| Posted by Nuc on May 20, 2025 | |
I took this train in 1966 on my journey from Great Lakes Naval Training Center to Ballast Point submarine base. I don't remember the locomotives looking so clean.
Does anyone know what the wires visible above the lead unit are? Are they part of the signaling system?
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The brackets above the cab are ice breakers to protect dome cars from damage in tunnels or snow sheds.
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| Posted by Nuc on May 26, 2025 | |
The Donner Pass snow fighters have those icicle breakers, too.
But I meant the sort-of loom of wires hanging from the tower beside the bridge. They don't look like power cables because they are so close together but they look kind of big to be signal wires. The tower is still there but the wires are gone (along with the second tracks on the bridge and beside the river.) Maybe they are phone cables - 200-pair (and bigger) cables are really heavy and the ones in the picture seem to have a lot of sag in them.
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These resemble fiber optic cables, but this photo was taken several years before they were deployed. Microwave communication networks, used a lot by SP at some point were already common. Perhaps these were communication lines who leased the use of the railroad's right of way. Or, perhaps these lines linked Mission Tower with SP and ATSF signal systems in the area.
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