Trolley Tuesday 7/6/21 - The Cars of the Sacramento Northern

Is it July already? I could never tell! Ah well...

Welcome to a brand-new (kinda!) month of Twice-Weekly Trolley History, where we are finishing the lead-up to the end of our East Bay story by first covering the cars of the Sacramento Northern system. Despite being the longest electric railway in Northern California, the roster list of the SN is strangely smaller than its Southern California equivalent, the Pacific Electric. However, as many canny men will tell you: it's not about the size, but it's what you do with it. For the SN, accomplishing this was not hard, as their varied interurban cars and freight locomotives helped to keep the interurban viable in the eyes of their heavy-rail overlords, the Western Pacific, right into the mid 1960s. On today's Trolley Tuesday, let's open up the Mulberry Shops and take a peek at these beautiful, noteworthy, and historic electric cars.

Cars of the Chico Electric

A standard Chico Electric Railway city car poses with its crew, circa 1905.
(Chico Enterprise-Record)

A Northern Electric Railway "Dinky" pauses at a terminal stop
in Chico, California, circa 1905.
(Meriam Library, CSU Chico)

Compared to the larger Sacramento Northern (SN), the original Chico Electric Railway (CERY) always remained quite small. Even when its line stretched 83 miles between Chico and Sacramento, its local lines within Chico remained almost insular and untouched by larger changes occurring under WP. Upon starting operation in 1905, the CER ordered four St. Louis Car Company double-truck cars to handle all of their city lines. These initial cars were "California Cars", featuring two open ends wrapped in mesh sides with an enclosed center section, and they shared more than a close resemblance to Pacific Electric's 200-Class city cars as the Chico's cars even featured the same 5-window "Huntington Standard" design. Sharing the line with these cars were ex-United Railroads of San Francisco four-wheel "dinkies" and four more double-truck cars by 1911, which was still small even for a small-town streetcar. This eventually became a problem in 1914 when the "dinkies" were sold off and then-parent company Northern Electric Railway (NER) was too bankrupt to purchase more cars.

SN No. 62 shows off its attractive moss green and red
livery during operation at the Western Railway Museum in 
Rio Vista, CA.
(Jack Snell)

The solution finally came in 1918, after the NER was reorganized into the Sacramento Northern, when two Birney Safety Cars were ordered from the American Car Company of St. Louis, Missouri. The Birney is nothing new for this blog's coverage, but the basic idea behind the "Safety Car" was that it could be operated as cheaply as possible for both boonie branches and big main street roads, saving on mechanical and employee costs. The downside is, of course, passenger comfort, as these cars were incredible bouncy, hard to ride due to their wooden-slat seats, and subsequently highly unpopular enough to dissuade people from riding it. SN's first two Birneys, Nos. 60 and 61, arrived in October 1918 and were painted in similar fashion to their interurban cars with Pullman green paint and gold lettering and stripes. The roofs were even a bright moss green, but this later changed due to someone finally having some common sense. SN was so pleased with its new cheap cars that, starting in September 1923, they purchased four other Birneys from the San Diego Electric Railway after the latter company found their new cheap cars highly unpopular with riders.

On the last day of electric passenger service on the
Marysville-Yuba City sub, Birneys 68 (left) and 70 (right)
meet at Marysville on February 15, 1942.
(Wilbur C. Whittaker, Garth G. Groff)

Arriving on the Sacramento Northern as Nos. 62-65, the cars were sent to work in both Sacramento proper and in Chico, providing local connecting services around the city. In May 1925, SN apparently decided that demand was great for these cheap cars and ordered three more, resulting in SN Nos. 66 and 68 rounding up the Birney rosters. Over time, the cars went through different schemes including white with blue-grey doors. Birney No. 60 once had a unique scheme of white-over-yellow with a blue chevron. The final order of cars came in February 1936 from the San Jose Railroads, consisting of two cars, Nos. 69 and 70, refurbished by the Key System in Emeryville and delivered in March. Due to the enormous anti-climbers on the front, these cars had the outdated and racist nickname of "Ubangi lip cars", but it wasn't just racist names that made them hated. For many years, the cars lacked any kind of heater for the cold winter nights through Sacramento, and this was only remedied after 1941 when interurban service to San Francisco ended. Sadly, despite being more comfortable, the Birney service in Chico and Sacramento ended on May 1944 after they were sold to National City Lines (NCL). 

A Sacramento Northern Birney, No. 62, finds itself a boomer as
it departs San Francisco's Playland Amusement Park on Muni rails in
an undated but circa-1940s view.
(Victor Vinzent)

No. 62 chills in the warm California sun during another
lazy day at the Western Railway Museum, Rio Vista, CA.
(Jack Snell)

After the sale, service reductions by NCL drastically shrank the Birneys' roaming, having been whittled to just one line grafted out of an old Central California Traction Co. line between downtown and Colonial Heights. For once, the Birneys felt loved as their compact size and austere comfort were welcomed by Colonial Heights residents. The Colonial Heights line was eventually abandoned in early 1946 and most of the stock was scrapped, leading to the lines in Chico being the only streetcar lines left on the SN. No. 62, one of the ex-SDERy cars, made the final run in Chico on December 15, 1947, and while its other sisters were scrapped or sold off as dwellings, No. 62 was sold whole to the Bay Area Electric Railway Association for just $250 dollars. It remains the only Birney of the Sacramento Railway, and the SDERY by proxy, to be preserved intact. 

Before the BART

Sacramento Northern (ex-OA&E) No. 1005 is resplendent in Pullman Green as it trundles outside
the 40th and Shafter Yard on a fantrip in the early 1950s.
(John Smatlak)

A mixed train of Holman powered cars and Hall-Scott
trailers, just another day on the SN.
(Western Railway Museum)

While it was streetcars that started the Chico Electric Railway's rise in the Sacramento Northern's grand scheme, the Oakland Antioch & Eastern (OA&E) featured far more sophisticated rolling stock from the start. Beginning in 1912, the OA&E contracted two different companies to construct two classes of interurban cars for them, with the first contract fulfilled by the Holman Car Company of San Francisco. To open the new line, four wooden combination cars were constructed to fulfill local services around the OA&E's line between Oakland and Sacramento, and were numbered 1003 to 1006. These cars were somewhat standard fare for an interurban car, with removable headlights, steel sheathing on the front ends, and a 58-foot length that sat 50 passengers inside. These combination cars remained a mainstay of the OA&E well into their merger with the Sacramento Northern. In order to run on the later portions of the line, the cars were fitted with 1200V pantographs to go with their 600V trolley poles as well as third-rail shoes. 

SN Hall-Scott No. 1014 is a perfect example of her type,
keeping the aesthetics of the wooden cars while also being
made of steel.
(Don Ross)

Later orders of wooden cars emerged from the Cincinnati Car Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, (Nos. 1007-1010) and the Wason Car Company of Springfield, Massachusetts (Nos. 1011-1018). All of these wooden combines were more or less identical in propulsion and design, complete with combination coach-baggage configurations. Around this time, the OA&E also ordered six control coach-trailers from the Hall-Scott Motor Company of Berkeley to supplement their fleet of combination cars. These also proved to be the first all-steel cars rostered by the OA&E, one foot longer than their combine predecessors, and seated ten more passengers inside. However, despite their forward-thinking design and construction at a time when most interurbans were changing to modern steel cars, the Hall-Scotts were not that popular with the crews as not only were they heavy (shaking the Oakland pier to near pieces when hauled behind locomotives), but their lack of a clerestory or proper ventilation meant the Hall-Scotts more resembled ovens on any good summer day. The Hall-Scotts were later motorized in 1916 using the same Westinghouse motors and control stands found on the older wooden cars.

