Southern Pacific 0-6-0 on display in Monteray, CA

TrainNut

Ditat Deus
My son and I went to Monteray, CA this weekend to visit the aquarium and turns out.... I found some trains. First up, we found this cute li'l 0-6-0 Southern Pacific that was HUGE! Maybe they are all that size but this one seemed really big to me. Unlike other displays I have seen where they have them all fenced off so's you can't get within 10' of 'em, this one was totally accessible, had stairs up to both sides, and even some handrails up on top of the tender and roof of the cab so the kiddies could climb all over the darn thing. I found it strange that the cab was so large (inside) and the floor was dropped to gain access to the firebox.
Further down the line, near the old canneries, we found a caboose and an old baggage car (I think) on display as well. I couldn't find much information about the line... some little stuff here and there. I'm for sure I read something about it being the first narrow guage line in California but that sure does not look narrow guage to me.
You can read a little more about it here if your interested...
http://www.monterey.org/museum/canneryrow/trains.html
 

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Cool shots of your boy playing on the switcher. The city has cleaned it up and repainted it I see. I let my boys play on that about 13 years ago IIRC. Glad to see it still there for the public to see. That caboose looks like an old Sacramento Northern caboose. Originally it was a WP box car which they made into a caboose between WWI and WWII. Some time after the war, SN came into possesion of some.

Greg
 

TrainNut

Ditat Deus
Greg Elems said:
That caboose looks like an old Sacramento Northern caboose. Originally it was a WP box car which they made into a caboose between WWI and WWII. Some time after the war, SN came into possesion of some. Greg
I thought that the rear truck on the caboose was positioned too far back but if it used to be a boxcar, that might make more sense. It might just look funny to me because the coupler is missing, throwing off the balance.... who knows. Wow, 13 years ago? Glad to see that they are taking care of it and it has withstood the test of time so far. It always kills me to see them take an old engine and weld everything shut/closed to make it inoperable and safe for the public. To me, that means that they are just sealing it's fate and that it will probably never be restored. Still, better to have it safe and on display I guess than rusting away in some scrapyard! How's that for being flip floppy?
 

MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
That's a great outside braced caboose. I always liked those, but I don't think CN ever ran any... :( Maybe it's time to dream up a line so I can "justify" one ;). 'Ccourse, then I'll need a spray booth, and a ... Hmmm.... wish list grows! :D

Thanks for sharing!

Andrew
 

TrainNut

Ditat Deus
As always, when I find an old line like that, I try to learn a little about it. The first place I go to, is Topozone.com as they usually show the old lines on all of their existing maps since the topo maps have not been updated in forever. Upon doing this, I discovered two interesting little places that I would like to learn more about but can not seem to find anything. Do you know anything about them? ...or know how to go about finding out HOW to find out about them? Thanks.
 

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TrainNut

Ditat Deus
...and just for kicks, this is what the area looked like at the time the last aerial photographs were taken. I've got some ideas as to what the functions of these sidings were but I'd like to find out more.
 

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jetrock

Member
I heard there was some sort of steam event scheduled to happen in Monterey--could this array of equipment be part of it?
 

TrainNut

Ditat Deus
My best guess on that would be no. I only found the three items and all three were permanent displays. Plus, it's difficult to tell from the aerials to what extent the track has been removed but I would guess that it has been removed all the way back to the mainline. You can tell where it used to be. That would be neat to find more about though. If you come across anything, please feel free to elaborate.
 
IIRC there is/was a HUGE cement factory in that general area. Might explain a sand spur? I cant help you as to what was there/is there unfortunately. Excited to find out more though!
 

MilesWestern

Active Member
Ok, the Monterey Branch is ABANDONED. They used to serve the (now abandoned) Fort Ord Military base, the Sand plant still operates, but it's not railserved, and most of the infastructure is still in place INCLUDING nearly all the track! The ok looking depot in Monterey still stands, but is used as some sort of storage building, and there's a great trestle span over the Salinas River that's an EXACT match for the Central Valley truss kits.

For many years, one of SP's smallest name trains operated over this line, and here's the full story of the Del Monte:

http://www.sbhrs.org/organization/block/01Sprng_2.pdf

About 3/4th's the way down this PDF is a nice story about a soldier (and railfan) on his way to Fort Ord. It provides more info: http://page.dnv.cooketech.net/flyer/fydec05.pdf

Also this might be on interest: http://www.santacruzpl.org/history/trans/railrd.shtml

Enjoy!
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
Train nut, while you were in Monterey did you get up to Santa Cruz? You can catch a passenger train in Santa Cruz pulled by an ex Santa Fe CF-7 that will take you to Felton where you can ride behind a shay to the top of a mountain. When I last rode the shay in the mid 60's before the trestle burned (replaced by a switchback) and before the train service from Santa Cruz, you could pack a picnic lunch and ride the train to the top of the mountain, get off and have your picnic, and then catch a later train back down.
 

TrainNut

Ditat Deus
That definitely sounds like something to mark down for the next trip. We did not have a whole lot of time to deviate from the plans. We flew (5a.m.) from Phoenix to San Jose on Saturday, then drove to Monterey where we spent the whole day in the aquarium. Sunday was the reverse of Saturday. Next time! Thanks for the heads up. I will reference that in the "Do not purge" section of my brain.
 
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