Title: Southern Pacific Wood Preserving Works photograph album

Dates: 1908

Collection Number: MS 824

Creator/Collector: Southern Pacific

Extent: 1 album

Repository: California State Railroad Museum Library and Archives

Abstract: This album presents the total story of taking raw wood and pressure treating the wood with creosote and turning out a finished product.

Language of Material: English

This collection is open for research

Copyright has not been assigned to the California State Railroad Museum. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the CSRM Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the CSRM as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Southern Pacific Wood Preserving Works photograph album. California State Railroad Museum Library and Archives

Friends of the California State Railroad Museum, circa 1983-1987

This album presents the total story of taking raw wood and pressure treating the wood with creosote and turning out a finished product of railroad ties, bridge timbers, and telegraph poles. All photos were taken at West Oakland, California at the Southern Pacific facility. The album begins with photos of frest cut lumber. A British sailing ship "Sardhanz" is shown unloading barrels of creosote in November, 1908. The loading platforms for the retorts are shown, followed by the pump room, the office and the laboratory. A number of sailing ships bringing in raw products of timber and creosote are shown bringing in raw products and taking away the finished product. Ships include "Tallac", "Robt R. Hind", "Jupiter", "Hornelyn", "J. H. Lunsmann", "Cecil" and "Tahama". A number of photos show the Southern Pacific Company's portable wood preserving works. Other creosote plants shown are: a Union Pacific Railroad plant at Laramie, Wyoming, a Texas & New Orleans Railroad plant at Houston, Texas and the International Creosote Works at Beaumont, Texas. The album then shows some of the timber operations like the saw mill at Weed, California. There are dozens of photographs of oil pumping plants from St. Louis, Missouri, Somers, Montana, Victoria, BC, Canada, and Santa Rosalia, Baja Calfornia, Mexico. [Album 47]