Nostalgia & History > Union Pacific video Barstow area, big power action, early 1970s

A 5 minute video, probably taken around the Barstow area.  alot of big UP power. Original film is a 400' reel from Barstow, this is the UP part, the rest is ATSF, I put part of the ATSF on a couple of weeks ago. This is how it was put on the reel, lots of action and no info or dates. Photographer unknown, early 70s, film has its problems with not stored properly, but has neat hisorical shots. KCRW287

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Wow--those DD40AX's roaring / racing along is exactly what they were built to do!  What a sight.  It's still hard to believe their 4-axle rigid trucks actually made it thru Summit's curves in Cajon back then.

Great movies.  Would of really enjoyed being there then with so much variety in power.

Thanks for posting.

Regards, Jim Evans

Looks like these were all taken between Dagget and Victorville although someone more knowledgable than I will have to pick out the exact spots.  I'm pretty sure the overhead views were taken off the York Road (Avenue) bridge on the east end of the Barstow Yard, and I did recognize Dagget in that clip with three (!!!) DD40AX's and a U50C!  Thanks for posting. 

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

Another great video that demonstrates the amazing variety UP brought to the LA&SL back then. Lots of DD35's and GP30's. I saw a U28C leading one train. The DD35 speeding along with the DDA40X's was really nice. I think I even saw the unique rebuilt SD24 the UP had that apparently was too expensive to justify a full program. The U50C with the trio of DDA40X's was a little excessive for the size of their train and its hard to believe that was not uncommon back then.

Were those new USPS vehicles on the auto rack next to the power on the one train?

Thanks for this nice package of a video.

That is some fantastic stuff, man the LA&SL used to be a lot more interesting.

Nathan

Posted from iPhone

I remember those days.  UP seemed to have trouble getting the EMD's to be happy with the #2 Diesel they were getting at the time. 
Cabooses too!
Thanks for the memories!

Have fun, be safe,
Bruce "Doc" Jones  Sierra Madre CA

Brought back some great memories of the good old days in railroading.




Chris

What a great video!
I remember being awe struck, even as a kid, seeing these big diesels roaring by, at the Center St. Xing, in Highgrove, Calif.

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA

Awesome video, the amazing part I saw is the row of houses east of the cut to the yard, it sill looks the same today!

I wonder if Pentrex or a volunteer would be able to digitally undo some of the reduced image quality.

My thougths exactly. I would love to see your footage "cleaned up". It's priceless however just as it is. I was alive to see this stuff...just east of the Mississippi at the time. Thank you for showing it here.   ×   

Some great footage there, thanks for posting. I have a lot of Super 8 film that I shot around that time also, but have yet to even begin to go through it and get it converted to digital. 
As someone mentioned above, the one westbound looks to have an auto rack with USPS vehicles on it. This car would've been destined for the "Kat House" in Pico Rivera, just east of East Yard in East LA. That's where all of the AMC and Jeep autos were unloaded, but sometimes other cars like the postal vehicles or trucks would be unloaded there. It stood for Kenosha Auto Transport. 
That was unusual seeing that U50C behind the Centennials. 

May I suggest "Legacy Video" for film to digital transfer, I know they physically clean the film before digital conversion.

As far as "Restoration" of the video, that's another process, not sure how much that would cost, but they might do that too?

Personally I like these film "defects" just the way they are, and heck, nowdays they have software that makes our modern perfect digital images and video look like it's old, adding defects, scratches and dust to the images!

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA