[QUOTE=tovangar2;6986214]Thank you
Ed. Trying to find info about the pictured incident, I found info on the 2 October 1915 wreck of the Lark (No. 76), northbound out of Los Angeles, at the Cuesta grade. Clubman R.W. Poindexter (offices in the 1896
Wilcox Building) and Mrs. L.B. Jamvier, WTCU official, of Pasadena were among the passengers, both unhurt. The accident was caused by a "spreading rail". I'm sure I've read about this accident before. The name "Lark" is so memorable b/c it's an odd one for a night train. Did it arrive at dawn?:
You have about all there is. The site is Cuesta, which was the first siding north of the main tunnel, just where 101 now crosses overhead. While somebody else drives, look over the bridge guardrails and NB you will see the switch that formerly went into the siding, SB the tunnel portal. The road in the background of the pic is now the shoulder of NB 101, not quite a mile north of the bridge and around a wiggle. The siding was removed in late 1994 after a brushfire burned down the codelines for the signals. There was another accident same place within a coupla years of this one- can't say before or after. THe Lark was indeed a night train. Surely the schedule varied over the years, but one I recall was a 12 hour trip, dp about 9pm and arrive for business the next morning. The two opposing LArks met at or near San Luis Obispo. In the wee hours of 1959, they met at Serrano, a siding high on the mountainside, by collision as #75 failed to stop at the switch.
San Luis Obispo was a busy place in the middle of the night as several trains were carded in there in a short time period. Other names over the years were the Coaster and The Padre, the Starlight and later, the Overnight freights.
Hmmm Northbound trains were actually Westbound by SP rule- anything toward SF went West, away from SF went EAST, So the SP Pacific System consisted of "Lines west of Portland, Ogden and El PAso". With that groundwork, The NB Lark went "west" as train 75 since all WB trains, those headed toward SF, were assigned odd numbers
More than you wanted to know, but I FEEL better now