Nostalgia & History > The SP I like to remember

The smell of pines and fresh paint is in the air as 9800 West passes Mt Shasta on its way down to Dunsmuir for a crew change. This was one of the first revenue trips for these beauties on the I-5 Corridor.

Robert Morris Photography
http://www.snowcrest.net/photobob/index1.html

---

I think that's the cleanest I've -ever- seen an SP diesel locomotive. I grew up looking at the really dirty stuff in the San Jose area. :)

great photo.

-Mike

Mike Massee
Tehachapi, CA
Photography, Railroading and more..

And probably pretty close to how SP would look today if it were still around. The Speed Lettering would have looked great on the ACes and Gevos. Terrific shot.

Fine shot, Bob.

~ BZ

Nice pic, don't get me wrong. But I suspect that's not how *most* people remember them. Others, like myself remember them as having dirty, worn out, and grungy equipment that wasn't always the most reliable.

"If SP was still around".

Tell me again why they sold out in the first place?

I mean if they were in such bad financial shape, then I want to know how they got all those shiny new locos shortly before the merger.

Des-Lab Wrote:

> I mean if they were in such bad financial shape,
> then I want to know how they got all those shiny
> new locos shortly before the merger.

Anschutz took the railroad public with an IPO in 1993, and also raised some cash by selling old locomotives and leasing them back, selling property to which the railroad still held title, etc. Those are all one-time infusions of money not to be confused with profits earned by running trains, and whether he was trying to turn the company around or just make it look better to a potential suitor, I can't say. An article about the IPO from the San Francisco Chronicle (reprinted in the Wilmington Star-News) incredulously describes the railroad about to put its stock up for sale as "the money-losing Southern Pacific, no less."

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=23xOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vhQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2481%2C5689909

Stunning! As usual.

From the sky, to the snow-capped mountain, to the prestine pines, to the sparkling new EMD's, this is just about the finest SP photo I've ever seen. Only thing better would be a frame around it on my living room wall.