Nostalgia & History > Southern Pacific WCEUM, 21 summers ago

i recall only ever seeing the new SD70M units on the Eugene trains usually WB early in the morniing and  EB late afternoon

they must have been captive to these hauls at the time ?

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bakersfielddave Wrote:
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> they must have been captive to these hauls at the time ?

They were.

It also fun because for a while coming north with the light empty trains they tried running them from West Colton to Eugene without refueling. Sure, EMD said they had the range but they didn't take into consideration delays and wind resistance of the empty cars resulting in higher throttle positions. There was more than one train that crested over at Cascade Summit and then had the lead unit die account no fuel (I had one of those trains) - the fuel pick-up was in the rear of the tank and with the unit facing downhill the fuel would flow away from the pick-up and the unit would die. Fun times!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/16 19:07 by Railbaron.

Seems like we we're always running out of something in those days.  Cooling water, lube oil, governor oil, even axle gear box lube.  Those 9800's were a real treat with good seats, working AC and best of all .... working speedometers.  But, 2 units and a dynamiter was no fun....

Sphogger

I've got a picture of an SP SD70M leading a train in to Martinez on the Cal-P around 95-96, but it did seem like they were mostly used on the I-5 trains.

Nathan