Nostalgia & History > A plug of subs pulled by a Pooch

It was August of 1978 so heating was not an issue so I guess it really didn't matter that SP did put the "Pooches" on all commutes made up of all subs.

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Yeah, but its summer. Try that in January and you'll hear from the passengers about the coolness.

Now do you really suppose anyone at 65 Market really cared?

Of course not. All those heading for One Market rode in the galleries.

Was this when all available power was needed to comply with an ICC edict to return foreign road empties ASAP?

SP was short of serviceable locomotives in July, 1978 and Amtrak had the Pooches available. The ICC order for moving empties was just one of the problems the SP faced in the summer of 1978. The commute locomotives helped a tiny bit towards moving the backlog of trains in the yrads and on line. What SP needed was to catch up on its bad order locomotive count, but most of its shop workers had been laid off in 74-75 and had left for other jobs in other parts of the country.