Swanton Pacific Railroad

Cal Poly Railroad Days
29 September 2002

Al Smith, Cal Poly Alumni, trusted his Swanton Pacific Ranch and with his 1/3 scale railroad to Cal Poly University, SLO. Each September the Swanton Railroad holds a Cal Poly Rail Road Days. If you would like more information on the late Al Smith, the Swanton Ranch or the Swanton Pacific Railroad, please go to the Cal Poly web site (www.calpoly.edu) and search on Swanton Pacific. I would also try a google search.

Here are some Pictures I took on 29 September 2002. They were running two nine car trains with three engines, the 1912, 1914 and the 502. The 1912 and 1914 are both 4-6-2 Pacifics. The 502 is a Disiel.

The Days Operation:

They were running the trains from College Station out 1 mile to the wye. At the wye, they would remove the engine, turn it around on the wye and run around the train. They would then run the train back to the station, passing the next outbound train on a siding half way out. Once back at the station, the engine was uncouple, the "next" engine would be waiting to roll out onto the main line and back into the end of the train. While this was happing the train would be unloaded and reloaded with passengers. The "next" engine would then run the next load of passengers out to the wye, passing the inbound train at the siding. The engine that had just uncoupled from the train would then run up to the turn table, get turned around and run back down to the station. Once at the station it would wait for the next inbound train, back into it, and take it back out. IT was a very smooth operation.

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The Swanton Pacific Railroad