Union Pacific Railroad GP40M-2 1529 leads train LOA32, the eastbound Costa Mesa Local, heading through Metrolink's Control Point Maple (on their Orange Sub) as this local travels from Anaheim to Santa Ana. (Despite the train's name, it no longer gets to the city of Costa Mesa, as that trackage was abandoned after the Los Angeles Times printing plant there closed in 2010.). This operated on Mondays and Wednesdays, but morning's train is a bit longer than usual with 11 cars (1 covered hopper, 4 centerbeams and 6 tank cars), possibly because it did not operate two days earlier due to the Labor Day holiday.
UP 1529 was originally built by EMD as Louisville & Nashville GP40 3015, which later became Seaboard System 6811 following that merger. A later merger gave this locomotive another new identity: CSXT 6811. CSX Transportation eventually sold it to Morrison-Knudsen, which rebuilt it into a GP40M-2 for the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP 7294). But "merger mania" wasn't done yet and, thanks to yet another merger, in which the SP was acquired by the Union Pacific, it became UP 1529 – this locomotive’s 5th identity! (Yes, that is a Union Pacific locomotive … there is a roadname somewhere under all that tagging!)
