Nostalgia & History > SP Baldwin S-12 2128 in Eugene, 1972

Southern Pacific (SP) 2128 in Eugene, Oregon on an unknown date in the summer of 1972. The Baldwin apparently brushed pretty close to something judging by the cab damage. SP 2128 is a Baldwin S-12. Reportedly: SP 2128 was built by Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton in 1952 as an S-12, SP 1494 Class DS-114 serial number 75776. In 1965 it was renumbered to SP 2128 Baldwin S-12, SP Class B412-3. The disposition of this locomotive is reported as: To GE/Chrome Crankshaft, to Koppel Bulk Terminal 76 which became AGREX 76. June 1988 to Metropolitan Stevedore reportedly number 1, scrapped in November 1995.

Too crop or not to crop, that is the question. I am making these decisions on the photos I am scanning all the time. When I first took the photos I often shot further back. I only had a "normal" lens. Later, I thought of these photos as being flawed, as being too far away. Now, the loose cropping has provided something I had not thought of as being important then. That is, context.

Looking back on these photos I see them now as environmental portraits. The great photographer Brian Baer used to call environmental portraits of people, "mug shots with a wide angle lens." That's what these are, only with locomotives. They show the locomotive in it's world. They are kind of like static action shots.

Southern Pacific 2128 in Eugene, Oregon in the summer of 1972. The Baldwin isn't the only thing historical in this photo. All the roadnames on the boxcars shown here are gone too.


I hope you enjoy this post:

Steve Sloan
San José, CA
--

About my sources and the information presented here:
http://www.ssloan.net/trains/sources/

---

Thanks a bunch for the photo.  I grew up in Eugene, and appreciate the greater context of the photo!