SP109 — History and Move to Black Butte

After being moved inside to prevent further deterioration in the year 2000, SP109 was stored in the former Southern Pacific Erecting Shop in Sacramento up until it was moved to Black Butte in April, 2016.

SP 109 Historical Timeline

Sept 18, 1888 — Built by Pullman for SP subsidiary Northern Ry as coach ^#1005 with a price of $975.

1891 - Renumbered SP ^#1804 in system-wide renumbering.

Nov 30, 1909 — Rebuilt as SP division superintendent car ^#109 "Shasta", received 6-wheel wood beam trucks. Stationed in Dunsmuir.

May 16, 1918 — SP ^#109 Shasta received 4-wheel steel trucks from combine ^#3165 when that car was converted into an MofW boarding car.

Dinner is served. SP109 in its heyday. This is the only interior photographs we have been able to locate, showing SP chef Kaichi Maekawa serving a meal to guests in the car.
Photo collection of Denny Kato (Mr. Maekawa's maternal grandson), used with his permission.

July 1932 — SP ^#109 Shasta retired as a business car, put into storage.

March 16, 1937 — SP ^#109 Shasta converted into SP MW ^#18 as a foreman boarding car.

We have not found any exterior photos of SP109 in operation as the "Shasta" business car. This photo is from the later years (likely around 1950) of the car's incarnation as a M-O-W foreman's bunk car (SP MW ^#18). Photo taken by Caltrans while surveying for the Capital City Freeway in Sacramento. SP MW 18 is sitting on the set out track at Elvas, presumably in use as a bunk car. This view is looking south over the leg of the wye that connects the Overland Main with the Valley Main. The cannery track is out of view and on the other side of the mainline. Photo provided by Scott Inman.

July 1957 — SP MW ^#18 retired.

Nov 14, 1957 — Sold to Henry Raub. Stored for many years in Bakersfield, and later at Orange Empire Railway Museum.

June 1977 — CSRM purchased SP ^#109 Shasta for $5,000 through Sacramento Trust for Historic Preservation using a 1776-1976 American Revolution Bicentennial Grant. Trucked to CSRM. Car placed on 4-wheel wood beam trucks from Sierra Ry baggage-mail car ^#8, and stored on disconnected track outside the Unit Shop.

1977 - 2000 — SP ^#109 sat outside the Museum's Restoration Shop. By the mid 1990s the car's roof was already failing and leaking. The Shasta has suffered both from weather and occasional vandalism and "transient residence".

2000 — SP ^#109 Shasta moved to inside storage in former SP Erecting Shop at CSRM.

2016 — On April 28^th , SP ^#109 left its longtime home in the backshop of the California State Railroad Museum and was loaded onto a lowboy truck which then took it north on I-5. After a layover in Redding, it returned to its long time home of Siskiyou County, arriving at the Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture on the morning of the 29^th. On the morning of the 30^th the trucks for the car arrived and then the trucks and car were unloaded and placed on a newly built section of track.

Near the end of its journey from the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, SP109 exits I-5 in South Weed.

SP 109 approaches the BBCRC on mile-long Black Butte Road, a private dirt road shared by BBCRC, Union Pacific, and one neighboring landowner.

After unloading the trucks [wheelsets], our contractor, Carlton Crane of Burney, CA, prepares for the move of the 60,000 pound main car body, something that required two cranes. SP 109 is at its new home at the BBCRC.

to Restoration Process 2016 - 2017→