Nostalgia & History > Instamatic Days - Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal

Digging into my old Instamtic slides again...

The first image is the very first slide I ever shot, of a Santa Fe "San Diegan" with a Santa Fe "Big Dome" as the first car. Domes were not used on the "San Diegans," and this dome was a charter in late 1969 (the slide is stamped "OCT 69") for the Pacific Railroad Society. My first slide, and my first excursion train, too. Once I discovered that we were allowed to ride in the open vestibules, I spent the rest of the trip down, as well as the trip back up, hanging out the window. (Only later did it dawn on me that not all that spray hitting my face for nearly 200 miles was from the steam lines!)

On August 9, 1970 I was at Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal again, and the next two shots are from that day. First is another Santa Fe "San Diegan," train #74, with F-units 43C, 336B, 37A and 338L - the "San Diegans" rarely had that many locomotives on a train.

Third is a shot of the Southern Pacific's "Sunset Limited," train #1, behind FP7s 6454, 6446 and 6451.

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Thanks for posting these, Carl.

Nice to see that SP kept its Fs shiny towards the end of its long-distance passenger operations.

Dave

Great shots...miss those days of walking around the platform shooting F's!- Steve in cold San Diego

All Urine, P P.

"Only later did it dawn on me that not all that spray hitting my face for nearly 200 miles was from the steam lines!"

Um noooooo, not steam so much .... that fine mist was from the washrooms, and not just the wash basins....

Sweet!!! Those were the days!

Phil