September 21, 1947.  Aurora and McHenry, California.

One day in the fall of 1947, renowned railroad historian Guy Dunscomb chased a train north out of Modesto.  One of the TS's fall harvest rush trains, this massive block of ice reefers required two WP locomotives to bring it northbound.  WP 2-8-0 99 takes the lead while cut in 8 cars back was Western Pacific 122, one of the smallest steam engines on the WP roster.  The block appears to consist almost completely of Pacific Fruit Express reefers, including cars from the WP's small fleet of PFE's.  The separation of the steam engines was a common practice due to weight restrictions on the Stanislaus River bridge.  These would be eliminated by a rebuilding in the 1950's.

This day, an engineer's strike was ocurring on the Southern Pacific.  Whether this had any impact on the Tidewater's traffic is unrecorded.

The first photo catches WP 99 switching some cars, probably at the north end of Aurora.

In photos 2 and 3, the train cranks up and pulls out of Aurora, leaving another large cut of reefers in the siding.

The remaining photos capture the train as it heads north and passes through McHenry.  The sight and sound of this movement must have been spectacular.

all photos by Guy L. Dunscomb, Martin E. Hansen collection.

Gallery.. 1947 Reefer Train

Tidewater Southern Railway