Report from UP Historical Society Meeting and tours

I recently traveled to the Union Pacific Historical Society 2016 convention in Sacramento Ca.  I went on two tours, one to Portola Ca. and the Western Pacific RR Museum. The other to the Westen RR Museum.   We departed on buses taking I 80 to Truckee.  It basically parallels the old SP (Central Pacific) Donner line.  We saw a train coming down track number two after it leaves the big hole at the top.  The snowsheds from the old track one are in place yet even though the track has been discontinued. No more trains through tunnel six, the original and most difficult bore. From Truckee we went up 89 to Portola.  This is near the top of the old Western Pacific crossing of the Sierras, with a considerably less elevation than the SP line over Donner.  The WP track was built on a grade of no more than 1%, whereas the SP line (old Central Pacific) had grades of up to 2.2% I believe.  The museum was staffed by enthusiastic volunteers most of whom live in Portola.  Pretty small town really and Portola is a bit hard to get to so if you live there do not plan to see the Opera very often.  Portola was a natural crew change point in WP days.  These days the UP does not run a lot of trains there but what there is goes down the Feather river canyon.  An engineering marvel to get the track to stay glued to the steep cliffs. The Feather River in a wild one at time and has on occasion taken out some track.  It takes a long time to get down, but the trip was well worth it.  We stopped at the Keddie Y where BNSF takes off to the north on one part of the Y going to Bieber and on north to Oregon.  Some trackage rights are afforded BN to get there and down to Oroville. At Keddie Y we saw a 3 car local heading to the town of Keddie.   We lucked out and saw an auto rack train and a manifest going down Feather River canyon later.   There are few roads along the tracks and inspection and maintenance  is done with high rail trucks.  Saw one of those coming up not far from the manifest heading down.  You can see a lot more out of the elevated bus windows than say a car. 

     The museum has a nice array of equipment including the restored WP F-7 trio of ABA.  A photo is attached.  They are working on an O-6-0 steamer.  Looked like quite a bit is left to do but the folks cautiously are thinking two years.  There are quite a few yard tracks left there in Portola which could be the extent of its travel unless UP feels inclined to allow something on the main.  You can run a diesel now by donating the the museum.  I did not do that but did drop some money on books to help the cause and keep me in reading material. 

     Back at hotel in Sacramento for the historical presentations.  All good that I saw but I really enjoyed Stuart Forsyth.  He had digitized the week of May 3 1945 on the Cajon line operated by SP.  Went through the train order in detail.  There were a lot of movements. Many more than you would think, but remember the war was still on.  The average trip speed was just under the speed limit of 13 MPH.  He found that the FTs exceeded the speed limit the most.  He attributed that to dynamic braking.    Next was Jeff Asay.  He went through the history of the Southern  Pacific and the UP early in the century.  UP bought the SP but Teddy Roosevelt brought anti trust action and forced the break up. Up was ordered to buy the Central Pacific but that never happened at the timie.  The talk included  up to recent history of the two.  I really enjoyed those two guys.  They gave very organized talks, and good speakers too.   I could hear both.  Each was an Attorney in his day.  Mr. Asay worked for UP for a number of years.  Both now volunteer with the Ca RR museum.

     The keynote speaker was John Rebensdorf.  He presented from a company perspective the mergers and buy outs to present.  He is a Nebraska native so he had to be good.  Anyway, he was a Vice President for UP and was involved among other things in strategic planning.  A long time UP executive.  It was fascinating to hear how UP turned down the initial offer of SP to sell to UP.  They then studied where growth was most likely to happen.  The conclusion was that California was not the best future acquisition.  Instead they decided that the gulf coast had the most growth potential and the Missouri Pacific was UPs first move. 

If any of those folks are listening, my sincere thanks for all the time and effort it took to prepare and to give their presentations.  Next year is in Denver.  I plan to be there.  If any of you readers can add some detail or corrections, feel free.  I have gone on long enough.