Nostalgia & History > The face of SP 9340, July 1978..

There's a rumor that I never shot freight equipment, and didn't pay attention to the Southern Pacific after 1971.

I may have fueled that rumor. :-)

But I did shoot trains, and pay attention. Moving to Seattle in 1977 meant I was riding Amtrak back to see parents in Fresno just about four or five times a year. I might not have been making consist notes, or shooting everything in sight.

But when the light was right and the equipment seemed photogenic, I was all over it.

I have no notes here. Memory says I was waiting twenty minutes or so for a Fresno-bound San Joaquin after having stepped down from the Coast Starlight in Martinez, back when that's where the transfer was made. This unit was idling on a setout track. Or so I recall.

That's all I know. The photo will take over now...

~ BZ

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The face of POWER! A+ !

Definitely and destinctly the face of the great SP! Love the shot.

C.C.Chas.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/07/12 23:53 by choochoocharlie.

Am I going crazy or is there no MU receptacle on the front of this unit?

ChrisA. Wrote:
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> Am I going crazy or is there no MU receptacle on
> the front of this unit?

It's underneath the anti-climber in the shadow.

ChrisA. Wrote:

> Am I going crazy or is there no MU receptacle on
> the front of this unit?

It's way up under the anticlimber. These units with cables in place should give you an idea of where the receptacle is on the fireman's side (the other end is either loose or plugged into a dummy receptacle, which 9340 lacks):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26614922@N05/3190629664/
http://espee.railfan.net/nonindex/sd45t-2_photos/9358_sp-sd45t-2-ryan_martin.jpg
http://espee.railfan.net/nonindex/sd45t-2_sl/9343sl_sp-sd45t-2-john_bargert.jpg

Great pic, BZ! We freight types love it. More?

-Rick

Rick Selby
Redmond, WA
Pacific Northwest RPM

Teams of archivists are sorting through millions of photographs in little boxes as we type this. :-)

Actually... there will be more, yes! This n' that, here and there. Now and then. But more, absolutely. Including Amtrak late 70s and 1980s.

Maybe not all as accidentally bitchin' as this one was. But I will try... on behalf of my esteemed freight-type friends!

~ BZ

Sadly, this locomotive met its' doom on May 12, 1989.

That was a 15-year lifespan. Did it end catastrophically?

Notch16 Wrote:
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> That was a 15-year lifespan. Did it end
> catastrophically?


Two words:
Cajon Pass!!!

ClipX Wrote:
> Notch16 Wrote:

> > That was a 15-year lifespan. Did it end
> > catastrophically?

> Two words:
> Cajon Pass!!!

True enough, although two other words - Duffy Street - might make finding the specific incident a bit easier.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1856632
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,70844

Duffy Street is infamous. Not having memorized the involved units' numbers, I had no idea I'd captured one. And not when I posted, of course. Sobering.

~ BZ