Tag Archives: Day Trip

Day Trip to Dunsmuir

I took what I call my “Last day trip to Dunsmuir for a while” on Wednesday (10/6/10) meaning, I start my new job at Schwan’s on Monday and it’s going to be a while before I have any time off to do such things. Even though I only saw one train that day, it was a very satisfying and relaxing day. Rewarding as well as I found two new things I have never seen before along the old Siskiyou Line in Northern Cal. and got to chat with an online acquaintance at what was a chance meeting at a remote area along the line.

The night before my trip, I emailed a fellow, Robert “Photobob” Morris saying I was going to be in Dunsmuir area and hoped to run into him. Well the next day as I was driving through Grenada, CA, a very small very old farm town along the Siskiyou line, I noticed a strange looking old Line-shack I had never noticed before. There was a road leading right up to it. It was an old but still usable “in-Motion” track weight scale used for the farmers grain cars.

As I was checking it out, up pulls Robert and his wife to take some pictures as well. Small world… We were both surprised that, after many many years, and being in a small town with high unemployment and basically nothing for the local kids to do it was in such pristine shape. There wasn’t a single bit of graffiti or vandalism, there was expensive but primitive electrical equipment inside behind unlocked doors. I have some pictures at my Picasa site. The first few are of the scale, shack and the old Southern Pacific concrete line shack.

There are a few images of my other discovery that day. An old section of road with a cool old trestle going over it. Thought it would be a good future photo-op location if trains ever return to that section of track again.