Trolley Thursday 7/29/21 - Central California Traction, Stockton Electric, and the Red River Logging Company

Welcome, everyone to the last Trolley Thursday (on a Friday, again?) of July, 2021! Over the last few posts, we've been looking at the culmination of electric railways in California's Bay Area and a brief overview of the Central Valley's notable streetcar lines. Today, however, we're going to be a little bit busy. The companies we're going to talk about today are all interconnected and equally short-lived, with the last being the only surviving "traction" railway still operating in California. Of course, the word "traction" there can mean both electric traction and diesel traction. So, sit back with us today as we look at the Stockton Electric, the Red River Logging Company, and the Central California Traction Railways, a Sacramento Delta triple treat!

Taking Stock of the Stockton Electric

A Stockton Street Car Co. horsecar right outside Henderson's Carriage Factory, bound 
for the "Asylum and Cemetery Line". Fun and scenic!
(Wright Realtors) 

The banks of the San Joaquin River have flooded again
in this 1880s view in Stockton.
(Wright Realtors)

The city of Stockton lies fifty miles south of the capital of Sacramento, right on the San Joaquin River. In 1869, tracks from the East Bay made Stockton an important junction town for the Southern Pacific Railway (SP), which connected to Lathrop (ten miles south) to interchange with San Joaquin and Sacramento River boats. The first horse cars began running in Stockton in 1875, under the auspices of the Stockton Street Car Company, and two types were used: open cars in the summer months and enclosed cars in the winter. Following the invention of Frank J. Sprague's electric trolley pole and electric motor in 1885, Stockton's streetcars were electrified in 1892, with the first revenue car operating on July 15 of that year and the name changed to the Stockton Electric Railroad Company (SER). The new electric cars were so popular that it was reported that long wait times and crush-standing room in the cars were frequent occurrences. However, despite these electric successes, there was a new competitor on the horizon.

Last Traction to the Left

A CCT service passes by a rather ornate but undetermined building
(maybe Stockton City Hall?) in the early 1900s, with two combines on one train.
(Wright Realtors)

Local streetcar service provided by a "California Car",
with the same building in the background.
(Unknown Author)

The Central California Traction Company (CCT) came in much later compared to the SER, but had greater ambitions than just being a simple electric railway. When founded on August 7, 1905, the CCT was just a local competitor for the SER's service; soon enough, its financiers and the general public saw greater potential in the interurban and it soon stretched north into Lodi (16 miles north) by 1907. By 1910, the line had reached Sacramento. What set the CCT apart from the Stockton Electric was its modern method of power delivery, using high-tension DC power from a 1200V third rail in-between cities and normal 600V overhead wires in the cities, compared to normal catenary as was the standard for railroads like the Oakland, Antioch & Eastern at the time. 

Local service was provided by big-lipped Birney cars from San Jose.
(Wright Realtors)

CCT Car No. 203 in Lodi, 1900s.
(Lodi News-Sentinel)

Freight had also followed the CCT into Sacramento, where at its peak it was trading and carrying general merchandise, livestock, and produce like grapes, strawberries and sugar beets. Its passenger service, though, was still the greatest moneymaker as it sent almost 36 passenger trains a day on its interurban route. This peak, however, did not last as by the mid-1920s, passenger numbers faltered and the railroad began losing money as well as riders. It was only through sheer tenacity that the CCT was still competitively viable through its freight service, which soon attracted the three biggest railroads in area: the SP, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (ATSF), and the Western Pacific (WP). When the CCT's owners tried to sell their railroad straight to SP, the other two began a struggle for control of the profitable interchange line. 

The big boys in charge of Central Valley: ATSF 347C, SP 6051, and WP 913 gather for Railfair 88
at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento.
(Roger Puta)

CCT Boxcar No. 3001 in service.
(Fred D. Fellows, Western Railway Museum)

The struggle (more or less a legal slapfight) lasted for eight years as the three railroads argued in court, while the electric passenger streetcars that gave the CCT its "traction" moniker soon ceased operations by February 4, 1933. By 1936, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) declared all three railroads should maintain joint ownership of the CCT, which they all agreed to. Electric freight continued to run on the now-exclusively freight-oriented CCT until 1946, when CCT management figured that continuing to run under electric power was too costly and the new GE 44-tonners they had just bought were cheaper to run and, thus, more profitable. The last CCT box motors ran on December 24, 1947 and were retired shortly after, as the CCT itself became just another diesel shortline like the Visalia Electric.

