A Southern Pacific freight, led by Cotton Belt SD45T-2 9165, passes through the Shell Oil Refinery (where my father worked during World War II) as it rolls off the Benicia-Martinez Bridge and enters Martinez, California. SSW 9165 was delivered to the Cotton Belt’s parent railroad, Southern Pacific, in August 1972. Fourteen years later, on June 23, 1986, the well-used locomotive is showing a lot of grime on its paint. This engine would be rebuilt the next year, losing its Cotton Belt identity when it emerged from the railroad’s Sacramento Shops on February 20, 1987 as SP SD45T-2R 6799. While it would remain on the roster into the Union Pacific era, it was never renumbered into UP’s system and was retired on November 29, 2000. It would later be sold for scrap to Larry's Truck Electric in 2003. (Martinez is the origination of railfanning in my family, as my older brother as a young child, watched SP trains – many powered by steam – as he played in our family’s front yard – and, years later, he passed the interest [obsession?] on to me.)
