Nostalgia & History > Santa Fe 3rd District local in '68

Sometime in '68, Santa Fe's 3rd District Local, led by an unusual pair of RDS5's, heads "into the hole" at La Mirada, CA.
Scanned from an old photo.
JB

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Wave recording to follow?

It was interesting when the Santa Fe transfered the RSD4 and RSD5 units to So Cal from Colo. - NM to run out there last miles. Except for a rather short period when the SP had some early ALCo roadswitchers (before my time of active train chasing), we did not see this type of unit. The Santa Fe changed the names of the locals from time to time, but I think that when the RDS's were here the was a Wilshire Turn that did local work between San Berdoo and Santa Fe Springs. The was an additional station (or as the UP would call it a business track)of Wilshire between La Mirada and Santa Fe Springs. It was in an oil refinery area

It would be fun to go back in time and run some of that old junk.

By the time I went to work for Santa Fe in 1969, the few remaining RSD-5s were doing yard duty in San Bernardino. I had remembered them working the 2nd District local through Pasadena and Monrovia in 1968. When the Chief made its last run (May 1968??) I was workings in Monrovia and got permission to take my lunch break early and get some photos. The 2nd District local, with two RSD-5s was in the hole on the Monrovia siding and one of the crewmen asked why I was down at the tracks. When I told him I was there to get photos of the last #20, he said, "Good! Now we won't have to go into the hole for that damn thing anymore!"