Western Railroad Discussion > Meanwhile, Back at Surf (Waaaaay back!)

Normally, these should be on the nostalgia page.  But I've been posting some Surf, CA photos here, so I figured I'd post these here as a tie in to my photos of the last day or two.  Forgive me.

Photo 1.  This was in the very early days of Amtrak, probably 1971 or 72.  I don't think Surf was a published stop for #13 (#14), but I guess it could could still be arranged if you set it up in advance- a practice SP 99 (Coast Daylight) would honor.  Anyway- here is the Surf depot, which sure didn't last much longer.  The depot sat where today's Am-shelter sits today.

Photos 2&3.  Rolling by #11 in the mid 80's.  In photo 2 you can see just how busy things were in those days- lots of cars on the Lompoc Wye!  In the going-away shot is the train order delivery platform- I don't remember if it was still being used for SP freights.
SR

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Always amazed how much carload freigh business was still around in the 1980's.   Back where i was in NJ, lots of carload freight was lost by the mid 70's..and hen Conrail actively tried to get all active branchline consignees to truck their freight from a rail yard,  Eventually  most of the branch lines were sold off for commuter traffic, or abandoned .

The SP;s overnight Lark stopped at Surf and did a pretty fair business of USAF personnel.
Makes me wonder if the Air Force made arrangements for the Starlight stop.
Back in those days the diatomatious earth from the Johns-Manville plant at White Hills was shipped all across the US for water filtration; it was good long-haul revenue.

Your forgiven, great shots of a bygone era.

Robert Morris
Dunsmuir, CA
Robert Morris Photography



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/19 14:32 by photobob.

We used to walk that yard all the time and there was so much traffic going in and out of Surf and Vandenburg! Saw the Lompoc Local with 3 engines and 18 cars back in the '90s.
They usually had at least 8-10 loads!
Not much left now its a"Ghost Line".