CCT Nos. 25 and 26, harbingers of doom for the "Traction".
(Garth G. Groff)

Logging Electrics in the Red River Valley

A map of the electrified Red River Logging Company, with the mill at Westwood
and the Logging Storage at Chester with an interchange siding.
(The Timberman, October 1927)

The steam donkey engine loading logs at Westwood.
(The Timberman, October 1927)

The last railway we're going to talk about today is also the most unique, as it is quite possibly the only electric logging railroad in California, and perhaps the United States. Far up in the northeast corner of California, some 77 miles northeast of Chico, is the logging town of Westwood, CA, on the shores of the Mountain Meadows Reservoir and  Lake Almanor. The Red River Logging Company (RRL) was originally a steam trunk line carrying logs from the storage at Chester to the mill at Westwood, then back down into the San Joaquin Valley to interchange with the major railroads. The company was first set up in Akeley, Minnesota, in 1883, but gradually moved to California by 1913 when the Akeley Mill shut down and a new one opened in Westwood. The year after, the RRL's advertising department created its most enduring image yet, using the image and tales of Paul Bunyan in an advertising campaign headed by artist William Laughead, bringing the giant man and his blue ox into public attention.

RRL's popular illustration of Paul Bunyan and his ox, Babe.
(Walker Art Center)

RRL Nos. 503 and 502 handle a normal load of logs
en route to Chester Siding, 1930s.
(The Timberman, October 1927)

The electric locomotives did not start arriving until 1927, when the RRL decided to electrify its line, both to reduce the chance of sparks from a steam locomotive's smokestack setting fire to the line and for the cheaper running costs. Power was sourced from RRL's own steam and hydroelectric plants at Lake Almanor and leased to perennial pyromaniacs Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). The catenary setup for the railway was also wildly different from other contemporary railways, as the poles carried the power transmission wires 10 feet above the trolley and return wires (eliminating the need for multiple substations) and it was charged at 60 cycle, 33,000V AC (sort of like the Visalia Electric) connected to a 1500V wire. Two Baldwin-Westinghouse steeplecabs were purchased to power the heavy logging trains up and down the 17-mile line, with grades as steep as 2.3% and train lengths as long as 160 loaded cars. The RRL eventually stopped running trains in 1943 and stored their steeplecabs on the CCT, paying rent to them until 1947 when the Pacific Electric (PE) purchased both their locomotives.

The lengths some railways will go to to avoid profiling their wires, I guess...
(The Timberman, October 1927)

Notable Cars and Locomotives

A rather-dinky "Huntington Standard" streetcar operates in Stockton, no doubt
based on the Pacific Electric's "Small Fives".
(Wright Realtors)

CCT No. 7, as originally built for the Washington, Baltimore
& Annapolis by Boston Iron & Metal Company, 1929.
(Western Railway Museum)

The SER maintained a relatively small and standard fleet of city cars throughout its existence from 1892 to 1941, primarily through horsecars (both open and closed). When the line electrified, small California Cars were used right up until 1923 when the system purchased a fleet of St. Louis-built Birney Safety Cars from the city of San Jose. The CCT, on the other hand, had a far more-encompassing fleet of interurban cars. These handsome green interurbans were built by the Holman Car Co. in 1911 and were primarily combination cars to accommodate low-capacity freight service. They were painted a lush green with tan roofs and featured both trolley poles for inner-city workings and third-rail shoes for high-speed travel. For freight service, box-motors were sourced from several different railways, including the Washington Baltimore & Annapolis in Maryland and the Cincinnati & Lake Erie interurban in Ohio. No electric locomotives were ever purchased for either railroad.

RRL nos. 203 (front) and 204 (rear) pose for their official in-service portrait.
(The Timberman, October 1927)

No. 203, as rebuilt in the 1930s, with round Baldwin builder's
plate right under the cab window on the right.
(Martin E. Hansen)

The RRL, being so small and only a recent electrification, only had two notable locomotives to speak of. Red River Nos. 203 and 204 were built in 1925 as part of the RRL's electric expansion and were, by all accounts, completely normal Baldwin-Westinghouse 200HP steeplecabs. Power pickup was provided by a large, swing-out pantograph blade that bore more than just a passing resemblance to the ones used on the Kennecott Railway in Utah. For some reason, No. 203 was later rebuilt with a special boxcab but to what purpose or improvement this rebuild offered, we'll never know. After 1947, Pacific Electric put these locomotives to work around the Port of Long Beach on freight duties and the crews absolutely hated them, especially No. 203 (now No. 1593). This was due to the motors being wired "in parallel", meaning every time the locomotives had to be moved dead, one would have to manually twist the reverser drum so the magnetic fields in the motors wouldn't counteract on the axle and break itself. No. 204 (now No. 1594) was mechanically similar, but unlike 1593 it found more acceptance among the Torrance Shop crews. The locomotives worked until 1952, when they were sold to the Ferrocarril General Urquiza in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

