NWP Tracks Over Old Highway

This short viaduct crosses the old Highway 101 route now called Walker Road, as the former Northwestern Pacific rails double back to climb the grade to Ridgewood Summit. From there, they descend Laughlin Ridge south to Redwood Valley and Ukiah, then on to Sonoma and Marin counties.

The local paper reported the release of the Draft Environmental Impact Report for starting freight service from near Santa Rosa up to Willits on these tracks, which is very good news indeed! It would be such a shame to lose this valuable infrastructure after all the work that was done to build it in the first place, more than a hundred years ago, and the North Coast Railroad Authority is working hard to move it forward.

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This post concludes one full year of Willits Daily Photo. When I started this blog on March 13, 2008, I had no idea where it would take me within Little Lake Valley, or if I could come up with 365 subjects to post. I feel amazingly blessed to have a new circle of international friends with city daily photo blogs of their own, offering insights and discoveries that enrich my perceptions of the world. Their kindness here in the comments has been immense, and I will treasure them always. I encourage everyone to see more City Daily Photo blogs at their portal website.

This a good point for me to retire Willits Daily Photo. There are more photos in my archives that I'd like to share, and more new pictures I'm sure I'll feel compelled to snap, but the time commitment of "every day" is more demanding than some might imagine. I'm not one to call this a "Daily" photo blog, and then not post daily. I want to keep learning and growing and building skills, and time is what I need for that. But, I have an alternative! Built into this blog is a link to my Willits Photo Overflow blog, and that's where I'll be posting additional images from time to time. They could be out-of-season, or different views of things already posted here, or entirely new images of Willits and Little Lake Valley, and possibly further afield. They will be posted sproadically and without warning, but if you would like to "follow" that blog to catch what comes up, you are more than welcome. It's my way of not having to go "cold turkey" on photo blogging altogether.

If you are new to this blog, and want to see what has been posted throughout the previous 365 days, you have several options. You can scroll to the bottom of this page and click on the words "Older Posts" on the lower right, and keep doing that as far back as you want to go. Or you can go to the sidebar (right column of this page) and find the Archives link, arranged by year and month (they can each be expanded by clicking on the little triangular arrows). Or you can go to the sidebar and look for the list of "Labels" to click on those for loosely categorized groups of posts for each idea. I expect to be expanding and refining that label list sometime soon.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your visits and comments.

Click here for Willits Photo Overflow.

CWR Water Tank

This old, wooden water tank still stands at the ready along the old California Western Railroad (the Skunk Train) tracks just as they head west to Northspur and Ft. Bragg far beyond. As you cross the tracks on Highway 101, look east and you'll see it. There's a pipe mechanism that extends out to go above the tender tank, to refill any steam locomotive awaiting in need.

No news on whether the Skunk will run more frequently out of Willits this year or not. All of the events posted on their website right now are out of the Ft. Bragg depot. The coast end of the line gets far more tourism business than we do, so it's easy to imagine Willits will get the short end of the stick in this economy. The Ft. Bragg depot and trains have been featured in Racing With the Moon and, I think, The Majestic.

CWR Switch Signal

Along the still active Skunk line track, it speaks for itself.

February Theme Day: Paths and Passages

In yesterday's post, I mentioned three paths, and these are the other two. Here at the northernmost point in Little Lake Valley, the Northwestern Pacific Railroad crosses Outlet Creek through the gap in the hills. Alongside runs Highway 101, also crossing the creek via a bridge, and upon which I ventured on foot to risk getting yesterday's shot. Writing this, I realize I haven't made the passage out of the valley, in this direction, in probably two years. The trains no longer pass here, and it won't be long before the water below dries up too.

The first day of each month is always Theme Day among the hundreds of City Daily Photo Bloggers worldwide. Click here to view thumbnails and links for all those participants, and enjoy their interpretations of the theme.

