Scraper tilt-dump hopper (similar mechanism as the Bachmann 4-wheel “ore cars”).
A UP wedge plow made from a tender:
The WP was known for its “California Zephyr,” and this is one of several of those cars which ran on “The Feather River Route.”
Lots of donated equipment…
A big UP crane and tender car. A plaque on the crane says it was originally steam driven, later converted to diesel.
A tiny self-propelled yard crane:
After wandering around the yard I went back to the ticket office / gift shop, and just out of curiosity asked about the train-driving program that first sign talked about. A man standing there says he was doing it that day; costs $250 for an hour. He was doing it with his daughter and her son. And then he offered to take me with them, since it was good for a party of 5. I said sure! Here’s the loco they were running that day, and it’s one of 3 that are still certified to go out on the real track. This is the one that fetched that big rotary from Truckee not too long ago.
Anyway, the gentleman (Lester) didn’t want to drive the loco, just had his daughter do it. Under the instruction of a veteran engineer (Charley – ask for him if you go here), you get 5 out-and-backs on a 1 mile of track. On lap 4, they all said I should do it. So I drove a real loco for 2 miles today! Brake, reverser, throttle, bell, whistle, all that. Proper bell / whistle / braking over the one grade crossing; reversing; the whole nine yards. I wasn’t as good as the daughter, she took to it immediately. But what a hoot!
After all that (an hour’s cab ride all told), I followed the engineer as he powered the loco down and checked levels & etc. He asked if I wanted to see the cab of the rotary, and you bet! So he unlocked it and let me climb up and prowl around in there for a good fifteen minutes while he went to do something else.
When Charley came back, he handed me a certificate saying I’d been checked out on that EMD, haha!
So a great day all round. This weekend I’ll get a V&T hat at the depot (I’m in Carson now), and send it to Lester – the gentleman who paid the the loco running lessons. He didn’t want to take payment from me, but he saw my hat and said it would sure be nice to have one of those. So I’ll get that out to good ol’ Lester soon.
===>Cliffy
