Nostalgia & History > A Saturday Santa Fe . . .

.   .   .   back in JAN '73, it was just another westbound descending the Tehachapi's at Walong, CA.
JB

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Santa Fe Blues ! Nice !

Joe

Were those "bell-ringers" really as bad as everyone says? We RARELY got a GP35 through Emporia, or anywhere on the Eastern Lines for that matter...

Lance

       I thought it was considered correct that the Rio Grande and Santa Fe both had their GP-35's figured out electrically so they were reliable units.   ??

Guess they kept them as far from Chicago HQ as possible, lol! They were all over SoCal for many years. Great photo!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/20 13:38 by trackplanner.

It's amazing any GP38s made it to Calif. back then as they were bought for Texas, Oklahoma, and points east. Thanks again for posting shots like this!

Txtrainman60 Wrote:

> It's amazing any GP38s made it to Calif. back then
> as they were bought for Texas, Oklahoma, and
> points east. 

Santa Fe did assign its second generation roadswitchers regionally for a while.  Some GP38's were used in California when they were brand new, but it's very rare to find a photo of a 3500-class in blue and yellow warbonnet (post-1972) that far west.  A few early photos have turned up of Santa Fe U25B's in California, but they and the GP20's tended to stay on the eastern end of the road until the ATC/cab signal system was dismantled.  For that matter, since their maintenance hub was Argentine, freight U-boats other than the U36C's were rare generally in California.  The photo I've never seen is one showing a 6300-class U23B in California in the old blue and yellow pinstripe scheme.  When I asked if anyone had ever photographed a Santa Fe U23B (6300-6348) in the Golden State, period, the photos that folks came up with were all from the very tail end of the units' existence in 1988, as though they were given a free California vacation as their retirement trip:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3137989

When the 38's were new, many worked the "Valley" north of Bakersfield. I also remember visiting Santa Fe's Los Angeles area Redondo Junction roundhouse with a girl friend and going up in the cab of a pair of brand new U33C's that would be used on the Super C the next day, and getting a shot of her in the seat.
JB

3rdswitch Wrote:

> I also remember visiting
> Santa Fe's Los Angeles area Redondo Junction
> roundhouse with a girl friend and going up in the
> cab of a pair of brand new U33C's that would be
> used on the Super C the next day, and getting a
> shot of her in the seat.

Like the U25B's and GP38's, Santa Fe's U33C's visited California when they were new, then virtually disappeared:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1345989
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3085173

Nice shot, Joe!

What happened to the girlfriend?   Just another california girl?

RC Lundgren

3rdswitch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When the 38's were new, many worked the "Valley"
> north of Bakersfield. I also remember visiting
> Santa Fe's Los Angeles area Redondo Junction
> roundhouse with a girl friend and going up in the
> cab of a pair of brand new U33C's that would be
> used on the Super C the next day, and getting a
> shot of her in the seat.
> JB