PE No. 1593 at Graham Yard, 92nd Street in South Gate, posing with crew.
(Jack Finn, PERYHS)

Diesels in the Delta

New Central California Traction diesels in Stockton.
(Craig Waker)

CCT ALCO RS-3 No. 80 in service.
(Unknown Photographer)

Both the SER and the RRL eventually went the way of the dodo, unfortunately, with the former succumbing to automobile dominance by 1941 and the RRL ending logging operations by 1944. Following the CCT's decision to dieselize in 1947, the railroad remained mostly stagnant in route but kept on adding more diesels, including GE 70-tonners, ALCO S-type switchers, and EMD Geeps. It continued to be a joint-ownership interchange road well into the 1970s and 1980s, even as the WP and SP were purchased by Union Pacific (UP) and the ATSF scaled back its operations as it became the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF). The biggest change came in 1998 when freight service between Sacramento and Stockton were suspended, leaving the Lodi-Stockton line remaining and the Sacramento-Stockton line reserved but not operating. Despite this, the CCT remains an important interchange road between the BNSF and the Union Pacific, and even though they haven't ran streetcars for almost 80 years, the "traction" moniker remains as a proud symbol of their interurban heritage.

CCT celebrated their 100th birthday in 2005, far removed from its former identity but still
entrusting its service to the power of "Traction".
(Central California Traction)

Traction in the Modern Day

CCT No. 7 in service at the Western Railway Museum, boarding passengers at Shilo Road.
(Western Railway Museum)

CCT No. 010 at the Western Railway Museum, showing
off one of its covered round ends, which made it handy for
going around tight city corners.
(Western Railway Museum)

In total, four cars and locomotives are preserved from all three companies, with the lion's share being stored at the Western Railway Museum in Rio Vista, California. The earliest arrival is also the last of its kind, that being ex-Washington Baltimore & Annapolis and ex-CCT No. 7, a freight motor. It was donated to the museum in 1967 after spending twenty years in the M.C. Davidson scrapyard in Stockton, CA, from 1948 to 1968. The box motor was still operable for the museum, only needing to be downgraded from 1200V to 600V DC, and operated until 1990. That year, it underwent an extensive rebuild and restoration back to its as-retired 1947 appearance and since 1996, operates regularly at the museum. The WRM is also home to five ex-CCT freight cars, including a rare interurban express trailer (No. 010), two boxcars, a flat car, and a caboose. The only surviving SER car is Birney No. 52, which was used as a ranch cottage near Lodi from 1941 to 2003 when it was brought to Rio Vista. It is mostly complete, having sourced suitable running gear as of 2005, but currently remains unrestored. 

PE No. 1593 (now FCGU 953) at the Ferroclub Argentina, Buenos Aires.
She's in good shape, mechanically, but needs severe body restoration.
(Jorge Nicolo)

PE No. 1592 (now FCGU 952) at Ferroclub Argentina,
Buenos Aires, in 1999.
(Franklin Romero)

The other two survivors ended up in an unlikely situation. As reported in our PE freight locomotives episode, PE Nos. 1592 and 1593 were sold in 1951 to the Ferrocarril General Urquiza in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a major electric railway. Joining other PE cars like Hollywoods, Elevens, and Key System Bridge Units, the prodigal fraternal twins served as local freight haulers and switchers as nos. 952 and 953. New buffers were welded onto their fronts and their scheme became a grubby brown with black-yellow hazard stripes on either end. After some time, presumably in the 1980s, the two were retired and donated to the Ferroclub Argentino in Buenos Aires, where both can still be found today awaiting restoration along with ex-PE steeplecabs 1590 and 1591 (ex-Central Limones of California) and ex-PE Hollywood Car No. 758. Any more information or plans for these cars would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for reading today's Trolley post, and watch your step as you alight on the platform. My resources today included "The Central California Traction Company" by David G. Stanley and Jeffrey J. Moreau, the unofficial Central California Traction Company trainweb page, FGS of TrainOrders.com, a Park Rapids Enterprise article on the Red River Logging Company, the photos and archives of the Western Railway Museum, the Pacific Electric Railway Historical Society, and the other credits under each photograph. The trolley gifs in our posts are made by myself and can be found under “Motorman Reymond’s Railroad Gif Carhouse”, while the boxcars and tank cars are made by my boyfriend, Atticus van Astikatus. On Tuesday, we start a-fresh in the sunshine city of San Diego as we look at the history of the San Diego Electric Railway! For now, you can follow myself or my editor on Twitter, buy a shirt or sticker from our Redbubble stand, or purchase my editor's self-developed board game! It's like Ticket to Ride, but cooler! (and you get to support him through it!) Until next time, ride safe!