ATSF westbound through Tehachapi

[NSCALEMIKE]

Circa 1982. At Walong (Tehachapi Loop). ATSF 5132 leads 4 other units including a couple of blue bonnet locos. http://www.railimages.com/albums/mikecassidy/abr.sized.jpg

[William Cowie]

I miss the days when it was normal to see 5-8 locomotives heading up regular trains. It just looked more powerful than these two and three Dash 9 or SD70 lashups we are saddled with nowadays! :D

[Alan]

Nice one Mike! I agree wholeheatedly with you William smile.gif

[NSCALEMIKE]

I agree gang, I recall the old SP, would throw about anything that ran on their consists. They seemed to typically have at least 8 units or more on their trains through the Tehachapi's.

[NSCALEMIKE]

Here is an example of an SP train. Taken in Palmdale circa 1984, south (RR east) of Tehachapi. All that power just roaring by!
And mostly tunnel motors too!
http://www.railimages.com/albums/mikecassidy/aby.sized.jpg

[Peirce]

Nice shots, Mike. That SP red seems to be lost under a ton of tunnel soot.

[NSCALEMIKE]

Thanks Pierce, yes they were really dirty! The ol' SP rarely had their units visit the wash rack, or it seemed that way at least.

[Alan]

That's how we loved them smile.gif I saw a very clean SP unit in Bakersfield in '98, and it looked kinda strange :rolleyes: :D

[William Cowie]

You mean the SP actually had washracks??? ;)

[fitz]

Yeah, but the instructions were written in Chinese, so they never figured out how to use them. :eek:

[William Cowie]

Or they figured this is their contibution to Mother Earth - don't waste water on washing locomotives... :D