Boomers Go to Berkeley! Key System No. 499 and 495 are actually
ex-OA&E trailer 1026 (then motor 1018) and motor 1005.
(Don Ross)

When the Sacramento Northern ceased running to San Francisco in 1942, almost all of the Holmans, Hall-Scotts, Wasons and Cincinnati cars were sent to Hyman-Michaels, a local scrap dealer, for disposal. However, most of the cars then got a new lease on life as the Key System was going through a wartime equipment shortage across the Bay. Transferring these cars to their Emeryville Yard, the 1200V pantographs and third-rail shoes were removed and replaced with 600V shoes to go with their retained trolley poles. Gone was also the handsome Pullman green bodies and grass-green trucks, as the cars were now clad in the Key System colors of orange and white. Now numbered in the 490 series, they not only served the Richmond Shipyard Railway but also handled the enormous rush-hour loads coming from the Transbay Terminal out to the other Key System lines. When the Key was purchased by National City Lines and cut back their passenger services, all but one of these cars were scrapped by 1951.

Parlor Cars to the Pacific

The "Moraga" brings up the rear of the "Comet" at Rockridge,
which is now served by the BART, on April 20, 1940.
Note the arched roof and windows.
(Kenneth C. Jenkins, Garth G. Groff)

A good view of the Moraga at what appears to be the 
40th and Shafter Yard's heavy maintenance facility.
(Moraga Historical Society)

By far one of the most glamorized and romanticized aspects of the SN was its parlor car services on named trains like "The Capital Limited" (north to Sacramento) and the "Metropolitan" (south to Oakland), The 1914 Panama-Pacific Exposition was the impetus for the OA&E to provide luxury parlor service, starting with the "Moraga" in 1913. When rebuilt from a Wason trailer into a parlor car, the "Moraga" lost her motors and trolley poles but retained controls on either end so motormen could still drive the car from the exposed observation platforms, of which the "Moraga" originally had two. Inside, passengers enjoyed light meals from her on-board kitchen and sat on comfy wicker chairs as the train sped off towards its destination. Its original design as a double-ended observation car came from the inability for the OA&E to turn its trains around at Sacramento, but this later changed as the "Moraga" was rebuilt into a single-ended car and often headed trains observation-deck-first which I can imagine was very uncomfortable for the motorman.

The "Sacramento" after being embiggened and then 
shortened, working on the Sacramento Valley Limited.
(Kenneth C. Jenkins, Garth G. Groff)

A later addition to the roster was Cincinnati Combine No. 1016, which was rebuilt as the parlor car "Sacramento" to provide more-available parlor services on the now-combined "Meteor" between Oakland and Sacramento. The "Sacramento" featured a clerestory roof, wicker seats, and an enlarged dining section which ballooned the car's length from 55 feet to a gargantuan 76-foot length. SN later complained about the "Sacramento's" length and had it shrunk down by ten feet, by which point it was already working usefully on the "Sacramento Valley Limited" as its regular parlor car. Both the "Moraga" and "Sacramento" continued serving their respective trains until 1934, when SN stopped serving food aboard the trains, then in 1938 when SN's parlor car services closed after an enormous amount of red tape. Both cars were scrapped by 1941.

SN (Ex-Chico Electric) No. 200, of the same type as SN No. 202 which eventually
became the Parlor Car "Bidwell".
(Mid Continent Railway Museum)

The parlor car "Bidwell" after rebuilding from a wrecked
interurban car, photographed outside the SN's Mulberry Shops.
(Western Railway Museum)

On the SN's Northern End, the Chico Electric was also developing its own parlor cars by 1914. This development literally started with a bang, as the CERY was looking to recycle wrecked 1906 Niles car No. 202. After spending almost a year being redesigned and rebuilt at the Mulberry Shops, the "Bidwell" was officially introduced by January 15, 1915, for use between Chico and Sacramento. The new car was handsome, featuring a rounded observation end that proudly displayed whatever drumhead it wore, a pantry and dining compartment, and of course motorman controls on the observation deck. Its namesake was General John Bidwell, founder of the city of Chico, and it served as the CERY's (later SN) only parlor car. Another was supposed to be built after 1920, Northern Electric coach No. 225, but despite being rebuilt with an enclosed observation deck and intended to substitute the Bidwell on the "Sacramento Valley Limited" and the "Bay Cities Limited" (CERY's own version of the Capital Limited), this never came to pass. 

