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Western Pacific Trackside with Bob Larson by Tim Morris Morning Sun Books
Western Pacific Trackside with Bob Larson by Tim Morris
Hard Cover w/ dust jacket
128 pages
Copyright 1999
CONTENTS
Bob Larson, Photographer 3
Trackside on the Western Pacific 4
The First Subdivision
San Francisco to Stockton, California 8
Oakland California 11
Livermore-Altamont, California 20
Second Subdivision
Stockton to Oroville, California 21
Modesto, California 25
South Sacramento, California 26
Third Subdivision
Oroville, to Portola, California 27
Oroville Dam 30
James, California 31
Pulga, California 33
Rock Creek Bridge 36
Belden, California36
East Virgilia, California37
Fourth Subdivision
Keddie 38
Keddie to Bieber California 42
Bieber, California 46
Third Subdivision Continued
Williams Loop 48
Sloat, California 49
Fifth Subdivision
Portola, California to Winnemucca, Nevada 53
A Near Miss in Portola Yard 57
Portola Potpourri 61
The Wreck at Floka, Nevada 78
Hawley, California 79
Chilcoot Tunnel, #37 79
Reno Junction 81
Doyle, California 84
Herlong, California 87
Flanigan, Nevada 87
Sand Pass, Nevada 89
Phil, Nevada 91
Gerlach, Nevada 92
Trego, Nevada94
Cholona, Nevada94
Floka, Nevada 95
Jungo, Nevada96
Gaskell, Nevada 97
Sixth Subdivision
Winnemucca, Nevada to Elko, Nevada 97
Carlin, Nevada 99
Seventh Subdivision
Elko, Nevada to Salt Lake City, Utah ....100
Silver Zone, Nevada 101
Clifside, Nevada 101
Wendover, Utah 102
Burmester, Utah 103
Buena Vista 103
Salt Lake City, Utah 104
WP Locomotives at Feather River Rail Society Museum 105
Roster Shots 106
The Green and Orange Era - 1971 to 1982 114
The Bicentennial Units 1776 & 1976 116
The Perlman-Flannery Era 120
BOB LARSON, PHOTOGRAPHER
The story of how I met Bob Larson starts when I left the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad to go to work for Amtrak. I had been with "The Grande" for 15 years as a freight conductor out of Salt Lake City, Utah and thought it would be fun to work passenger for a change. That's when I met Bill Magazin, a conductor off the Western Pacific from Portola, California. It's no secret that many rail employees are railfans too, and Bill was no exception. I noticed the tell tale cover of Trains Magazine peeking out from his grip and we began an instant friendship. Whenever we had a chance to work together I would always hear stories of Bill and his Stepdad, Bob "Hoopie" Larson going off on railfan adventures to strange and interesting places. Once they traveled all the way to South Africa to chase steam engines. "Hoopie?" I said, "How the heck did he get the name Hoopie?" (Every railroader has a nickname.) Well, it seems that in his younger days Bob would drive all over creation in his Volkswagen Bug that he had named "The Hoopie Mobile," so the name of his car just sort of became his nickname too.
I had always heard what a fabulous slide collection Bob had. One day Bill brought Bob along on one of our working trips from Salt Lake to Grand Junction, Colorado on the CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR. Upon arriving Grand Junction it was announced that Hoopie would be showing some of his slide collection in Bill's hotel room later that afternoon. What I saw was most impressive. Railfan photos taken from an employee's point of view were very different, especially with many from the cab of a diesel engine and all of them from the late 50s and early 60s. I later found that he had a collection like this that covered all the 60s and right up to present day. Bob really likes short lines and takes the time to search them out on his many trips across the country, thus I saw photos of little one-engine outfits that I have never heard of. I asked if he had ever been published and he answered in an "aw, shucks" sort of way that he had never gotten around to it. Well, I thought, that was going to change. Now with the help of Bob Yanosey of Morning Sun Books we can all share his life of photography and railroading, especially his years as a Locomotive Engineer for the Western Pacific.
Bob Larson was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin in 1937. The Larson home was near a small Soo Line yard in town and Bob was always watching the trains, even as a young boy. Once in 1949, when he was 12, his mother sent him to the store with the specific instructions not to cut through the rail yard - in one ear and out the other. As he made his way to the yard, a local with Soo Line 4-6-0 2649 was taking care of some local switching chores. As the engine came along side where Bob was standing, the fireman, Harry Lee looked down and saw the youngster, inviting him up into the cab. Louis Sill, the engineer, showed Bob all about a steam locomotive. It was now time to leave town and Sill asked Bob where he lived. "Not too far away, right near the Grand Avenue railroad crossing." Well, that settled it, the crew would give him a ride back home in the cab of the 2649. Upon arriving home with the excitement of a cab ride, there quickly followed a stern lecture about staying away from the train yard, and where were the things he was sent to the store for anyway?
Bob was one of these people who had the foresight to carry a camera with him on the job from the very start. He began with a 616 folding camera taking black and white, but quickly converted to 35mm and color. He always had his camera with him and caught the day to day workings of the railroad on film.
From the beginning Bob knew he wanted to be a railroader and not just any job, he wanted to be a Locomotive Engineer! But it was a time when old steam engines were being phased out and new diesels brought in. Nobody was hiring enginemen because of the surplus of manpower created by the diesel. So Bob thought he would go in the back door. His first job on a railroad was with the Chicago and North Western in the signal department. Always trying to get into the engine service, he worked for the Minneapolis and St. Louis, the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range and even stopped in at Dear Lodge, Montana to see what was going on with the Milwaukee Road. Making his way ever westward he heard that the Western Pacific was hiring engine-men and made a beeline to San Francisco. Finally on November 7, 1956 he was hired on by the WP as a fireman. Even then he could not hold a fireman's job year around, so he had to take a job as WP Crew Caller at Portola, California. Soon Bob could hold engine service all year and was promoted to Engineer on June 20, 1967. He served with the WP right on through the Union Pacific merger and retired on June 26, 1997 on a trip from Elko, Nevada to Portola, California as Locomotive Engineer on train SCOAZ with CNW 8606 on the point. It is something very special to point out that Bob went his whole railroad career with a perfect safety record.
During his whole career he kept a camera in his grip and recorded the passing railroad scene. These are the photos of a working railroader recording what he saw. This is for you "Hoopie," Western Pacific Trackside, the photographic work of Bob Larson.
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