Nostalgia & History > Monday Meets - Santa Fe Holds The Main For SP, Mojave 1960s

Don Hansen photo of meet long ago on the joint SP-ATSF trackage between Bakersfield & Mojave, California.
I think this was at Mojave but HT6 may come on to clarify.
As Dr. Evan Werkema and I have discussed many times, until the mid 1960s, the Santa F's ran in large blocks here as pictured,
similar to SP over Donner.
Then in the later 1960s, almost overnite, the F's were sent east and replaced by GP30s, 35s, SD24s,and RSD15s in the West.
For the SP, this was SD9 territory, but even when the SD35s, and U30C's appeared, the SD9's were still used on the Techachapi route.
Regards, Jim Evans

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Fine shot, Jim!

texchief1

Those were the days!

Larry

The location is a puzzle. Think that's
a road crossing between them?

A likely spot is crossing on north side of Mojave. Yard lead would explain what looks like wrong main running.
JB

Nice shot, Jim!

Posted from iPhone

Don crafted this scene very well.
Bob

As I sort of explained when this photo was posted on TO two years ago, this is not a "meet."  The SP locomotive is on a switching lead (i.e., "drill track") at the north end of the Mojave yard.  The track it's on comes to a dead end (the switching lead was built in 1960, by the way).   While its possible the Santa Fe freight could be stopped, it's not really "holding the main," being double track at that location.  The road crossing is that of Oak Creek Road.  Date of photo (according to what FiveChime stated two years ago):  Aug. 16, 1962.

FiveChime wrote:

> I think this was at Mojave ...

The photo posted here is a cropped version of the photo that was posted two years ago; the earlier version has more features definitely identifying the location as Mojave.


> ...  until the mid 1960s, the Santa F's ran in large blocks here as pictured ...

> Then in the later 1960s, almost overnite, the F's were sent east ...

The Santa Fe discontinued the use of freight F-units between Bakersfield and Barstow in 1965 (until around 1960-1961, the Santa usually ran the F's in four-unit sets on freights between Bakersfield and Barstow, then started running them in six-unit sets, the most common configuration being ABBBBA).



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/23 23:23 by johnsweetser.