For this series we will follow Southern Pacific trackage from east of Reno, NV at Thisbe to Winnemuca and then follow the paired trackage with the Western Pacific to Wells. We will chase a train across the salt flats near the Great Salt Lake and finally catch a couple double stack trains at a little outpost called Modena.

The Central Pacific (later SP) reached Reno in June 1868 and in just eleven months reached the Union Pacific line at Promontory. The site of the golden spike was bypassed when the SP completed the Lucin cutoff in 1904. From 1906 through the 20s, the SP added a second mainline over Donner Pass and to portions of the railroad in Nevada and Utah that had long grades. The SP and WP had operated their parallel trackage between Wells and Winnemucca in a directional fashion on occasion during WWI. In 1924, the two
railroads entered into a formal agreement to operate westbound on the SP and eastbounds on the WP. Signals had already been installed on the SP between 1906 and 1910. New directional signals were installed on the WP. See the map below the links to get a better idea where we are going on the former Western Pacific.

To give you a better idea of what railroading was like in the early 1920s, here is an excerpt from the September 1921 Southern Pacific Bulletin. The SP set a new record by operating the heaviest train to ever enter Ogden when Extra 3209 East came in with 76 perishables and 28 manifest loads, 4,631 tons at 4,680 feet long. This train was the consolidation of three trains. It operated from Monticello, NV to Ogden (121 miles) in seven hours and 40 minutes. This was considered an average time on the road.

All pictures in this series are on disks 28, 29 and 30. You can purchase a disk and printout any of the pictures for your own use to dress up your train room or add color to a house that just cries out for more train pictures.

Thisbe
Fernley
Hazen
Toy Siding
Lovelock
Rye Patch
Palisade Canyon
Carlin
Elko
Osino
Deeth
Wells
Wendover
Lake Point
Modena, Utah

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