4319's Last Trip

4319's Last Trip

Some years back, I was employed by the Northwestern Pacific Railroad as a locomotive electrician in Willits, California. My official duties consisted of performing various types of maintenance and inspections on about six or eight diesel locomotives which were a mix of ex Southern Pacific EMD GP-9s and SD-9s along with a very sick ex SP EMD GP-35. Occasionally, I performed other duties, such as changing freight car wheels, fixing computers and acting as a relief conductor for train crews who had worked the maximum hours that they were allowed to work under the Federal Hours of Service Act. This "dogcatching" involved driving to a remote location, relieving the crew and bringing the train the rest of the way to Willits, where another crew took it south to Schellville later the same evening.

When the California Northern railroad was formed and took over the southern half of the former NWP, they needed some six motor locomotives to move trains over the 3.3% grades on Ridge hill between Willits and Ukiah. They were smart. What had worked for the SP when they ran the railroad would work for them, so they leased some ex-SP EMD SD-9s from Omnitrax and one of them turned out to be the ex SP 4319. A year or so earlier, I was part of a group hired by Omnitrax to repair some electrical fire damage in the 4319 and 4331 while they were in Napa Junction prior to being put in service by the California Northern Railroad as their numbers 202 and 203. It took us about three weeks to get these old rats to the point where they might be usable. When we were finished with them, we tested them as trailing units on the California Northern Petaluma Turn from Napa Junction via Schellville to Petaluma and back. There were a few little problems en route that we cleared up, so the pair was turned over to California Northern with our best wishes. Later, about the time I went to work for them in Willits, the Northwestern Pacific Railroad, which had been operating the northern half of the railroad between Willits and Eureka, took over operation of the southern half of the railroad between Willits and Schellville, which was the rail connection to the outside world.

On Saturday, August 18, I was called to be Conductor on a light engine move from Willits to Schellville with trainmaster Rich Mitchell as engineer. We would be running as Extra CFNR 202 South. I thought to myself, this is weird, calling an electrician as a conductor. Although I was a qualified conductor, they must be out of conductors if they want me to do it. What was even more unusual was that this was a light engine move from Willits to Schellville. Hmmm.

Well, as it turned out, we had just received another SD-9 (ex SP 4327) that day from Omnitrax, the outfit that NWP leased locomotives from, and it seemed that the California Northern Railroad wanted their borrowed engine back ASAP or it was going to cost the NWP a bunch more money to keep it any longer. The NWP had rented the 202 from them as we had been suffering from a power shortage due to slow delivery of rebuilt power from Omnitrax. The quickest way to get the 202 back to the Cal Northern was to run it back to the Schellville interchange as a light engine move. Since Saturday is generally a pretty slow day for us in Willits, it was decided that they could spare Rich and I to take the engine to Schellville and roadmaster Bill Collins could Hi-Rail behind us, do his track inspection at the same time and drive us back to Willits. As it turned out, I was called as Conductor because they knew that I wasn't too busy with my regular duties that day and I had mentioned in the past that I really wanted to see that part of the railroad in daylight. Now, are these guys cool, or what?

After we got our DTC (Direct Traffic Control) blocks from the dispatcher and got under way, it occurred to me that this trip would be somewhat significant. CFNR 202 had spent a good portion of her long life working on the NWP when she belonged to the SP and this was very likely going to be the last time she would ever polish NWP rails, as there was a very good possibility that she would soon meet the scrappers torch. She suffered from a multitude of electrical and mechanical problems and was basically a used up old engine.

Departing south from Willits, we were immediately confronted with Ridge Hill, the ruling grade on the railroad. Now the NWP is a pretty flat but twisty railroad, with the exception of this stretch of track. Ridge Hill is about a 3.3 percent grade up from Willits to the top at Ridgewood with the same grade down to Redwood Valley to the south. Here is where the SD9's shine. We operated the rest of the railroad with four motor GP9's, but here, six motors were just the ticket. While we were cruising over the hill at track speed, Rich told me some stories about hauling heavy trains over this part of the railroad. He had been the regular engineer for the California Northern here before the "New NWP" took it over. Because of this trip and information from Rich, I now have a much better understanding of why our crews were much more comfortable going over this hill with good working dynamic brakes and sanders.

The scenery on this part of the railroad is outstanding and would have been a real treat for our customers if we had ever started running passenger trains. As we passed through Ukiah and down through Hopland, we entered another area of first rate scenery in the Russian River Canyon between Hopland and Geyserville. In Geyserville, work was underway on a new depot in anticipation of passenger service. South of Geyserville, the line passes through an area where a lot of grapes and pears are grown. Through Healdsburg and into Santa Rosa, the population density increases, and Ritch pointed out a lot of on line customers in this area. Going through Santa Rosa, it seemed like there was a grade crossing every block or so and the whistle and bell got a good workout. Two of these crossings were protected by good old "Magnetic Flagman" wig wag crossing signals. What a treat! When we reached Petaluma, we paused for a few minutes while the Bridgetender fired up the gasoline engine and closed the ancient swing span over the Petaluma River so we could pass over it. South of Petaluma, through Burdell, there is an area of tidal wetlands that was alive with waterfowl, including ducks, geese, snowy egrets and even a group of swans. After passing through Novato, we reached the wye at Ignacio, where we turned left to head for Schellville. Although the railroad considers the Schellville line to be the main line, as far as I'm concerned, the main line is the track that continued south through San Rafael to Larkspur, Tiburon and Sausalito. If things ever go as planned, that line will again be the main stem of the railroad, carrying passenger trains from a ferry terminal on San Francisco Bay to Santa Rosa and points North. After leaving Ignacio, we headed east towards Black Point, where we again paused for a few minutes to wait for the other ancient swing bridge over the Petaluma River to be closed for us. After a few more miles, we rounded Sears Point, crossed busy SR 37 and passed right in front of the main gate of Sears Point Raceway. At this point we were very close to the end of the trip.

Upon reaching Schellville, we found a spot to park the 202/4319. Rich tied down the hand brake while I shut the old girl down, pulled the battery switch and locked up the cab. Roadmaster Collins pulled up behind us in the hi-railer, we loaded up and backed a few miles to a crossing where we could pull up the rail wheels and headed back to Willits by road. The trip took 5 1/2 hours, which we considered to be very good time. The trip back to Willits by road took 2 1/2 hours.

I still can't believe they paid me to do that.

Jim Ley
Willits, CA
August, 1996