What's New Archive
February 22, 2000
Another update and the first images are placed on the site! Thanks to Greg Elems for the first two shots in the Photo Gallery. Also the "Small Tools" section of "Tools of the Trade" now has images of my rare Tidewater Southern switchlocks.
January 30, 2000
Today, the pages migrate to their new home at WWW.WPLIVES.COM, officially joining the Western Pacific family of web pages.
First, the original site will be migrated, then the new and enhanced sections.
December 26, 1999
A update begins. New information entered and the motive power and history sections will be
enlarged, including several photographs of late TS motive power and some views of the UP era.
March 9, 1999
The Pages went on-line "officially" today, so everything's new!
The History
section has 2 of its 5 chapters up and running. Number 3 is ready to go and 1 and 2 are already being revised. Number 4 is written and 5 is about half done.
The Tools of the Trade section has its main page, the Steam Locomotive intro, and the Motive Power Timeline up and active.
The Maps section main menu is up and two maps are active.
Also on-line are the Missing in Action and About This Site sections.
September 1, 2000
A major update begins now.
The site has been completely recreated in NetObjects Fusion, a far better HTML editor than I used on the original version.
All new items include several photos in the photo gallery, the all-time roster, and a new contents page. Revisions include all the
history sections (chapters 1-3 are on-line) and the motive power timeline.
As this is a new
HTML editor to me, I am still learning its little ways. I know some of the links are working sporadically or incorrectly. Have patience, these will be repaired as I get to them.
September 21, 2000
The big update continues! The site officially is rededicated today and all the new pages are published. New info includes
freight car, electric locomotive, and steam locomotive data, as well as more images.
September 28, 2000
More of the big
update. Mostly corrections and clean-up, but there is some new info in the Death of an Interurban
chapter about the Hilmar line, taken from a 1941 timetable. Some more images were also added, courtesy of Dave's Electric Railroad Page.
October 16, 2000
And more keeps
coming! Five new images, including four courtesy of Frank Brehm and the Western Pacific Pages. A new intro for the steam section, info on TS 32/132, and some revisions are also in place. Coming soon: recent UP era photos, more freight car info, more locomotive images (steam, diesel, and electric), and some photos by the late and greatly
missed Guy Dunscomb.
October 20, 2000
Also, I have updated the Survivors section and some of the history chapters and will be adding scans of a TS timetable in the next few
days.
A whole slew of new images go on today, courtesy of Wes Hammond, Stan Kistler, Don Ross, Peter Arnold, and East-West Rail Scenes. And even a few by
me. Also, Gerold Eckl has graciously taken the time to photocopy and send an excellent article by John Dodge on electric railroading in the Central Valley. It includes much CCT and Tidewater info, as well as several maps,
timetables, and station listings. Info from this source will be showing up starting today.
October 24, 2000
Paperwork and maps today. Added is a
Paperwork section with two public timetables and a complete scan of Employee Timetable 9 from 1941. Also, two new maps
illustrate railroads in Stockton and in the Central Valley between Turlock and Sacramento.
October 26, 2000
Images from the collections of Stan Kistler, Seth Bramson, and Micheal H. Adamson have been
added today. These include shots of TS steam and electric from the lens of Guy Dunscomb. Thanks to Stan, Seth, and Micheal!
November 20, 2000 Some information corrections and fixed links are also going on-line
now. Much new information has been received and will be integrated into the site as updates progress. Hopefully, there will be some new freight car shots soon as well as images of the last trains over Ninth Street.
The entire WPLives family has been moved to
a new server and service provider. Unfortunately, this caused the entire TS site to go down for a few days. With this update, we should be back on-line.
February 13, 2001 The first is an update on the fate of the TS 132. Tom Irion reports a 1955 Oakland Tribune article shows the engine too cut up to be
reused as a stationary boiler. More on the And pictures. Thom Anderson and Vic Neves have contributed shots of TS freight cars in
Finally, I am scheduled to speak at the WP Historical Convention in April about the Tidewater. More details to come.
