Nostalgia & History > San Joaquin Daylight 1968...

Another 'meh' exposure then... a little more treasured now. October of 1968. Running up to a turbulent Presidential election, and a very troubled year in so very many ways for many Americans. Was there solace in train-watching? Sure, if you could forget that the passenger trains were being threatened with total extinction by the railroads who operated them.

Sometimes I ventured out past my favorite trackside haunt, Martinez (CA) to get a better angle for photos. I'd just gotten my driver's license and was able to drive solo, but I wasn't as adventurous as some with the new-found freedoms. Heading railroad east to Avon was pretty bold, parking my precious seven-year-old Beetle in the oily dirt and gravel for one shot.

SP 51, the westbound (westward?) San Joaquin Daylight, is down to the bare necessities, after running up to ten cars just the month before. Gone is the full lounge and up to three pairs of Articulated Chair Cars. We're down to one articulated pair now, with the consist including a Train Baggageman-staffed Class 66-B-2 Economy Baggage car for checked baggage and express, the ubiquitous Automatic Buffet Car (cafeteria vending machines) and a nice punctuation: a former Parlor Observation car built in 1941 for the SF-LA Daylight and then refurbished for use on the 1949 Shasta Daylight. (How do we know it's that car? By the radio antenna on the roof; it was the only car of six similar cars to retain it into the late 1960s; the very same car has survived the last half-century, and should be running this December on the Portland (OR) Holiday Express trains.)

These days I'd know better than to let that clumpy hillock obscure the track and running gear before I grabbed the shot. And I'd try to "Photobob" it a bit more, with a more interesting angle and including some more of the gas and oil refinery surroundings. ("To Photobob" is a legitimate verb clause, isn't it?)

Disappointing that not a single SDP45 survived in secondary use or preservation; all the reasons are practical, but it's still too bad. Also note the great condition a year and a half into SP ownership; a little hit on the snowplow pilot, itself a replacement for the smaller plow that SP 3203 came with at delivery -- but observe how clean and tidy was this power. As was this train, actually. SP was on its best public behavior, since it was trying to eliminate the train but had run afoul of public sentiment, press support, and the State PUC panel. Clean, tidy, and on time made a much better P.R. case for the fact that today's abbreviated consist may have had a 15% seat occupancy... if that.

It's nothing like the flamboyant Daylights of yore, and some veteran SP fans thought it was a sad sack. But who wouldn't be happy to see and ride this sad sack now? (Oh, and the on time performance? Probably didn't suffer because of that 20-cylinder hotrod on the point; not with less than half a dozen loads.)

~ BZ

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In March of '68 we made a trip to Death Valley and back through Central Cali, over Tehachapi Pass. We stopped for a break in Tehachapi and luckily got a picture of the San Joachin Daylight going through there south (east) bound. It was about the same train as your picture, BTW.

I also remember the first 3200 (3200, in fact) to come through Salem, on a special train when they were brand new. I bicycled over the SAlem Toy & Hobby to give our railfan guru, Bob Gahlsdorf the news of its passing through town.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/17 21:29 by roustabout.

That's a great story!

~ BZ

It was all crap by then...

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

The train DOES look exceptionally sharp & clean.
I was a newly licensed Beetle driver (a ‘63) at about the same time myself, but lived on the Coast and never saw the SJ Daylight (although our Coast Daylight looked much the same)
Thanks for the post!
SR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/17 00:24 by BoilingMan.

MojaveBill Wrote:
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> It was all crap by then...

Not all of it was crap. Anyway, better to have that "crap" then what rail passenger service is now offered over the same route between Bakersfield and LA. Which is essentially nothing.

I dunno- 6 trains a day and no vending machines.
Credit where credit is due...
SR

As for the bus connection- the State took over the ATSF service, which was a train/bus combination same as today’s.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/17 08:57 by BoilingMan.

Great shot, I'd love to have ridden it!

Posted from Android

"To Photobob it" IS a legal photography vernacular.
When putting a train in a cool scene or shooting from ground level or using a railroad or non railroad object of interest in a railroad photo. I looked it up in Wikipedia.

Cool photo and story BZ. I appreciate your SP passenger post here on TO



Notch16

> These days I'd know better than to let that clumpy
> hillock obscure the track and running gear before
> I grabbed the shot. And I'd try to "Photobob" it a
> bit more, with a more interesting angle and
> including some more of the gas and oil refinery
> surroundings. ("To Photobob" is a legitimate verb
> clause, isn't it?)
>