Nostalgia & History > EMD power on SFe #991

In my ongoing Main RR image folder rebuilding project I found another slide scan that will “hot-shot” its way to the head of the line. Fittingly so, because it’s a photo of one of Santa Fe’s hottest trains, the Richmond (CA) ~ Chicago pig train #991. The original slide was shot by one of my KS Gang bros, the late Mark Simonson while he was on some sort of work-related(?) trip out to the west coast. He evidently found this particular 991 either stopped or moving very slowly in a very scenic spot. He of course put a rapid-fire shooting technique to good use, also catching a pretty cool away shot!

Mark was able to shoot trader slides for 2 fellow KS Gangsters. He traded one of each slide to both the late John Arbuckle, and to me. “Extras for everybody” was a modified tag line we swiped from the cult comedy classic: Blazing Saddles. It was a well-worn phrase we all used when trading original Kodachrome slides amongst ourselves.

1. EMD 7 on Santa Fe train 991 (full symbol unknown) at Rowen, CA.

2. AT&SF biz car 50, the “Santa Fe” brings up the rear of this train at Rowen.
(2 photos taken April 26, 1986 by Mark Simonson)

PS: I think I vaguely remember Santa Fe hosting(?) some EMD demos in the mid-1980s. I may have even shot a couple of them, but I’d have to go digging through the collection...

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Remembering the late John Arbuckle, aka “The Chief Way”
Remembering the late Mark Simonson



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/23 03:15 by santafe199.

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Love that first shot!

RC Lundgren

Fabulous !  I seem to recall that this run was captured on a Pentrex Video.

#1 is incredible, a real publicity shot if there ever was one.

Bob

perklocal Wrote: > ... captured on a Pentrex Video ...

That would not be surprising. With the addition of the 2 biz cars I'm sure Santa Fe was "up to something" here. Anyone with the whole story plese feel free to fill in the gaps... :^)

Lance/199

 

The second shot with the super streamlined office car on the rear is most excellent.

Very nice, those units wore that scheme well...

JG

Notch7 Wrote: > … second shot … is most excellent …

On behalf of my late & sorely missed compadre Mark Simonson, thank-you! He was a terrific photographer, very talented with a long telephoto. Of the six of us KS Gang characters Mark was the youngest. But he was the 2nd to pass. Cancer took him very young…

Posted from iPhone

Both photos are excellent!

Posted from iPhone

santafe199 Wrote:

> 1. EMD 7 on Santa Fe train 991 (full symbol unknown) at Rowen, CA.

According to p.38 of Joe Shine's SPSF Motive Power - 1986, it was 1-991-26.  The demonstrators had come west the day before on 1-199-23 with Mountainair and Santa Fe on the rear as well.  Even in the pre-internet days, news of moves like this traveled fast among the railfan network, and a few photos from some other guys who caught the GP60 demos on their visit to Santa Fe's Valley Division can be found in these old threads:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2010408
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3629479
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3630192
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2011111,2011111#2011111
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1688153
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2487910,2488202#2488202
 

...and our good man Evan comes through with some more incredible cross-referencing! IMHO Mr W, being a TO member with his amazing info retrieval, is worth the price of MY membership... :^)

Lance

That was a Chicago-Richmond 199 and Richmond-Chicago 991 EMD Demo trip.  I was working Barstow High Tower when the 199 went through wesrbound.  Jim Fitzgerald SVP Operations was in charge of the train.  Those units looked really great.  I might have snuck a picture or 2, will have to see if I can find them.

Jim Wilson