As "skyboxes" descend the pass on a westbound, an eastbound's swing helper passes through Caliente Creek Canyon with the beauties of the Tehachapis in springtime all around.

With a venerable SD9E on the point, a sugar beet train headed for Holly Sugar in the San Joaquin Valley climbs out of Bena to Sandcut before descending to Bakersfield.

Making an unusual sight as well as unusual sound, a quartet of GP9Es help make up an eastbound swing helper on Donner Pass.

As dusk settles over the western edge of the Great Basin, an eastbound UP train lights up the rails and codes lines ahead of it, while the snow on the distant Sierra Nevada still luminesces.

UP 3092 East passes through an abandonded tunnel portal at Applegate.

SP 9768 West comes down the original Central Pacific alignment at Newcastle and heads for the now double-track tunnel.

SP 9752 East enters Caliente early on a summer's morning, literally following the sunlight up the rails as the sun comes up over the mountains.

UP 2422 West descends from the Feather River Canyon to Oroville via a gaint s-curve just east of town.

Centennial 6941 runs through the washrack at UP's facility in Portland.

Nose of SP passenger GP9 3003 at San Jose, where she waits for her next assignment on the Peninsula commutes.

Santa Fe 5050 East rounds Allard Horseshoe on the Tejon Ranch just after sunrise.

Amtrak's westbound Reno Fun Train roars past the signal bridge at Antelope on the bypass track with ex-SP A-B-B-A FP7s for power as Cotton Belt 9157 West waits for it to clear.

Just as the sun is setting, an SP unit grain train from the Midwest with run-through UP power approaches a curve below Yuba Gap.

An eastbound UP stack train holds the main at Shawmut while a manifest waits in the siding to follow it.

Cruising through Ruby Canyon on D&RGW trackage under threatening skies, Amtrak NO. 5 is making good time.