In what used to be common practice in railroading...two SD40M-2 helpers drift through the siding at Woodford, and onto the helper pocket at Bena, after helping an east train over the Tehachapi's.
Was having coffee ☕ at Essex this AM and this 4 engine consist flew by lol no clue if they are helpers or not. They were going at least 60 mph on main 2.
Beautiful spot. Nice GN theme to this little piece of heaven... Goats on the railings and even the chairs are painted Big Sky Blue! Great place for coffee.
Looks like they're heading WB, maybe to go help a struggling EB over the Pass? Or they needed some locos at Whitefish....
After looking a bit closer, both are sets that I took pictures of here at Essex in the yard... This was from earlier in the day or day before (2 of the locomotives in that consist).
I'm not superstitious, but we reached page 666 on this thread on Halloween... Excellent shots on Marias Pass!
All those tamarack shots makes me miss this area so much. I was able a couple times to get some shots of this, before 2008. Java East: The snowsheds east of Essex near Snowslip and MP 1159: Izaak Walton Inn: Back when Deuces ruled, a work train at Essex:
The new owners have changed it quite a bit. Hate that they painted it with such a radical change! They also did a lot of remodeling. Was really bummed when I saw all of the changes
Which year was this pic taken ? The 2 front units look like SD70Ms, that constitutes an interresting lashup. Dom
Indeed they are. Its early 1995. I was setup at another location when train that picked up the units went by me. About a half hour later, I heard on the radio that they where gonna pick up 2 units at Mojave. The numbers the dispatcher said, told me they were Geep9s. Anyway, the first pic is the train before the pickup at Lancaster CA, and the second is the units backing down to there train after the pickup, Mojave CA.
No problem. SP would at times surprise you with the power they used. I remember once seeing an SD9 being used on a fairly hot train at the time, the Swift Roadrailer, in 1996.
Wow !! Oh my ! In my opinion that era was really the most interresting in the post-steam period ! Dom
