Late in the day on December 20, 1990, Santa Fe cowls head west through snow at the edge of the town of Tehachapi. The snow will stick around for about two weeks, since a good portion of California... (more)

Santa Fe 5967 winds through the curves at the east end of Rowan as it roars eastward up the heavy grade at Keene, CA. Note the 3-masted signal at left, which likely gives the engineer a heads-up a... (more)

Santa Fe 5047 East breaks into sunlight as it negotiates the sequential reverse curves at Cable.

UP SD40-2 No. 3130 departs Roseville Yard at sunset with a westbound SP manifest. Waiting to enter the facility is SP 8804 East, with a single SD45 for power and tall Vertapac cars designed to hau... (more)

An afternoon San Joaquin departs Antioch, CA, with Suisun Bay for a backdrop. The eastbound Amtrak train is headed into the San Joaquin Delta and San Joaquin Valley beyond.

Aging SP 7302, an SD40R rebuilt by the railroad in its Sacramento Shops, leads an eastbound UP intermodal train up the significant grade at Shawmut, AZ. The railroad has already gained approximate... (more)

On a hot afternoon in June 1985, Santa Fe 5160 East roars up the 2 percent grade approaching tunnel 2. These are the kind of operating conditions that will make or break a diesel locomotive. In th... (more)

Just after sundown, a Santa Fe eastbound idles in the siding at Pittsburg, CA, waiting for a crew to take her out on the road.

Amtrak train 710 makes a station stop in Merced, CA, under beautiful springtime skies. In the lead are two ex-SP FP7s, one already repainted into Amtrak livery. The train is on the station track, ... (more)

An eastbound WP intermodal train heads in at Hammer Lane siding for a meet with UP 3751 South. The conductor's on the rear platform of the up "pool" caboose, ostensibly to check out the ... (more)

Two freights are in the hole at Knightsen for Amtrak 265 West, a San Joaquin train out of Bakersfield. This 3-way meet represents three railroads: Amtrak, UP, and Santa Fe. UP's Pittsburg Local he... (more)

A lady employee who's new to SP's Roseville engine facility turns to say something funny to her supervisor as she fuels SD9E No. 4403.

A westbound Santa Fe manifest rolls through Pinole, CA, with classic two-story houses on all sides. Exiting Franklin Canyon, the train will briefly skirt Suisun Bay and SP's Cal-P line before head... (more)

BNSF 132 West thunders through a deep cut at Laguna, NM, as it climbs toward the Continental Divide. The name "Laguna" derives from the fact that in the past a lake existed in the area; ... (more)

A six-unit EMD helper assists SP's loaded Oil Cans up the last miles of the Tehachapi grade as the train tops the mountain in the town of Tehachapi. The plentiful exhaust from the EMDs clearly sho... (more)