Nostalgia & History > UP Excursion E.L.A.-Kelso, CA 10.31.70

I posted these 15 yrs ago (Really?)  I was a 16 year old  with a new Mamiya Sekor 500 TL 35mm camera w shutter of 1/500th...enough to freeze most motion...A HUGE improvment over many ruined shots from an Instamatic... Anyway, I was quite excited to be riding this train...One week later I rode the SD&AE San Ysidro (US-Mexico border San Diego) to El Centro...Wow, was I busy then...a far cry from now...Anyway... here's our train at East Los Angeles on Holloween 1970...ready to depart to Kelso, the garden spot of the Mojave desert...I jest...Steve

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Coming into San Berdoo...

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Climbing out of San Berdoo, caught this UP coal train westbound...

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Nice shots!

Randy Lundgren
Elgin, TX

The signal bridge at Blue Cut on cajon Pass...

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Sullivans Curve...the 3 year old SP Colton Cutoff is in the background...

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looking back on our train...No Domes darn it...Look how smoggy it was that morning...

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Old Summit, CA

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Meeting the westbound City of LA #103 near Hersperia at speed...

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Kelso, CA...Possibly a fellow TO member?...I have more slides of this trip, but not many more already scanned...Goal in 2019...get my scanner hooked up...have many more slides to share, from the 1970s onward...Thanks for looking...Comments are Velcome...Steve in sunny Grossmont, CA

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Looks like there may be some Pacific Railroad Society and/or Great Western Tours (the Big Sky Blue one) cars on the rear.

Trip was sponsored by the Pacific Railroad Society as their excursion # 209.  Surprised about the Great Western Car being used.  Suspect it was their ex GM&O sleeper.  Someone can help us on this.

It was always an interesting route.  I operated two of them to Kelso/Cima for the Orange Empire Railway Museum.   UP was great to work with, except photo run by's were not encouraged..
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/19 11:43 by mundo.

Great shots and looked like a very interesting excursion.
Gary

mundo Wrote:
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> Trip was sponsored by the Pacific Railroad Society
> as their excursion # 209.  Surprised about the
> Great Western Car being used.  Suspect it was
> their ex GM&O sleeper.  Someone can help us on
> this.
>
>
"Great Western car?"  It looked to me like a Great Northern car.  And we can hope someone knows the correct
answer to this.  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

they had 3 cars in the  BSB  paint i saw in pic of a mexican excursion

Pretty sure I was on this trip.  I have a menu from the dinning car someplace.  The coach I rode in had the seats facing each other. One of my seat mates was John Huie of the model train exhibit at the LA County Fairgrounds.  The train had been a highlight of my visits to the fair for many years.  It was a thrill to meet the guy in charge of it.  

ntharalson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> mundo Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Trip was sponsored by the Pacific Railroad
> > Society as their excursion # 209.  Surprised about the
> > Great Western Car being used.  Suspect it was
> > their ex GM&O sleeper.  Someone can help us on
> > this.
> >
> > "Great Western car?"  It looked to me like a
> > Great Northern car.  And we can hope someone
> > knows the correct answer to this.  
>
> Nick Tharalson,
> Marion, IA

As noted, Great Western Tours painted the majority of their PV fleet in GN "BSB" colors in the early 1970's, until Amtrak came down with the edict that everything had to have the Amtrak paint scheme.  This even before all of Amtrak's own equipment was so painted.  The car in question on this train is most certainly a GWT sleeper being used in day parlor service.  It looks like the last 3 cars are all sleepers.  4th car from the rear may be the PRS ex-UP lunch counter cafe lounge 5001.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/19 13:58 by Topfuel.

Topfuel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ntharalson Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > mundo Wrote:
> >
>
> As noted, Great Western Tours painted the majority
> of their PV fleet in GN "BSB" colors in the early
> 1970's, until Amtrak came down with the edict that
> everything had to have the Amtrak paint scheme. 
> This even before all of Amtrak's own equipment
> was so painted.  The car in question on this
> train is most certainly a GWT sleeper being used
> in day parlor service.  It looks like the last 3
> cars are all sleepers.  4th car from the rear may
> be the PRS ex-UP lunch counter cafe lounge 5001.

Yup,  I seem to remember that the ex UP "Ogden",  UP "Imperial Sands" , GM&O "Samuel King Tigrett" and IC "Cairo" got painted BSB.  Have no idea which car was on this trip.

Topfuel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ntharalson Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > mundo Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Trip was sponsored by the Pacific Railroad
> > > Society as their excursion # 209.  Surprised
> about the
> > > Great Western Car being used.  Suspect it
> was
> > > their ex GM&O sleeper.  Someone can help us
> on
> > > this.
> > >
> > > "Great Western car?"  It looked to me like a
> > > Great Northern car.  And we can hope someone
> > > knows the correct answer to this.  
> >
> > Nick Tharalson,
> > Marion, IA
>
> As noted, Great Western Tours painted the majority
> of their PV fleet in GN "BSB" colors in the early
> 1970's, until Amtrak came down with the edict that
> everything had to have the Amtrak paint scheme. 
> This even before all of Amtrak's own equipment
> was so painted.  The car in question on this
> train is most certainly a GWT sleeper being used
> in day parlor service.  It looks like the last 3
> cars are all sleepers.  4th car from the rear may
> be the PRS ex-UP lunch counter cafe lounge 5001.

Well thanks for this as I had never heard of Great Western Tours doing this.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

I too was on that trip, and the Great Western Car is the Imperial Sands (note the upper berth windows for the compartments).  I was 15-1/2  years old when I rode that trip, and I had the same camera too!.  Ten years later I would become one of the owners of that car.  The car in front of the Imperial Sands is the Starlight Cafe PAR 5001, the cars to the rear are Imperial Sands PAR 1 and Timothy B. Blackstone (then named Golden Sunset) PAR 2.  

We had a small incident on this trip wherein the Conductor stayed on the ground at Riverside and signaled for the train to pull up, but instead the Road Foreman told the engineer to go, as we sailed by the conductor the Flagman pulled the signal cord and we stopped (no radio for the crew in those days).  He got off and went back to help the conductor with the step box he carrying, and the Road Foreman again instructed the engineer to go, so we left them both.  Coming into San Bernardio we received a message with the train orders instructing our train to wait for the agent at Riverside to arrive with our missing crewmen.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/02/19 14:39 by SilverPeakRail.