Locomotives and trains featured in this edition include:
≈ Southern Pacific 9 is a narrow gauge Ten-Wheeler (4-6-0) built in 1909 for the Nevada-California-Oregon Railroad. By 1928 it belonged to Southern Pacific. It was the final steam locomotive to haul revenue freight on the Slim Princess line between Laws and Keeler, CA, last seeing service in August 1959. It is being turned on the Armstrong turntable at Laws, CA in July 1959.
≈ Southern Pacific 9192-7562-9208 (an SD40T-2 Tunnel Motor, an SD45, and another Tunnel Motor) all in the ill-fated SPSF paint scheme, are leaving Spruce, CO southbound with D&RGW Train #128 on February 12, 1988. Santa Fe painted 306 locomotives in the red and yellow “merger” paint scheme; Southern Pacific only painted 96. The railroads had announced their intention to merge and requested Interstate Commerce Commission approval on March 23, 1984. ICC formally rejected the merger on July 25, 1986, stating restraint of trade. It turned out that beside lots of money being wasted, so was a lot of red and yellow paint.
≈ Southern Pacific locomotives 4427 and 4426, both Class GS-3 (4-8-4’s) built by the Lima Locomotive Works in 1937, are coming through Ilmon, CA, located 30 rail miles north of Tehachapi in March 1954. The train is northbound, and it could be the San Joaquin Daylight.
≈ Southern Pacific 4165, a Class AC-7 Cab Forward (4-8-8-2) built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1937, is leading a freight out of West Oakland, CA in March 1958. It would be retired just a few months after this trip. The AC-6, AC-7, AC-8, AC-10. AC-11 and AC-12. were all nearly identical. Only one was saved, the last one, 4294. It is displayed in spectacular fashion at the California Railroad Museum in Sacramento.
≈ Train #1, the Sunset Limited is at the San Antonio, TX depot on May 12, 1959. Power for this day’s train was Southern Pacific’s only E8A, 6018, an E9A in the Halloween paint scheme, and an E7B in gray paint. The Sunset Limited originated in New Orleans, LA, and the train’s final destination was Los Angeles, CA.
≈ Texas and New Orleans 179, one of eight AS-616 road switchers built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works and delivered in 1952, is switching at Fort Worth, TX on June 16, 1966. The Texas and New Orleans was a wholly owned subsidiary road of the Southern Pacific. These were dependable locomotives—the last of them was retired in 1969.
≈ Southern Pacific 631, one of three locomotives purchased for the Texas and New Orleans Railroad, is a Class P-13 Pacific (4-6-2) built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1928. It is seen here on First #5, the Argonaut, arriving at San Antonio, TX on July 9, 1944. This was the first section of this train, and at least one other section was following. The heavy passenger load was prompted by the demands of World War Two. 631 would remain in service until 1955, when it was replaced by new motive power purchases.
≈ Of all the trains that operated through the Tehachapi Mountains, the “Oil Cans” (train symbol BKDOU) was probably the most interesting. It was loaded at Saco, CA, north of Bakersfield, CA, and crossed the Tehachapi Range on its way to Dolores, CA, south of Long Beach, where it was unloaded. The consist was five locomotives, then four sets of 12 tank cars each, six helper engines, then two more 12-car sets. In total, the train carried 1,848,600 gallons of oil and weighed a total of 10,608 tons. Oil Cans ran from 1983 into 1997, when oil pipelines took over. In this image, five SP Tunnel Motors (SD-40T-2’s) lead the “Cans” through Woodford, CA, on August 13, 1990.There are six helper engines working 48 cars behind the leaders.
≈ On September 15, 1979, Southern Pacific 3200, an EMD SD45 with an SD40-2 trailing, is crossing the Benicia- Martinez Bridge. This 1.7-mile-long bridge, which was completed in 1962, towers almost 100 feet above the Carquinez Strait. It appears that the photographer took this picture from one of the “step ins” for pedestrians on the bridge.
≈ Here is Southern Pacific Class AC-9 3806 in fresh paint. SP purchased a dozen of these coal-burning “stack ahead” Yellowstone Type (2-8-8-4) locomotives from the Lima Locomotive Works in 1939. They were used extensively between Tucumcari, NM and El Paso, TX. In 1950, they were converted to oil and moved to the Modoc Line, running mostly between Sparks, NV and Alturas, CA. By the end of 1956, all were off the roster.
≈ In March 1978, Southern Pacific received four locomotives manufactured by Morrison-Knudsen at Boise, Idaho. These were TE70-4S locomotives, nicknamed “popsicles” because of their vibrant colors, a big change from Southern Pacific gray. Three of them are seen here on a freight near Colca, OR, on June 9, 1980. They were unreliable and did not seem to fit in well with the Southern Pacific. After nearly a decade trying, SP gave up, and the TE70-4Ss were scrapped.
≈ Southern Pacific 2745, one of 58 Class C-8 Consolidations (2-8-0) built in 1904 by the Schenectady Locomotive Company, is handling switching duties at Crescent Lake, OR on August 8, 1955. Two of the engines from this class were saved and are on display at Alturas and at Watsonville, CA, but 2745 was not one of them.
Other Railroading Titles
Tide-mark publishes a notable group of train calendars featuring classic images of steam locomotives and great named trains of railroads across the United States. Calendar titles for 2025 include: Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Denver Rio Grande Railroad in Colorado Narrow Gauge, Gulf Mobile & Ohio, Illinois Central, Milwaukee Road, New York Central, Pennsylvania Railroad, Rock Island, Santa Fe Railway, the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific. Classic trains are also pictured in Great Trains featuring paintings by artist Gil Bennett and in Howard Fogg’s Trains. Contemporary trains are the focus of the Railroading! calendar that offers 24 spectacular full-color images of trains from across North America. Tide-mark also publishes the Streetcars and Trolleys calendar with classic images from a wide range of cities in the U.S., as well as the new San Francisco Cable Cars title.
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