Nostalgia & History > Santa Fe SD Sunday

ATSF SD40 5066 and a Kodachrome C30-7 are leading a westbound mixed freight at Antioch, CA.
A pair of SD40-2's led by ATSF 5085 are seen at Orwood, CA. with a train that will be making a set out at East Antioch with cars for the large Gaylord Container pulp mill.
ATSF SD40-2 5180 accelerates a hot westbound piggyback train through Antioch CA.
Thanks for looking! Randy

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Nice trio of images.
—Mac

Excellent trio.
JB

Wow those belong in a book!! Great captures, all 3 of them, well done. The headlight set up on the first one is unusual...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/21 13:25 by exhaustED.

exhaustED Wrote:

> Wow those belong in a book!! Great captures, all 3
> of them, well done. The headlight set up on the
> first one is unusual...

Santa Fe had 13 SD40-2's numbered 5058-5070 that came from the factory with three bulb (white, white, red) Oscitrol light packages in the nose instead of beacons.  The lights didn't physically move - instead one white light was angled to the left, the other to the right, and they flashed alternately.  The red light came on with emergency brake applications.  The red roundel seemed to break or fall out of the housing with some frequency, resulting in some units like 5066 running around with three white lights in the nose.  The 5065 in the second photo has the red roundel intact.

Santa Fe started removing the Oscitrol packages beginning around 1987, plating over the hole in the nose.  They got to them fairly quickly, so the combination of 5066 with its light package intact and a Kodachrome as the second unit puts the first shot in the 1986-88 date range.  The second one would be a few years earlier in the 1980's.  The third photo has a Dash 8-40B with an intact beacon while the lead unit lacks one, which puts the date around late 1989 - 1990. 

That's a neat angle at Orwood.  The vegetation was too high for that shot by the time I started visiting in the mid-90's.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/21 19:18 by Evan_Werkema.

Thanks very much for that detailed light package info., I've learnt something new there. An outstanding thread! 

Man alive, that first one!  That is one of the most perfect SD40-2 photos ever.  They were so pervasive that they became a bit boring, but looking back, that thing just looks great!

Andy

Thanks for the image and info on the 5066 with that wild headlight.

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