Nostalgia & History > Who knew some Cascade Green would get some folks excite

January 1984...at San Bernardino platform...rare for us in SoCal at least...some BN power on a UP train heading up Cajon

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Hmm, C30-7 and U30C, coal train power. They must have strayed off the Jeffrey, KS coal power pool.

By the way, how often did BN power make it into So. Cal over the Santa Fe off the Avard, OK gateway?

NscaleMike Wrote:
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> January 1984...at San Bernardino platform...rare
> for us in SoCal at least...some BN power on a UP
> train heading up Cajon

cdub Wrote:

> By the way, how often did BN power make it into
> So. Cal over the Santa Fe off the Avard, OK
> gateway?

My impression is not very often, at least during the 80's. Off the top of my head, I can only think of one train with BN power I caught west of Belen, and only about four east of there within New Mexico. The power on this eastbound had been sitting by the Belen roundhouse earlier in the day - I assume it had been pulled off a westbound.

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In the early 90's, BN power was not uncommon on the Santa Fe's Q-BHLA (Birmingham-LA) intermodal train. Here's 3 BN SD40-2's and an ATSF GP60M leading the westbound train past the depot at Pomona, CA in June, 1991.

RS

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cdub Wrote:

> By the way, how often did BN power make it into
> So. Cal over the Santa Fe off the Avard, OK
> gateway?

Evan Replied:

>My impression is not very often, at least during the 80's.
>Off the top of my head, I can only think of one train with BN
>power I caught west of Belen, and only about four east of there within New
>Mexico. The power on this eastbound had been sitting by the Belen roundhouse
>earlier in the day - I assume it had been pulled off by a westbound.


The 698 Train (predecessor of the Q-BHLA), starting around the time of the SPSF II merger attempt, ran with BN units in the consist between 40%-50% of the time.

The 698 (prior to '86, the 668) ran as the QLA on the old Frisco - but the "Q" stood for "Quanah" and not "Quality", and the train ran via the Avard Connection.

The "Quanah" dates from the older (and more circuitous route), via the Quanah, Acme & Pacific (Frisco Subsidiary), which connected with the Santa Fe at Floydada, Texas, running over to Lubbock, and up to Texico on the "Transcon".

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out