Nostalgia & History > UP-SP meltdown: busy times on the Sunset

For the first year or so after the UP-SP merger, there was a major meltdown in the southern region, which produced one good "side effect" for the railfan and that was lots and lots of trains on the lines radiating out of Houston. Example: In 1997, I chased this EB ILBNO (in the siding at Marathon) from Marfa to Sanderson and there was a meet at every siding. Every siding! In all the years of visiting this line I never saw anything like it. All day and all night trains were rolling through Alpine where we stayed. Nowadays, all you get is 6-8 trains a day or less! Pretty sad, but this look back makes me happy... JG



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/20 18:31 by jgilmore.

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And, on the T&P  line west of Ft Worth at the same  some trains spent days in the passing tracks.  In Ft Worth itself a few trains stayed for a week.

On th UP on the Los Angeles Sub all the sidings would be full so UP came up with a geat idea. When the train arrived at LA they would run the power around it and send it east. Some where along the line it would start it's westbound trip again. There were a bunch of them travling this was every day. These were manifest trains the intermodals were treated a bit better.

Nice shot!