A westbound Southern Pacific piggyback train passes Redwood Jct. Tower sometime in the 1950s. This image on SP's San Francisco Subdivision was taken by the late John E. Shaw, Jr.

Eastbound SP train climbing Beaumont Hill through San Timotao Canyon near El Casco

Imagine it's 1960. The Southern Pacific narrow gauge is on its last legs, so you decide to go photograph it on Washington's birthday. You're going to drive to the Owens Valley and chase the train ... (more)

An excursion on Southern Pacific's Owens Valley narrow gauge line departs Laws on a fall afternoon in 1955. Today, SP locomotive 9 is on display at the Laws Railroad Museum. This image was recorde... (more)

Westbound climbing Donner Pass near Truckee

Carrying on the Southern Pacific legacy and None the worse for wear the old War Horse Southern Pacific GP60 no. 1053 returns from swapping cars in Santa Paula Ca. The Oxnard local rolls along Bri... (more)

A coal load tops the 3% section below Pando on Tennessee Pass. The train is struggling against multiple curves some as tight as 12 degrees at Stillwater under a steady light rain. This location w... (more)

Southern Pacific FP7 6453 lead the Coast Daylight south near San Francisco, passing a commuter train heading into the city. R.T. Steinbrenner Photo

Southern Pacific GP60 no. 1053 returning from swapping cars in Santa Paula Ca. The Oxnard Local rolls through flower fields at a slow pace on the Fillmore and Western Branch line.

Returning from Santa Paula Ca. after switching out cars, Southern Pacific GP 60 no. 1053 crosses Ventura Blvd on the Montalvo Wye. From here it will switch back on to the Santa Barbara Sub and hea... (more)

Two years ago today, 4449 had just completed its legendary secret IMAX run along the BNSF Fallbridge Sub. On a very dreary Friday the 13th, she returns to the Oregon Rail Heritage Center from the ... (more)

An eastbound Southern Pacific coal train curves through Edwards, Colorado, on September 5, 1995. Located on the Tennessee Pass route, the town of Edwards is about eleven miles west of Minturn in t... (more)

One of the most unusual looking locomotives on Union Pacific at the time heads north on the old Pilot Rock Branch. The train was returning to Pendleton after switching out the shippers in Pilot Ro... (more)

The 2019 Winter Photography Special found me face to face with a neat little narrow gauge ten wheeler. In-between runby's we were allowed to cross the tracks for a different angle. Using my teleph... (more)

All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray… At the corner of 7th and Townsend in downtown San Francisco, California, was the Southern Pacific’s modest facility for servicin... (more)