Nostalgia & History > Colton & Cajon Pass, California, 4/28/91

Colton, California, 4/28/91
1. UP SD40-2 #3383, built 4//77, retired 2/17/09, rebuilt to SD40N #1591, + U30C #2904, built 7//74, retired 5/4/89, + SD40-2 #3398, built 5//77, retired 5/23/01, later CEFX/CSOR #3398, were tied down on a spur parallel to SP.
2. A crew boarded the three UP units, above, took them west to the AT&SF, and then east across SP.
3. An e/b SP train was led by SD45T-2 #9347, built 1//75, later CEFX/KYLE/ISRR #9347.

Gerry

---

---

---

Colton, California, 4/28/91
4. An e/b UP double stack train was led by C41-8W #9406, built 11/90, + C40-8W #9385, built 2//90, + 3 more units with
5. helpers C30-7 #2511, built 8//80, renumbered #505 2/10/97, retired 4/30/99, + SD40-2 #3408, built 5//77 as #8073, renumbered #3408 8//81, retired 12/5/08.
6. An e/b SP intermodal train was led by SSW GP60 #9676, built 3//90, to UP #5778 5/28/99, renumbered #1978 4/18/01.  The chase of the UP train was on.

Gerry

---

---

---

Blue Cut, Cajon Pass, California, 4/28/91
7.
From Cajon Station, Cajon Pass, California, 4/28/91
8 & 9.

Gerry

---

---

---

From Cajon Station, Cajon Pass, California, 4/28/91
10.
Summit, Cajon Pass, California, 4/28/91
11.
 
References:
That site that archives railroad pictures
https://utahrails.net/index.php
 
Gerry

---

---

Never thought that the 90s would be the good old days.

Posted from Android

Great photos and memories of a productive chase.

Interesting photos, thanks for posting.
Your first set of UP power is probably the regular assigned Colton Local that ran between SP West Colton and Yermo at that time. The crew would spend the night at Yermo and take a train back to West Colton the next day. In later years, this move was filled by thru freight crews assigned to the LA Yermo pool and the power was serviced and kept at West Colton. The attached photo shows the dull looking UP yard office that was placed adjacent to the SP mainline probably in the 80s. I'm almost sure this is where you took the first photo. This was taken in June 1995. The power and caboose are probably for the UP job that switched some of the industries along the Santa Fe between Colton and Riverside Jct and also around Streeter and Arlington on the UP. For a while, UP moved the Victorville helpers on duty location to this location, but later moved them back to Victorville. 
The UP stack train is an APL train, probably at the max of 140 cars. Those were "manned" helpers that ran between LA and Milford. That was the best job to catch off of the LA engineer's extra board at the time and you made a full roundtrip pay between LA and Yermo. With a deadhead back home in a Renzenburger van, you could sometimes make the roundrip in less than 10 hours. 

---