All About the Las Juntas Shelter

At the junction of Las Juntas Way and the SN stood the Las Juntas shelter, here seen in a southwest view from Jul. 1, 1941. With regular scheduled passenger service over, SN 661 brings a string of passenger cars on their final trip, to be salvaged in Chico.

L123-05-Richard Jenevein Photo, Courtesy BAERA, Western Railway Museum Archives, 13187sn, (Image 1 of 13)

The shelter’s boxy configuration is reminiscent of the shelters at Pinehurst and Clyde, and shared those shelters’ signs that indicated the mileage to San Francisco and Sacramento. Note the Sparkle sign along the spur near the left edge of the image. Southwest view, July 14, 1940.

L123-10-Wilbur C Whittaker Photo, Courtesy Tom Gray and Garth Groff, (Image 2 of 13)

The earliest version of the shelter is seen here in this southwest view from Feb. 14, 1921. Note the presence of a derail mechanism on the mainline east of the SP crossing. A detail of this is seen on a separate image presented next.

L123-15-Courtesy BAERA, Western Railway Museum Archives, 89620sn, (Image 3 of 13)

View of the derail mechanism from a second image, also a southwest view from Feb. 14, 1921. A basis for placement of this derail on the mainline has not been found, and it was absent from images from the late 1930s. It clearly provided an extra level of safety to the SP line from SN cars let loose to the east of the crossing.

L123-20-Courtesy BAERA, Western Railway Museum Archives, 89621sn, (Image 4 of 13)

Was the shelter built by the SN? This exchange of letters between Western Pacific Industrial Commissioner JW Grace and SN President Harry Mitchell would suggest that it was not, and that its existence was short lived.

L123-25-Courtesy BAERA, Western Railway Museum Archives, 38600sn, (Image 5 of 13)

The latest image found of the shelter that can be dated is shown here from the May 4, 1947 California-Nevada Railroad Historical Society excursion along the SP San Ramon line with SP Baldwin 2-6-0 no. 1795.

L123-30-Robert L Stein Photo, Courtesy BAERA, Western Railway Museum Archives, 47210sn, (Image 6 of 13)

Now three images of freights approaching the SP crossing from the south, post shelter removal, with Las Juntas Way and its big oak tree in view. First, SN 605 with freight in a southwest view circa 1950. Note the lone box car on the Sparkle siding to the left of the freight train.

L123-35-Dave Gumz Photo, Courtesy BAERA, Western Railway Museum Archives, 89607sn, (Image 7 of 13)

The crew of a SN 661-led freight take a break, possibly to wait for an SP freight to pass, in this circa 1950 southwest view at the crossing.

L123-40-Norman Smith Photo, Courtesy BAERA, Western Railway Museum Archives, 89610.2sn, (Image 8 of 13)

And finally Al Thoman’s tough-to-beat west image of SN 654 with reefers in tow awaiting the SP. Even in the absence of a SP train near the crossing or even scheduled that day, the SN had to come to a full stop to according to rules reflecting the seniority of the SP.

L123-45-Al Thoman Photo, Courtesy BAERA, Western Railway Museum Archives, 35907sn, (Image 9 of 13)

Freight activity on the SN-SP interchange track? Fairly rare to find any image of this event, but here in a west view is SN 660 and caboose in action, June 5, 1950.

L123-50-EK Muller Photo, Courtesy BAERA, Western Railway Museum Archives, 87387sn, (Image 10 of 13)

Even better, this north view circa 1950 of SN 654 and freight seen along the SP mainline.

L123-55-Oliver Boone Pitman Photo, Earl T. Pitman Coll., Courtesy BAERA, WRM Archives, 166783sn, (Image 11 of 13)

Next, one excursion-related image from Sept 12, 1948. MW 302 sits east of the crossing in this west view from the BAERA-sponsored event.

L123-60-Tom Gray Photo, Courtesy Tom Gray, (Image 12 of 13)

The last of the southwest views at Las Juntas shows SN 143 and passenger cars from the Apr. 12, 1964 End-of-an-Era excursion as the train crosses the Las Juntas Way grade crossing on its way to Pittsburg.

L123-65-Ted Wurm Photo, Courtesy BAERA, Western Railway Museum Archives, (Image 13 of 13)