The "Bidwell" bids adieu to the Transbay Terminal as it works one of the last
"Comet" trains out of San Francisco in the early 1940s.
(C.E. Wright, Garth G. Groff)

A handsome side-on view of the "Alabama" at PE's original
7th Street Yard. Occasionally, when Huntington needed to go back
to his home state of New York, the "Alabama" was pulled along with
other steam railroad coaches.
(Earle C. Hanson, Jeffrey J. Moreau)

The final parlor car to enter service on the SN was actually a Pacific Electric (PE) relic. Originally built by the St. Louis Car Company in 1905, the "Alabama" was the private transport of Henry E. Huntington, the founder of the largest interurban railway on the planet. The car featured simulated-wood siding actually made of steel and was built to steam railway standards instead of normal interurban car standards, featuring the ability to add steam heat from a normal locomotive as well as a hot kitchen, parlor, and bedroom. 

Following the Great Merger of 1911 when PE was sold to new parent company Southern Pacific, Huntington retained ownership of the Alabama but was dissuaded from using it as the SP found the intrusion of a private car more than a little unfriendly to their interurban schedules. Huntington later sold the Alabama, which is how the SN was able to scoop it up and turn it into a parlor car for the "Sacramento Valley Limited" and the "Meteor", implementing new changes like a train door on one end and full dining car services when all the other parlors only offered light meals. Sadly, the Alabama met its end in March 1931, when the electric coffee percolator inside caught the car on fire and burned it to the ground. 

Steeplecabs Across Suisun Bay

404: Steeplecab not found.
(Donald L. Olson)

SN No. 402 (originally 1002), similar to Old Maude's design.
(Donald L. Olson)

By far, the biggest aspect to the SN following its Western Pacific acquisition was its freight sector. After all, for every interurban railroad covered on this blog, freight makes money. For the Northern Electric Railway (NER), later the SN Northern Division, their freight aspirations began with "Old Maude", a switching motor for the Diamond Match Company Plant in Chico. Officially NER 701, "Old Maude" was what the trainmen called a "toolhouse on a raft", owing to its appearance as a motorized flatcar with a cab. It measured at 36 feet, 8 inches, and weighed a light 21 tons, with power provided by four GE 67 motors providing a little over 300 horsepower. Old Maude was later assigned to the isolated Suisun-Vacaville Branch in 1931, before being sidelined and scrapped in 1935. 

SN No. 405, on leased duty to the Oakland Terminal Railway,
shows off its unique "scare stripe" livery. She was later stuck
in Oroville until being scrapped in 1953.
(Garth G. Groff)

Five more motors, Nos. 1002-1005, followed in 1907 and, like Old Maude, were flatcar rebuilds into locomotives. These were a lot longer, measuring 41 feet, and featured four Westinghouse 121A motors that gave them a whopping 360 horsepower and a weight of 40 tons. When the OA&E interurbans joined the SN roster, they were renumbered 402-405. No. 404 (steeplecab not found) later received the "Alabama's" unique Hedley trucks after the parlor car burned down. No. 405 was the longest-lived of the old wooden motors, as after WWII it was assigned to the Oroville stub and used on the Key System tracks until 1953. After this, No. 405 was sold to the Caldor Lumber Company in Diamond Springs, CA, and rebuilt as a diesel-electric switcher before being scrapped somewhere in Portland, Oregon, in the Early 1960s.

SN No. 430, the first of many famous black-and-orange
steeplecabs across Suisun Bay.
(Kenneth C. Jenkins, Garth G. Groff)

Following these homebuilt motors, further bankruptcies in 1914 led the NER to abandon any more attempts to construct their own freight motors at Mulberry Shops. New off-the-shelf electric locomotives were not viable until 1918, when the SN purchased and trialed a GE steeplecab, No. 430. Running on only 600 volts DC, it had a third-rail shoe, pantograph, and two trolley poles. No. 430's ease of operation and maintenance, coupled with her 800-horsepower figure and general versatility, inspired SN ordered a Baldwin-Westinghouse steeple cab (No. 1040) to compare their qualities. Finding both optimal, the railway alternated ordering its steeple cabs in pairs from both companies during the 1920s, with the SN crews finding the GE ones more favorable as they were quieter and provided better switching visibility than the Baldwin-Westinghouses. However, the GEs still had their own issues, as they tended to ride roughly at low starting speeds and their motors were easy to overload.

