With Southern Pacific 4-8-4 4449 going to pull the World's Fair Daylight from Portland to New Orleans, I tried to get tickets for the San Francisco-to-Los Angeles segment over the Tehachapi Mountains and the famed loop. However, that naturally sold out very quickly, so instead, I purchased tickets on the return for the segment from Phoenix to Los Angeles. My friend Bill Compton and I decided to photograph the train over the Tehachapi Mountains, across the Antelope Valley then down Soledad Canyon. Two days later, we would then photograph the excursion on its way east out of the Los Angeles Basin into the Low Desert.
The week before, Bill and I went to the Tehachapi Mountains to scout out photo locations as we strived for quality over quantity.
Southern Pacific 4449 North of Bakersfield to Los Angeles 5/12/1984Bill picked me up early and we drove over the Grapevine to Bakersfield then north to Saco on the railroad where we patiently waited.
Southern Pacific 4449 came speeding by minus its auxiliary tender, which I learned later had been set out at Mountain View, making for a very realistic Daylight-looking train complete with 52 in its number boards. The train continued to Bakersfield, where it was serviced and helpers Southern Pacific SD40 7342 and SD45 7399, in Daylight paint, were added to the consist. We drove to our spot below the Tehachapi Loop to wait, but the shot was tight and when we went to leave, the gate to California Highway 58 was open, which enabled us to chase right away. We saw Southern Pacific 4449 travel around the loop from the freeway then easily reached Cable.
Back on Highway 58 and with the train stopping for water in Tehachapi, the two of us continued to Cameron then onward to Mojave, but traffic started to become heavy. Bill, being a quick-thinking excellent driver, found a dirt road, crossed the tracks and we drove south along the Mojave Yard.
The helpers were cut off, which allowed us to photograph the steam train departing Mojave.
Bill then returned us to Highway 14 and I caught the magnificent train climbing Ansel Hill.
Now back to our plan, we took California Highway 14 to Avenue S in Palmdale where there was a nice little hill overlooking an S curve.
We returned to California Highway 14 and as we neared Vincent Hill Summit, Southern Pacific 4449 slowed to 14 mph as it tried to climb Vincent Grade without a helper. The crew cut in the booster and made the grade unassisted.
After a great railroading moment, we returned to the highway and avoided Soledad Canyon Road to the canyon's west end, exiting at Sand Canyon Road.
We heard that a photo runby was going to be done, but left that for the passengers on the train. Instead, Bill and I went to Burbank Junction and saw the Coast Starlight pass through before Southern Pacific 4449 arrived in the last light of the day.
Southern Pacific 4449 East of Los Angeles 5/15/1984The morning began with Bill doing an outstanding job of driving through the rush hour traffic to west of the trench in El Monte.
The auxiliary tender had been placed back in the consist.
We managed to get onto Interstate 10 to Pomona, where we photographed the train from the Humane Way bridge, then back on the Interstate, we made our way east to Etiwanda Avenue and beat our target by a few minutes.
Proceeding further east, we made it to Pepper Street in Colton.
A runby was performed at the Santa Ana River bridge, which gave Bill and I plenty of time to reach the Mountain Avenue bridge over the Southern Pacific main line for this photograph with four dirty SD45T-2s added to the point.
We drove Interstate 10 over to Beaumont and were able to get to Cabazon, seen here. We heard on the scanner that the helpers would be removed at Garnet so we made our way into the tree lined right-of-way east of there and a Volkswagen Beetle was racing the steam engine at this point.
It was then back on the Interstate to Indio and while 4449 was watered there, we drove to Ferrum, our final chase location of the day.
Southern Pacific 4449 Leaving Los Angeles for Portland 6/19/1984
The early morning light was perfect for capturing the World's Fair Daylight departing Los Angeles for San Luis Obispo on the way home to Portland, after which I returned home.
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