Engine Tender

The picture books and films of old steam locomotives always seemed to have a little box of coal heaped in an open car just behind them, when I was a kid. We naturally assumed it was full of fuel for the fires that kept everything going. Almost half a century into my earthly consciousness, I finally asked a knowledgeable railroader about it when I didn't see any coal on this "tender". It turns out that much of what these carry is a big supply of water to feed to the engine for steam! The coal, if there is any, usually sits up in a funnel-shaped hopper, surrounded by a U-shaped enclosed tank containing the water. So all those childhood illustrations were sort of camouflaged, unless you knew what questions to ask. Also, I always thought they were only black, but this beautifully maintained Simpson tender car is a spectacularly cheerful orange. Note that rolled up hose on top. Big clue. The things I learn living in Willits.

Bright Eyes

Willits is blessed with an abundance of railroads. While much of the derelict equipment was removed a few months ago, some railcars have been consolidated together on a couple of tracks of the NWP, and fenced in to help prevent additional vandalism. The headlamps of this locomotive reminded me of the eyes of a spider.

CCTLocoHeadlamps Jigsaw Puzzle

The Night Train

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the Skunk train has been running twice daily specials lately, with elves and music and enchantment, even in these dark evenings and cold temperatures. It's good to hear the not-too-distant horn of the engine as it rumbles through town, snaking off to the fields and forests to the west, and making life-long memories for the children aboard. Happy Solstice, everyone! From here until late June, the days grow longer.

Frosted Rail

I amazed myself yesterday morning by actually leaving the house with time enough to stop for pictures on my way to work. This plant, snuggled up next to an NWP rail, clasped an autumn leaf through the night, and together they awoke covered in a mighty frost. If this is what autumn looks like, I wonder how our winter will be. Just four days until winter solstice.

Steampunks

I've mentioned the group Roots of Motive Power before, and how they were steampunks long before today's young steampunks named themselves steampunks. I clearly love the word "steampunk". These guys here in Willits love to make big rail engines work, usually involving steam, and all the rail cars that go with them. They had their Christmas season steam-up on Sunday, featuring free rides around the loop track in a caboose or on a speeder (I did both!). I got so many photos, I couldn't make up my mind which one to lead with today, so I'll put a few more on my Overflow blog.

BaldwinEmblemSteam Jigsaw Puzzle

Running Skunk?

After a long season of feeling neglected by the company that runs the Skunk Train, several Christmas trips were planned this weekend from the Willits Depot, and next weekend, and the week leading up to Christmas. The refurbished, but scantily used depot, now houses the offices of the local Chamber of Commerce.

Echoes of the Past

About five years ago, an extension to the Mendocino County Museum was completed, crowned with this big barn-like structure called the Engine House. The large matching doors on front and back reveal a punch-through of full scale railroad tracks that connect all the way back to the Roots of Motive Power restoration shed, and their now completed loop track. Roots volunteers were highly instrumental in getting the county to build the structure, and they themselves laid all the track through it. They also bring various pieces of rail equipment into the space for display and special events like the Steam Up I showed you in September.

Back when this building was done, I got talking with a former director of the museum about the structure. He said the design integrates elements from an old barn just on the west edge of town, from nearly a century ago. A then-young man named Mark Walker built the earlier barn with a tilted square window and clerestory section on the roof. Walker died in about 2001 at the age of 107, but had been a rich resource of local history and folk art for the museum's public historians up until then. It was in honor of his contributions that the architecture was made to reflect some of his work. I recently decided to get some photos of the old barn, to compare with the engine house.



The old barn still stands, but like many agricultural buildings of its generation, it is finally deteriorating and may not stand for many decades more. The owners of many of these barns could correctly claim that they were constructed from a single redwood. The ancient trees were gigantic, and redwoods are famously resistant to rot.

Roots of Motive Power Steam Up #5: Speeders

These little vehicles are another favorite at the annual Steam Up, and I think some are called "speeders" while others are called "hand cars", and some speeders have covered cabs for weathering the elements. There are clubs for speeder hobbyists who arrange rail excursions together, by prior arrangement with rail operators. Originally, most of these were used for maintenance work on the rails. This orange one has wooden handles on each end for two people to lift it on or off the rails. A Roots volunteer explained its operation and history to a visitor, then powered up its noisy gasoline motor, and sped off to tour the loop track. Others were powered with human muscle alone. Perhaps you've seen the classic lever pump varieties in old movies and cartoons. In fact, you can check out Kermit the Frog, or Buster Keaton on my Overflow blog.

Roots of Motive Power Steam Up #2: Ranch Car

While the heart of Roots of Motive Power activities come from steam engine restoration and operation, they attend to many other details of railway history. One of my favorites to see is this Great Northern Railroad Ranch Car, from the Empire Builder trains of the 1950s. Bobbie Yokum wrote a fascinating history of this car for the Roots website, and is a key volunteer getting the restoration done. One of her huge projects is getting all thirteen counter seats restored with cowhide style upholstery. The first one is in, and looks great. Read her description of how this gem ended up on the Roots campus.

To see some other rail equipment interiors, click here for the Overflow.

Annual Roots of Motive Power Steam-Up Weekend

Starting as a handful of volunteers helping the County Museum repair and operate old machines, Roots of Motive Power has flourished into an independent non-profit of enthusiastic men and women with a vast collection of antique steam, diesel, and gas powered machinery of every description. Most of it, however, is directly related to the railroading and logging industries of the local area. Years of planning and hard work resulted in a fine restoration shed and work yard, along with a completed loop track for testing and demonstrating the restored railcars and locomotives they work so hard on. The weekend after Labor Day always sees the greatest participation and variety of all their events through the year. In the photo above, volunteers prepare a diesel locomotive for a day of pulling industrial flat cars, and a caboose full of eager riders, around the loop.

I have loads of photos from this event, and will intermittently post some as a series, along with liberal use of my Overflow blog. You can also see plenty of photos on the Roots website linked above.

Another Abandoned Railcar

This one says it's a Seaboard System car, among other things.
SeaBoardSystemCar Jigsaw Puzzle

Do The Locomotion

The Willits Frontier Days celebrations wouldn't be complete without demonstrations of antique railroad equipment by Roots of Motive Power. This all volunteer organization is for enthusiasts of steam power and old time heavy machinery who put in countless hours reconstructing, repairing, and operating prized examples from the past century and a half of logging and construction. This was one of the opportunities for the public to take rides around the now complete loop track these men built, and to learn a little about how such engines work. For folks with more than a passing interest, they also offer steam engineering and safety classes every April. Check their website for more information.

Thrall Car and Thunder Clouds

I read in the local paper that many of the burned-out rail cars sitting on the tracks near Commercial Street have recently, finally, been scrapped. As I mentioned a while ago in this blog, they posed a safety hazard when drifters sought shelter in them and started fires. I went over to see what was still left a few days ago, just as the electric storm clouds that were to ignite so many fires were forming overhead. This Thrall Car must have passed inspection.

NWPR Engines

As I understand it, these locomotives were beautifully restored sometime in the early or mid-90s, and operated on the north-south running rail line through town, until after only a few years someone decided the economics of rail and machine maintenance didn't add up anymore. With the price of highway transportation skyrocketing, someone ought to get out their calculators again. You can see evidence of a "fender bender" on this one (those steps are supposed to be parallel to the ground), as well as unauthorized paint applications. The windows are broken, and all available copper ripped out. The bright side is the beautiful grove of madrone trees and manzanita making a foothold on the tracks, offering some pleasing contrasts.

Sierra Northern Railway Car

The Sierra Northern Railway, denoted by SERA, is the railroad maintenance branch of the company that owns the local "Skunk Train". They have been working to catch up with a great deal of repairs on the line since purchasing it a few years ago. The forty miles of track to the coast is quite steep in some places and, like any railway through these coast ranges, can be subject to washouts and slides. This car sits on a side track not far from the depot.

Abandoned Railcar with Doe

These Northwestern Pacific Railroad cars haven't moved in years, and generations of black-tailed deer know it. Can you spot the doe grazing beyond this manzanita bush?

A couple of these cars have caught fire from squatters trying to keep warm. It's extremely dangerous for the volunteer firemen to go in when they are burning, but they do if they think there's a chance someone is inside. I'm not one for naming names, but today I salute Willits-born Fire Chief Jeff Smith, now on his second day of retirement. One of the most gracious, capable, and committed people you'll ever want to know. He's earned some rest after 31 years of service. [edited for more years of service than I originally heard!]
AbandonedRailcar Jigsaw Puzzle