Life's been busy, but we're back with more new things!
The Yahoo! Groups e-mail group for the Sacramento Northern is now also open to discussion on issues concerning the Tidewater Southern, Central Calfornia Traction and other related railroads.
February 20, 2001
Added a story about the Franzia Winery excursion
run on the Tidewater in April 1966. Thanks to John Stashik and Ken Shattock for the story!
February 28, 2001
Thanks to Bart Nadeau and the BAERA for a pix of interurban 200
at Modesto. Also, a member of the SN List has supplied info he found on the elusive wood
flatcar from the early days and the equally elusive express motor 300 (info on that to come later). Also some formatting and spelling corrections.
April 12, 2001
Added information from the CSRM archives concerning industries served by the Tidewater as well as a little piece on the Old Mill Cafe
in Modesto and the search to determine its connections to the railroad.
May 7, 2001 But, as a preview, I would like to share one of the
Stiles Collection photos showing TS second 1 in what may be its original delivery scheme! A really unexpected and exciting find that I am pleased to have here. Thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Nick Stiles for their permission to post this
photo. Find it in the
Big update coming soon with photos from Vic Neves,
the CSRM collection and from the personal scrapbooks of TS engineer Frank Edgerton, courtesy of the Stiles Collection. Also new info, updated histories and rosters and other goodies.
July 9, 2001 Well, it happened later than I wanted (I've been BUSY!), but as of today, the TS History Pages now have their OWN DOMAIN! Welcome to Also, many revisions in the
histories, rosters and other errata, along with new photos from
Ch..Ch..Changes!
November 7, 2001 Soon, some images and information from the California State Railroad Museum archives will be posted. A few previews have already gone up, including three Coming next is the sad tale of the fire which consumed the Tidewater's famous crossing of the Tuolumne River in Modesto. Ted Benson has kindly provided a
stunning series of images he captured of the fire. Finally, I am working on an on-line version of the presentation on the Tidewater I gave at the 2001 Western Pacific Historical Convention. That presentation went over very well and has
led to an offer for an expanded version to be presented at Winterail! My first Winterail show! Wow!
There are also two new maps in the map section.
November 16, 2001 Courtesy of
the Bay Area Electric Railway Association archives, we now have what may be a photo of
A small update, but interesting nonetheless.
November 20, 2001 Also, some links have been repaired and other errors corrected. I recently started
uploading the site in a new way and that has caused some page deletions until I can fully figure out the system.
Here it is! Ted Benson's story on the burning of the Tuolumne Trestle in Modesto.
2001
2000 and previous
2002
January 3, 2002
Small update: beginning a listing of models appropriate to Tidewater prototypes.
January 16, 2002
Courtesy of the Denver Public Library, we now have two new photos of steeplecab 106 (including a photo of the juice jack in transit after being built) and one new photo of steeplecab 100, all three by Otto Perry.TS 106 in Modesto
. TS 106 in transit. TS 100 in Modesto.
January 23, 2002
Took a trip to the Western Railway Museum at Rio Vista Junction and got a chance to photograph TS interurban 200,
preserved unrestored in one of the carbarns. It was tight quarters, but Wendy Holtz and I managed to get some nice detail shots.
January 29, 2002
Corrections to the caboose information, new photo of an 801-series boxcar
and new photo of interurban car 202 in Modesto, plus the usual assortment of error corrections.
March 18, 2002 First up, a new page on A new page with information on New images of There are 2 new Finally, Mike Kotowski
has graciously given permission for his painting "Modesto, 1931" to be used on the site. I put it right on the front page. The usual link repairs and fact corrections have also occurred. The
A whole bunch of new things! The Winterail show is done and now I have
some images and more information to add.
March 22, 2002 Coming Soon: The Photo Gallery is
being redone as a overview of the railroad by decade. And some new photos and stories are being included courtesy of former M&ET employee Robert Williams and the California State Railroad Museum Library.
Thank you,
Ted. Mr. Benson e-mailed me with some corrections to many of the photo captions I put up last time. These have now been changed and have a lot more real info to boot! Much appreciated.
