>SN track east of Dozier was abandoned because of construction of the Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel. If the track had not been abandoned, a very expensive railroad bridge would have been required for SN track to cross the ship channel.

Libfarm, not Dozier; that came much later. The Lisbon Trestle had been replaced by fill and shorter trestles, but the ship channel (and the condemning of the Ramon c1953) essentially did in this section of the South End.

>When it became clear that this port never would happen, UP donated the SN right of way to the Western Railway Museum that bought the track for salvage value. This track today is not legally abandoned but is embargoed.

The club bought the railroad, the R/W is railbanked. Not sure which section of track you are saying is "embargoed", unless that means it no longer can accept interchange traffic with anybody.

>Western Railway Museum owns 4 acres of land adjoining the track at Molena. This land probably is big enough to allow a loop here however some museum "purists" were opposed "because SN never had a loop there."

Well now, then the club shouldn't run trains at all on this part of the SN (Dozier-Molena) because the proper voltage is 1500v DC over this entire segment of line, and the club is using only 600v. So the precedent has already been broken. Backing up with a trainload of passengers at any tourist line, let alone a museum, is an invitation to disaster. Mercy me, I can't even begin to imagine who is saying this.

>About 1/4 mile west of Molena is a burned out trestle. Restoring the line beyond Molena would be very expensive to replace the trestle although track is mostly intact as far is Fire Engine Road where a very long trestle went across salt marsh.

Below the Dinklespiel Road (the road to the barn at Molena), the track has been impassible for about 30 years on account of the ties have disintegrated (less than 1/2 their original thickness). There are also many pieces of rail missing, some taken by the club, others by the local farmers. The last thing down there was the SN 711+caboose, the only GP which ever went [RR] West of the Jct.