The conductor on Amtrak Pacific Surfliner 785 (San Diego to Goleta) has detrained in order to flag the Palm Avenue grade crossing on Metrolink’s Orange Sub. This train is running about 9... (more)

SP GP40Xs with "elephant ears" in the late 1970s were very, very cool...

Bicentennial California Western RS12 55 nears the end of its journey as it approaches Willits, CA, the eastern terminus of the line (and its connection with the Northwestern Pacific) on July 5, 19... (more)

Whenever Santa Fe 4-8-4 3751 operates, this meter in the cab alerts the crew to "unsafe foam." Not from any foam accumulating in the boiler, which is bad, but from all the foaming by the... (more)

Santa Fe's crack piggyback train "The Super C" charges around the curve at Fullerton Junction just twenty miles into its speedy Los Angeles to Chicago run. With the American Bicentennial just abo... (more)

Fresh UP Power

On March 29th, 2016, a General Electric ET44AC locomotive, Union Pacific 2658, was found at Dolores Yard in Carson CA. Numbered 2570-2669, UP's class for these one-hun... (more)

Rebuilt from wrecked caboose 4401, SP #1 is the sole member of class C-50-10 and the only caboose to wear this unique orange and red scheme. It is seen here bringing up the rear of a Hauler headin... (more)

A new Union Pacific ES44AC diesel, with the newer, heavier handrail stanchions. UP calls these engines C45ACCTE locomotives, but builder General Electric calls them ES44AC's.

Southern Pacific SW1500s 2552 and 2632, now owned by Union Pacific, work the UP’s Huntington Beach Local. These two "Cruds" have cut a Centerflow covered hopper off their train to spot at an in... (more)

It takes a lot of work to move a 500+ ton locomotive, and that includes laying track just to get the beast out of confinement. These Union Pacific "gandy dancers" are laying temporary "snap track... (more)

SP GS-4 4-8-4 4449 blasts out of the passenger station in San Luis Obispo, CA, to begin her assault on Cuesta Grade on May 13, 1981.

Amtrak train #5, the westbound San Francisco Zephyr, passes through Emilgrant Gap in the high Sierra on March 18th, 1978. Led by SDP40Fs 598 and 620, this train is just a couple hundred mi... (more)

Amtrak's Pacific Surfliners are now firmly in the charge of Siemens SC-44 "Charger" locomotives, as evidenced by CDTX 2112 on the point of train 580 at the Anaheim Regional Transp... (more)

A lot of the usable parts have been stripped from Pacific Harbor Line SD18 44. This engine started life in January 1960 as SOU SD24 2507 (then became SOU 6308, PNC SD18 1808 and CNW 6626).

Union Pacific RP-20BD Y2608 - or, at least, most of it - is found at the old Manufacturers Railway enginehouse just outside the Budweiser brewery in Saint Louis, Missouri, on October 4th, 2014. U... (more)