March 26, 2002
No update today, but just as an FYI to everyone I have renewed my ownership of
www.TidewaterSouthern.com
for 5 years. I don't plan on having this site go away anytime soon. I had owned some other TidewaterSouthern domains, but I have let them lapse as the cost for maintaining them and having the addresses point to the main was huge. As is, the single domain, the cost of monthly service and some of the fees I have had to pay for info and photos have been no small things. I hope this site is interesting to some folks because its certainly being interesting to my checkbook!! And all the more reason for me to add another big THANK YOU to everyone who has freely donated their information and photos to the site.
April 1, 2002 I have also begun negotiations for a grant from the Bay Area Air Quality Board and the Federal government that will provide for the reelectrification of the Tidewater mainline. This will
also include wire down 3 miles of the relaid Manteca Branch to reach a new industrial park. Electric motive power will be in the form of two completely rebuilt General Electric 100 ton steeplecab locomotives, including Sacramento
Northern 652, currently residing at the Western Railway Museum! Plans are also in the works to purchase and restore Tidewater interurban car 202 for special excursion service. The steeplecabs will be joined by 2 MK1200G
locomotives, formerly of the Union Pacific Railroad. The deal with the UP also includes 2 bay window cabooses and 40 boxcars. The new company will use the name Tidewater Southern Railway and a new paint scheme is being designed.
The Cornucopia logo will be used on freight equipment while motive power will once again sport the long unused Sunburst logo. Operations are expected to begin by late summer 2002.
.......okay, did anyone buy this? Even for a second?
I am thrilled to announce that, thanks to the money I have saved by dropping my unused domain names, I have been able to complete a deal with the Union Pacific Railroad to purchase
the northern half of the Tidewater Southern!!!
April 8, 2002 First, former M&ET employee After receiving many questions about my
relationship with the TS, I decided to break one of my rules and put up a page with a mini-bio of me, your humble webmaster. It is in the About This Site section. Some error corrections, new graphics on several pages and I finally got
a hit counter that is accurately reflecting the number of hits the site has received since I started counting in September 2000. In the works are an update to the Old Mill page and, FINALLY!, the rest of the CSRM photos.
Several new things today...
April 16, 2002 The first dividends can be found in the freight car section. New info on the
After a fruitful day digging around in the CSRM's Western Pacific President's Papers Collection in the company of fellow WP fans Ryan Barber, Grant Vogel, Tom Carter and Merrill Thurman, I have a great
deal of new TS info from the late 1950's and early 1960's to sift through. Thank you, gentlemen! We'll have to do it again soon.
May 16, 2002
So this last update will be small. Thanks to Ryan Barber we now have a
This will be the last update for a little while. Considering all the new items I have received from CSRM and contributors such as
Robert Williams and Greg Elems, I am revamping the structure of the site to better showcase the new photos and info. I hope to have this done in a month or two and have a few surprises as well.
June 12, 2002 That said, if anyone has any TS related material they would care to donate access to, I would
much appreciate it. Unfortunately, it seems that the best TS materials cost for access and, in the interest of providing a good result, I have paid.
The site revamping is progressing, however there is nothing new to post yet. When the next update occurs, I think everyone will be surprised. In addition to more info from CSRM and BAERA, I
have also acquired the rights to over 50 new photos that will be posted on the site! Acquiring this info and the photos has not been cheap.
July 7, 2002 I am heavily working on the new look of the site. You can see a preview of some ideas on the front, contents and Tools of the Trade
pages and on this page. Would appreciate any feedback on how it looks and any ideas on how to improve the design of the site. It may all still change, but I'm pretty happy with the new stuff so far.
The site just hit over
3000 visitors. Not bad considering the Tidewater was never exactly a widespead "fan-favorite".
December 6, 2002 The first sections of the revamped site are slowly going in. I have added new images to the sections on RS-1s Also, the site now has PayPal Donate capability to help support it and TS preservation projects, AND I have opened a
So much going on! The site has now had over 3500 visitors.