Nostalgia & History > Cutting in the helper at Natron and other trains

I lived in Springfield, just over the hill from Natron, and wandered out there regularly in 1977 - 78.  I happened to catch this little sequence of a Westbound SP freight pulling through the siding to cut in a help set off the Brand S spur.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/25/20 22:37 by roustabout.

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Going through my slides of that era, I was impressed with the variety of power on the SP.  That one of the train in the siding at Alford with eleven units, mostly SD9s, was impressive. And I think they were all on line. The other two pictures showed a mix of SD45T-2, SD39, SD35E, U33C and SD/GP9 in the consists.  It was not crap then (although the crews may have thought so).

I remember the train in the middle shot as I saw it go by where I worked.  It was quitting time (especially for a consist with SD45/SD39 x 2 and SD35E) so I did my best to get ahead of it leaving work from from Eugene to Natron - and was obviously successful.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/25/20 22:40 by roustabout.

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Memories!

1977-78, when U33Cs came north to Oregon and anything that could pull a train was used

That was a weird location at Natron to cut helpers in. Admittedly, I didn't transfer up here untl 1988 and I have seen helpers cut in at many locations but never Natron on the siding due to the crossings there. Very interesting.

Very possible since this was the period that SP parked trains up hill to get them out of Eugene, that the sidings used to cut helpers in were blocked with set out trains