Yesterday, Saturday Nov.29, I had to kill some time while waiting for the post office to open to mail Chnristmas package, and I wandered to a "pod" of antique stores down the street. They had a bowl of people's old snapshots to sell, and I like to look through for interesting scenes, st5ructures, etc. I shuffle through 199 old pics of unknown people pictures for each interesting (to me) picture, if I am lucky. I found a tiny inch-and-a-half by 2 inch snapshot of a heavyweight passenger train taken out the window of a car when the train was on a mountain curve. On the back of the photo was a note, "on the Western Pacific Scenic Limited" between San Francisco and Salt Lake City. I assume this was a heavyweight train that preceeded the California Zephyr. 1940s? Earlier? (I have seen snapshots from the 1920s and 1930s whose physical appearance - the snapshot photo-finishing itself- was similar to the one I bought yesterday.) Location? Side-hill mountain grade overlooking a relatrively flat valley.... (note: I will probably delete this snapshot off my railimages album in 6 weeks or so unless I hear the picture is of interest...)
Not exactly sure of location, but my assumption is someplace between Portola, CA and Reno. The Feather river canyon is too narrow to be farther west, and when it opens up near Oroville, evergreen trees are not as prominent as in the picture you have. Scenic limited infor here: http://www.drgw.org/data/passenger/Scenic.htm
Are those autos up ahead in the center? I agree with Charger, probably between Spring Garden and Hallelujah Junction.
Could it be Quincy Jct as the station was being built? The Jct was were Quincy RR interchanged w/ the WP. The terrain in the picture is very similar to that shown in topos & aerials of Quincy Jct. If you can copy & enlarge it there appears to be construction equipment & supplies on the flat that appears to be recently cleared. The Quincy started operation on 11/9/1917. That would make the picture 91+ years old.
This is what my go to guy Dave Epling says: "This doesn't look like anyplace in the canyon today. pine trees in the picture so that makes it too high of an altitude for the Line before the Oroville Dam relocation. If it is the canyon, I'd put a guess at between Keddie and Quincy Jct and the train is Eastbound:"
Eastbound? I can't even tell if the photo is taken toward the front or the back of the train! I had not even noticed the pile of "stuff" to the right of the train in the distance. I thought I had "enhanced" this tiny snapshot as much as my older version of Photoshop would do, but perhaps if I am more careful setting specs during scanning, etc. I can get more out of it. Interesting to see what you WP enthusiasts are noticing.
Is this any better? I set my scanner at a higher resolution and was a little more careful adjusting the brightness and contrast BEFORE scanning.
That picture still looks like the east bound. The west bound was a morning train and if that is indeed almost to the Clio viaduct then the sides of the cars would be lit. I haven't been on that stretch of track since 1999 and that picture is at least taken in the late 30's? The trees have grown up next to the tracks but the mountain silhouette across the valley still is the same. Greg
