RailPictures.Net Photo: AMTK 556 Amtrak EMD SDP40F at San Luis Obispo, California by Craig Walker

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» Amtrak (more..)
» EMD SDP40F (more..)

» Unknown
» San Luis Obispo, California, USA (more..)
» July 03, 1974

Locomotive No./Train ID

Photographer

» AMTK 556 (more..)
» AMTK 11 (more..)

» Craig Walker (more..)
» Contact Photographer · Photographer Profile

Remarks & Notes

Water for My Horses

It is Independence Day Eve (is that a thing?) 1974 and Amtrak's southbound (eastbound, in Southern Pacific vernacular) Coast Starlight, train #11, makes its stop in San Luis Obispo, California - roughly halfway between Oakland and Los Angeles. (The train originated in Seattle, Washington.) Even though the stop is only scheduled for five minutes (from 1:40 to 1:45 pm), the train receives some servicing here - the steam generators' water supply is topped off, and the windshields are washed (just as gas stations used to do back in the day). From San Luis Obispo, it will take SDP40Fs 556 and 551 another four-hours and forty-minutes to get to Los Angeles. Sadly, because the Union Pacific no longer maintains some of the old Southern Pacific Coast Line to its old standards (due to limited freight traffic), the trip takes an hour longer in 2017.

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