Nostalgia & History > Thirty Thursday . . .

.   .   .   in JUL '73, Santa Fe train 3251, known by railroaders as "SDX", was making the compass southbound turn westbound from the Third District onto the Olive District in Yorba Linda, CA. Up until the mid eighties, Santa Fe ran two regular trains a day into and out of San Diego. The Los Angeles to San Diego version was known by rails as the "Night Coast". These trains went high on the seniority lists as they both ran as turns, returning to home terminal on the same trip, paying more than two days pay per trip and working only three days a week. Attached is freight train schedule on back of Santa Fe timetable number 8 effective Sunday, April 29, 1979, which includes both turns.
JB

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Neat shot, neat consist!

Good informative post.Bill Webb

Freight trains run to a schedule - Amazing.  If only I had known about this schedule back then maybe it would have enabled me to pare-position myself for some photo opportunities.

Notice the notation "for information only", actual times may vary ;-)   Actually, since the two San Diego trains had assigned crews that went on duty at a certain time, THAT pair of trains probably departed their terminals very close to the schedule, but traffic and work en route varied arrival time at San Diego quite a bit.
JB

Nice shot, JB and thanks for the timetable!

RC Lundgren

Back in those days the 3251/3252 was handled by the Valley Pool, hence the reason for the flip out of San Diego.

If that was the case, bet they sharp shot to catch it as it paid twice as much as a normal CT trip. CT being something new the company tried to pay crews less, but, get them home none the less. A CT, or continuous time trip, San Bernardino to Los Angeles via the Third District and back to San Bernardino via the Second District with same power and caboose paid 128 miles while a round trip to San Diego paid about 290 miles.
JB

3rdswitch Wrote:
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> If that was the case, bet they sharp shot to catch
> it as it paid twice as much as a normal CT trip.
> CT being something new the company tried to pay
> crews less, but, get them home none the less. A
> CT, or continuous time trip, San Bernardino to Los
> Angeles via the Third District and back to San
> Bernardino via the Second District with same power
> and caboose paid 128 miles while a round trip to
> San Diego paid about 290 miles.
> JB

Indeed they did. Richard Delano would give his left arm to be first out come mid afternoon. It paid 288 miles plus arbs.

Then there was a period of time (late 1990's? ) that it was made an advertised assignment with two alternating crews with San Diego as home terminal and run thru to Barstow, returning home the following day.

I actually bid one of those jobs in, only working a few trips, just to do it. The Pasadena and San Diego were MY favorite Subs to run. I believe the bid jobs paid 228 miles each way. One westbound trip, I picked my brother up in Santa Ana for a ride down to San Diego, which, fortunately, we barely made. The things we could do back then.
JB