A long tight zoom on a westbound at Shawmut in the early morning.

This eastbound just gotten a high green after a westbound got in the clear. Picacho Peak is in the background.

Purchased in the early 1960s to replace aging passenger power, Southern Pacific's SDP45s stayed in that service after Amtrak took over operating most of America's passenger trains. But after a de... (more)

Southern Pacific 3 unit E/B helper set near Hinda, CA working upgrade on Beaumont Pass headed for Thousand Palms to help a W/B Union Pacific train. Helper block consists of 3 SD40M-2's including S... (more)

Southern Pacific, SP 8672 helper block headed upgrade east of Hinda, CA on December 7, 2001 with SP 8611 & SP 8599. The helper block was headed over Beaumont Pass to Thousand Palms, CA where they ... (more)

Southern Pacific, SP 7377 W/B Intermodal near the crossover at Thousand Palms, CA on February 17, 1995 with a second SP unit. This was a fairly short intermodal perhaps headed for the Golden State... (more)

Rio Grande SD45 5315 with eight smoking GP40's accelerates west of Grand Junction, at Loma Colorado on November 3, 1970, pulling a heavy westbound freight train as it climbs towards the desert... (more)

Most everybody else bought small orders of these, if any, but SP jumped in with both feet. They were big, they sounded good and they were very flawed.

An eastbound intermodal is departing and headed for Beaumont Hill. Photo by Mike Dolenski. From my collection.

Looking good, but hobbled by no transition and rail-spreading trucks, these six axle Alcos were exiled to slow speed yard service. Alco had problems under the hood but their products were big an... (more)

Southern Pacific GP9's 3593 and 3598 rolling by Portland's Amtrak Union Station with their consist of box cars and hoppers on November 14, 1971. Electro-Motives GP9 became the SP's basic four... (more)

Southern Pacific 7319 slowly leads a long manifest through the reverse curve as it heads east up San Timoteo Canyon.

On August 8, 1967 Southern Pacific FP7 6455 and a B-unit arrived with a nine-car No. 99 the Los Angeles-bound Coast Daylight, crossing the ATSF tracks at Mission Junction near the Los Angeles... (more)

A quartet of Tunnel Motors lead an eastbound Southern Pacific freight as it departs San Luis Obispo with California's Coast Range mountains (and a vineyard) for a backdrop. The power is SP SD40T-... (more)

Southern Pacific AC44 114-144-349 leads a Geneva Ore train on the D&RGW Tennessee Pass line at Balltown, Colorado. May 10, 1996. Jack D Kuiphoff © photo