Farewell to SP Commutes and U-Boats

SP Finales, 1985, Farewell to Commutes and U-Boats
In the Summer of 1985 SP power stopped being used on the peninsula commute trains. Meanwhile, across the bay, some of SP's last U-boats were being scrapped. This video, converted from super-eight Kodachrome movies, captures that period. As these movies were silent, this video includes the song "What I'm Missing" by Everyday Jones.

SP Scab Trains of Altamont Pass, 1985

"Scab Trains" of Altamont Pass
In May of 1985 the Southern Pacific Railroad was preparing for a possible union strike. To train its management crews to operate trains in the absence of union crews, the SP conducted management training on the embargoed SP rail line over Altamont Pass. The union train crews called these the scab trains. It was SP's last use of this famous line.

SP4449 Steamer Goes North

SP4449 Heads North, June 1984
I just recently had some super8 movies I shot during the 1980's converted to digital video. This short movie clip was made of the World's Fair Daylight returning to Portland in 1984. My then very young sons and I chased the train north. This video is unpublished and features a full daylight train with McCloud steam, SP, Amtrak and even some BCR Alco action. Since the film was silent, some music from the band Everyday Jones was dubbed in to give it a bit of a Winterail flavor.

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Bill Darrough Story

The Bill Darrough Story
As shown at Winterail 2007
The photos in this show were taken by Bill Darrough and/or are from the collection of Bill and Jack Darrough. This is an amazing collection of photographs. In a conversation with Bill Darrough's brother Jack in August of 1988 Jack said, "Bill died in 1942, he was 22 years-old. He suffered from severe teenage acne and they had treated it with massive doses of radiation, which at the time was thought harmless. The radiation cleared his acne but Bill died of cancer." According to Jack, he and Bill came from a railroad family. The members of a railroaders family were then given passes and could travel free on the nation's passenger trains. The period that Bill lived in was near the climax of the era of steam railroading in this country. Jack said Bill would pack two suitcases, one with film and the other with sandwiches and the young man would go on trips alone photographing trains. In my opinion had he lived he would have been one of the greatest railroad photographers of the twentieth century. It is an amazing story and so my son Ken and I are trying to tell it.

This 20 minute quicktime seven video breaks my rules for this podcast. Generally, I plan to keep these videos to less than 15 minutes in length. I would like to have as many of these videos as I can short enough to be viewed on a coffee break.