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.