Nostalgia & History > SPS three unit set on aEB drag at Oakridge

Its Sept. 1955 in Oakridge Ore. and i'm waiting for some WB freghts coming out of Eugene Ore. and here comes EB 6331-SD9-F coming down the hill with their dynamic's howling and the brake smoke rising, plus that certain smell....there were two other EB's earlier, but no WB's....I could see the smoke from the helpers up on the Mt. but I had no transportation to catch this action...By the time the WB's began to show up, My taxi ride arrived and I had to call it a day.

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Lots of interesting stuff to examine in that photo. Was it common to see F's and SD's mixed?

Thanks for sharing a super shot.  Love that Covered Wagon/SD9 combination.  The brake shoe haze really adds to the shot.

Kent in CArmel Valley

CPR___4000....SP mixed the F's, GP9's,SD7's and SD9's, there were no rules and later with the SD40's and SD45's...sure made things interesting....,.

I remember reading years ago that Rio Grande's use of an SD9 in the middle of an F unit consist was pretty revolutionary at the time.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/25/17 10:11 by CPR_4000.

Barstool, I am enjoying your photographic history.  What kind of camera were you using back in '55?

And the Rio Grande troops called then as "Perlman mallets". wag216

nycman.....Believe it or not,  I was using a Kodac folding camera with a speed of 200 that shot 120  21/4 by 31/4 size negatives, my mother bought it for me for $19.00 for a birthday present in 1951, before that, I had a baby brownie as a starter....There was so much to shot that I had to pass up due to a lack of film and money....I had an allowance of $1.50 a month and film at the time was 48 cents a roll and developing was 95 cents....I got a Call-bulletin paper route which earned about $7.50 per month about 1953 and did some yard work on the week ends whch i made $2.50....I starterd developing my own negatives and just filed them, so there are many negatives, I've never printed....those were good times...

Thanks for the reply, and man, can I identify with that.  I was in high school then, and like you had started developing my own (expensive) film.  Unfortunately I did not realize the revolution in motive power taking place on the railroads, else I would have some shots similar to yours from the New York Central.  I wasn't really a railfan then, as it was just a common thing to see steam running every day and the new diesels coming along.  If you have those old negatives you have not printed, please do, and share them with us.