An eastbound lumber drag crosses the Madeline Plains on Southern Pacific's Modoc Line. Most of the traffic was off the Siskiyou in Plate C cars. This resulted in many trains with a nice, uniform ... (more)

Just after sunrise, the fifth eastbound train over the Modoc Line following the DRGW/SP merger nears Karlo siding in the high desert.

Led by a Union Pacific unit, a Southern Pacific train departs Klamath Falls on the Modoc Line. It was the first time I had ever caught a UP unit leading an SP train. Since UP ultimately abandoned ... (more)

An eastbound train on the Modoc Line arrives at Alturas. There will be no pick up today, so the train will continue on to the crew change at Wendel.

Power for a Modoc Line train has paused to pickup eastbound traffic at Alturas. Lumber loads from Lakeview, Oregon off the Great Western generally went to eastern markets.

The temperature is in single digits as a manifest heads east on the Modoc Line.

One of the first trains on the Modoc Line after the SP/Rio Grande merger descends the grade eastbound from Sage Hen. The last train ran here in summer 1997; this is now a hiking trail.

A lumber drag highballs Alturas, heading for Wendel on the Modoc Line.

An eastbound lumber drag on the Modoc Line climbs the grade to Sage Hen summit.

An eastbound train on the Modoc Line is approaching the crew change at Wendel. The line had reopened to through traffic three days earlier when Rio Grande and SP merged.

An eastbound train on the Modoc Line descends the grade from Sage Hen summit into the Madeline Plains. The line had reopened to through traffic two days earlier.

An eastbound Modoc Line train begins the descent down Howard's Gulch not long after the Rio Grande/SP merger. The UP unit on the point is ironic, as UP's acquisition of SP eight years later would ... (more)

When Rio Grande and Southern Pacific merged, one of the first acts taken was to reopen the mothballed Modoc Line. The third eastbound Modoc train arrives at Wendel for a crew change.

Having crossed the Madeline Plains, an EUASM begins the climb to Crest siding. This site is near Ravendale on SP's Modoc Line. It had been less than two months since the SP/Rio Grande merger.

Once upon a time, trains on the Modoc Line added helpers at Ravendale. By 1988, the water tank standing along the tracks was the only remaining structure from those days.