Southern Pacific Photo Gallery Click on the picture to view - Full sized image will open in a new window Click on the location link to view a map and information on the photo location.
There are currently 21 photos in this gallery
Date: April 30, 2003 Location: Monolith
Many years after its demise, remnants of the once great Southern Pacific linger on having dodged the big yellow paint brush. Shown here are a pair of SP painted units resting at Monolith. There are still many SP units used on the locals in and around the Mojave area. They are still regulars on the Mojave Flyer and Blitz Locals.
Date: Dec. 10, 2001 Location: Oak Creek Branch, West of Mojave
All SP power drags loaded coal hoppers and empty cement hoppers up the hill to the California Portland Cement Company at Creal.
Date: Aug. 27, 2001 Location: Bakersfield
The first morning light finds the UP local power in Bakersfield paying homage to two railroads that are now a part of the vast UP system. As of this date, neither yellow paint or patch jobs have obscured the heritage of these two units.
Date: April 25, 2001 Location: Edison
The UP local working the Edison packing sheds rates a pair of SP units on this day, and they uniquely bracket a lone mechanical reefer car in what vaguely resembles a push-pull operation.
Date: April 18, 2001 Location: Bealville
A short train consisting of veteran SP SD40T-2 #8566 and FRA track test car #T-16 rolls downhill through Bealville.
Date: February 27, 2001 Location: Quantico, East of Kern Junction
In a visual commentary of the times, two ex-SP SD40T-2's that once ruled Tehachapi Pass have been demoted to yard and local duties. Here they are assembling a train near the East end of the Bakersfield Yard.
Date: February 26, 2001 Location: Quantico, East of Kern Junction
The late afternoon sun highlights the scarlet nose of an SP SD70M leading a Westbound UP train into the Bakersfield Yard at Quantico.
Date: November 7, 2000 Location: UP (ex-SP) Valley Line West of Kern Junction, near Chester Ave.
The familiar red nose of an SP locomotive still makes regular apperances along UP's ex-SP lines. Here, an Eastbound manifest approaches a crew change at Bakersfield along the ex-SP valley line North of downtown Bakersfield.
Date: October 31, 2000 Location: ex-SP Depot in Bakersfield, CA West of Kern Junction
Although SP power is still common, complete sets of SP power have become rare. On Halloween, the ghosts of SP have brought a complete set of gray and red power through Bakersfield on a Westbound manifest. Late in the year 2000, some four years since UP's takeover, photos like this have become harder and harder to come by.
Date: March 22, 2000 Location: Woodford
A pair of UP intermodal trains meet at Woodford siding.
Date: May 11, 2000 Location: Edison
A Los Angeles bound I-5 corridor intermodal train led by four SP C44-9W's accelerates out of Bakersfield near Edison.
Date: May 11, 2000 Location: Tunnel #3/East of Bealville
Same train as the above photo, approaching Tunnel #3 after passing the siding at Bealville.
Date: July 1981 Location: SP Bakersfield Engine Terminal near Kern Junction
SP power congregates at Bakersfield near the fueling racks, waiting for aanother call for duty on Tehachapi.
Date: July 1981 Location: SP Bakersfield Yard near Kern Junction
A GP9 on switching duty pauses under the yard control tower. The tower and shop building in the background are history, and the pole line in the foreground has now been replaced by an 8 foot chain link fence.
Date: July 11, 1982 Location: Walong
A Westbound SP train drifts downhill approaching Tunnel #9 directly in the middle of the loop.
Date: April 1984 Location: Caliente
Early in its operation, the SP "Oil Cans" approaches Caliente out of the late afternoon light.
Date: August 1986 Location: Sacramento Locomotive Works
Lines of SP power both awaiting service and freshly shopped sitting quietly on the storage tracks on the Southeast side of the shop complex.
Date: August 13, 1986 Location: Walong
A work train powered by a single Cotton Belt "Tunnel Motor" SD45T-2 slowly backs down the track above Tunnel #9 on the loop at Walong.
Date: August 13, 1986 Location: Walong
In a scene repeated by countless photographers, the head end of a westbound SP train passes beneath its train on the tracks above Tunnel #9 in the classic over and under loop photo.
Date: March 2, 1999 Location: Helper spur West of Bena
In a scene dated only by the missing gyralights on the locomotive, SP SD40T-2 #8279 sits in the helper spur at Bena, waiting to help another Eastbound up to the summit of Tehachapi Pass. With the more widespread of Remote Controlled Distributed Power by the Union Pacific, the helper spur now sees service mainly as a bad order set out spur.
Date: April 15, 1999 Location: Bealville
An Eastbound UP lumber drag powered by two SP SD70M's sits in the siding at Bealville. Lumber, always one of SP's major shipping commodities, is one product that has been hauled over Tehachapi Pass since it was built in the 1870's.
