Nostalgia & History > SP on Beaumont . . .

.   .   .   the biggest challenge for trains on the former SP "Sunset Route" into and out of the Los Angeles basin was Beaumont Pass. This involved nearly a hundred mile "helper district" with pushers needed on both sides of the pass. On a strangely lit summer '76 visit to the Cabazon area on the east side of the pass, a westbound was tackling the grade with fairly new RCE technology in play as well as human help on the rear accomplished with a pair of unusual Cotton Belt units. Anything and everything could be found in helper service here.
JB



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/19 08:37 by 3rdswitch.

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Sweet series!

Absolutely fabulous! Now that train is digging "Down in the weeds", right there!  Must have sounded great!

 Don't get me started on all those beautiful brown boxes!

The SP knew how to put on a show!

Thanks for posting these! I think we sometimes forget the variety in helper power that there used to be. 
2 sets of helpers is cool too!

Neat stuff.Thanks for posting.Bill Webb

Nice sequence JB.  The motive power the SP threw together back in the good old days was something else.  Thanks for sharing.

Kent in CArmel Valley

The SP at its finest nice photos,

Robert Morris
Dunsmuir, CA
Robert Morris Photography

Lots to see in those photos, nice coverage of how it was at the time. Interesting to note how much has changed, the number of units, the use of 4 axle helpers, even the SP box car design has changed. Great composition as well, climbing the hill represented by the small train becoming a big train, the mountain backdrop, great stuff.

+ those are great scans as well, lots of truck detail to look at.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/19 11:29 by TCnR.

Pretty much a MUG train. I would say he's quite long, maybe 7500 foot and in the 5000 ton range



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/19 15:55 by WAF.

Last shot, is the train dragging those two junkers up the hill?

Out

Miracle that the GP35 is actually running.

Out

That's impressive...

Lance

   Nice catch!  As I recall the rules in effect at the time, one of those units behind the caboose would have had to have been isolated.  If those were Geep-9's, both could have been on the line.  As a note, the helper pool out of West Colton went the highest for seniority of any job on the Los Angeles Division, except for a few locals.
   Thanks for sharing.

Brian Black
Castle Rock, CO

I, too, have fond memories of the Beaumont area. Here are three helpers at Indio, ready to go back to West Colton. We used to ride from Colton out to Indio, get a date shake, and ride back in the same day if the timing was right. Unfortunately, one time our train didn't stop in Indio and we had to stay on all the way to Yuma, watching all of those date palms go by...

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Great group of photos!

Rich

Remind me what the yellow door boxcars meant??

tehachcond Wrote:
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>    Nice catch!  As I recall the rules in effect
> at the time, one of those units behind the caboose
> would have had to have been isolated.  If those
> were Geep-9's, both could have been on the line. 

We would need to know the soup to determine if this is a "legal" push. A quick tally shows the GP35-GP30 combo exterting 132,100 lbs of tractive effort. Special Instructions stated that two four-axle units could push behind a caboose as long as the total was no more than 135,600 lbs. traction effort, and only if the train did not exceed 120 cars or 6500 tons. Life on the Hill.

Wonderful light. Looks like the infrequent Gulf moisture has moved into normally dry Southern California basin. This is the area and time of my youth and a big reason I've always followed the SP. Thanks for publishing them.  

coach Wrote:
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> Remind me what the yellow door boxcars meant??

Paper loading only. The idea was to keep the interior clean and free of damage that may snag a roll of newsprint. Newsprint was a major commodity before the Internet, including tight schedules, spot markets and big money. There was and is other types of paper shipped by rail including kraft paper  to make boxes, various other types that need to be kept clean and dry.

The 'MUG' trains were collections of empty cars that fit a particular assignment for forest products including lumber and paper. The empties were collected across the system and sent in the general direction of Eugene Oregon with 'M' and 'EUG' in the train designator. Which was corrupted to 'MUG'. The cars would be dispersed from Eugene yard to the many SP branches in Oregon for loading. Since lumber was such a significant commodity for the SP there would be numerous MUG trains on the system heading towards Eugene.

A close look at the original shows exhaust coming out of both Jeeps

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