Connections and Neighbors

Central California Traction Company

July, 1992.  Willits, California.

CCT 80 rests in retirement in the Northwestern Pacific yard in Willits, California.  Nearby is former rostermate CCT 42.  Another CCT engine, GP7 70 also resides in the area.  All three are privately owned and the 70 and 80 both saw limited service on the Eureka Southern and successor North Coast Railway.  Today they are isolated by the FRA's closure of the NWP mainline.

This engine is former TS 746, one of the RS1 models that the road received from the Union Pacific.  The CCT and the TS had a long intertwined history, starting with the construction days and culminating in one of the Tidewater's last running locomotives finding a new home working the industries on the Traction Company's north end at Fruitridge and Polk, just south of Sacramento.

photo by Thomas Porter

SURVIVOR