A normal day on the SN as No. 604 is piloted by a brakeman
through the tight Shafter Avenue line heading north out of Oakland.
(East Bay Hills Project)

The much-maligned SN (ex-Tidewater Southern) No. 670,
which displays significant aesthetic differences from its SN kin.
The all-black scheme were known as "widows".
(Kenneth C. Jenkins, Garth G. Groff)

When the Great Merger of the OA&E and the NER happened in 1928, the steeplecabs were renumbered in the 650 series, with the GE steeples taking up most of the freight work. To accommodate running on an upgraded overhead, the locomotives were upgraded to run on 1500V DC through their pantographs and 1200V third rail shoes. The shoes were required when running through to Travis Army Air Force Base so planes wouldn't fly into overhead wires. In the final years of the SN, sister road Tidewater Southern (TS) lent their steeplecab, No. 670, for services between Shafter Avenue and Sacramento. Despite being absolutely identical to the 650s, 670 was absolutely hated by crews for many reasons: the seats were "backless and uncomfortable", the windows were too small due to being plated over, and even though the locomotive shared the same power rating as the 650s, crews still complained that 670 couldn't pull well worth a damn. 

SN No. 654 is the last gatekeeper of the SN's electric operations as it 
greets the westbound California Zephyr at Marysville in 1965.
(Drew Jacksich)

Nevertheless, these electrics proved to be the last electrical equipment to work on the SN, as in 1965, No. 654 closed out electric operations in Yuba City. By this time, freight cars had gotten much bigger and heavier, with 70 ton cars becoming the norm, so the elderly GE units were soon displaced by EMD SW-1s. A farewell excursion was run on the Yuba City Sub by No. 654 on April 10, 1965, and as soon as it was done, thus ended 60 years of electric freight railroading in California as a whole. 

Preserved Examples

SN No. 1005 greets Steeplecab No. 654 on a normal day at the Western Railway Museum.
No. 1005 is most likely pushing OA&E Hall-Scott No. 1020.
(Western Railway Museum)

The Bidwell's body when it first came to the
Western Railway Museum following its use as living space.
(Garth G. Groff)

Of the Sacramento Northern's roster of cars and locomotives from two railroads, only ten have made it into preservation. Besides the Birney Car No. 62, eight other cars have called the Western Railway Museum (WRM) of Rio Vista, California, home since 1951. The oldest of these is SN No. 27, a suburban car body originally built for the NER in 1908 by the St. Louis Car Company. The Bidwell has also found a home in the WRM after serving as a rental unit in Wheatland, California, for over thirty years. In 1978, the owners traded the car to the Bay Area Electric Railway Association (BAERA) for a mobile home and the Bidwell has since been stored awaiting a restoration. Three of the SN's famous GE steeplecabs have also found new homes, including the one that closed off California's electric railway history, No. 654. It and No. 652 are preserved at the WRM with 654 remaining regularly operable since 1965. No. 652 is displayed indoors following a cosmetic restoration in the late 2000s. The other one, No. 653, is preserved operable at the Southern California Railway Museum in Perris, California, and is currently undergoing a minor restoration back into operation.

East Bay kin are reunited as SN No. 453 chills in the SCRM's Carhouse 2
with shedmate Pacific Electric 418 (ex-East Bay Electric 344).
(Myself)

Thank you for reading today's Trolley post, and watch your step as you alight on the platform. My resources today included the Feather River Rail Society and their comprehensive coverage of the Sacramento Northern's roster, the Western Railway Museum, and the photograph credits listed under each one. The trolley gifs in our posts are made by myself and can be found under “Motorman Reymond’s Railroad Gif Carhouse”. On Thursday, we start with a two-parter special about the history of the modern culmination of the East Bay Electric, the Key System, and the Sacramento Northern: the infamous Bay Area Rapid Transit. 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!