Nostalgia & History > UP Challengers in Southern California, 1946-47

Some more photos of Union Pacific 4-6-6-4's in action in Southern California in the mid-1940's from the Jeff Moreau collection at the Southern California Railway Museum.  The photographer wasn't credited, but was probably H.L. Kelso.

1) UP 3837 east between Spadra and Pomona, CA approach the overpass that today carries California Highway 71.  Not sure if the guy on the tender demonstrating the purpose of a telltale was coincidental or pre-arranged.

2) UP 3810 articulates into the switch as it departs the San Bernardino, CA depot on a westbound passenger train.   The Mt. Vernon Ave. overpass is above and the Santa Fe shops are to the left.

3) UP 3829 east at Highland Junction just east of San Bernardino, CA.   The straight rail on the track in the foreground is the beginning of the Redlands Loop, while the two mains curving off to the right are heading for Cajon Pass.

---

---

---

4) UP 3838 east is approaching Cajon station as it climbs the pass of the same name.

5) UP 3819 west has just left the upper Mojave narrows west of Victorville, CA and is approaching the flyover at Frost.

6) Kelso didn't do a lot of night photography as far as I can tell, but he did fire off this single-bulb exposure of UP 3806 at Victorville, CA.

---

---

---

Fantastic stuff!

Fantastic series of photos!
Looks like 3810W is lined for the "short way".
Sadly, nothing in that photo exists today, except the rearranged trackage.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/24 18:42 by hotrail.

...by the way, does anyone know what Harley L. Kelso looked like?  Among the 4x5 negatives in the Jeff Moreau collection at the Southern California Railway Museum is this one of a fellow posing with a large format camera in front of Santa Fe 2-10-2 3895 at Victorville, CA.  Unfortunately, the neither guy the holding the camera that took the picture nor the guy holding the camera that didn't are identified.

---

---

Outstanding.
JB

In photo 3, is the road at the left where Route 66 went and is that now where the 215 freeway goes?

Steve

WOW!

SGillings Wrote:

> In photo 3, is the road at the left where Route 66 went and is that now where the 215 freeway goes?

US-66 was Mt Vernon Ave. several blocks to the west.  The street paralleling the tracks at Highland Junction was I St., and yes, that's where the 215 is now.  The freeway construction was one reason why the northern connection to the Redlands Loop was severed here.

What an outstanding group of photos.  Can't thank you enough for sharing them.
Large B&W negs from a good camera are hard to beat!  Razor sharp and perfectly exposed.
That was Bill Barham's stomping grounds back then too.
Was the photographer's name the one named in the collection?
Thank you again, work of a master.

Frisco1522 Wrote:

> Was the photographer's name the one named in the collection?

These negeatives were all in envelopes Jeff Moreau created for them, and they didn't have the photographer's name on them.  A lot of the Moreau collection's 4x5 negative envelopes of Southern Pacific subjects have H.L. Kelso's name on them, but the Santa Fe and UP ones by and large do not identify the photographer.  Kelso had several photo features in Railroad Magazine back in the 40's and 50's, though, and from those I've been able to positively identify some of the images in the collection as definitely Kelso's work.  I haven't come across the images shown above in print yet, and there's reason to believe that Kelso had somebody else with him at least some of the time, but the similarity of the photographic style makes me suspect these are Kelso images.

Looking at that Graflex, I wonder how that viewing/focusing hood folds down.

Thanks for sharing a wonderful collection of early-series Challenger photos. The best looking UP locomotives in my opinion. The 3806 was the last one to be scrapped,

Tom

Wonderful!
Bob

Thanks to you Evan and original photographers.
The first 3 really hit home for me personally, so much has changed since these photos were taken.
Especially that Mt. Vernon bridge that finally has gotten replaced recently. I remember servicing the Metrolink signal boxes about 2010, directly under that bridge at same location as photo, it was crumbling and had steel plate patches in many spots you could see from underneath, along with small and large concrete chunks on the ground, plus many wood and steel extra brace struts added everywhere.

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA

Fantastic and high-quality photos, thanks for posting! I recognize all of those locations, but most of them certainly looked much different by the 1970s.

Crisp images of some familiar locations! Thanks, Evan, for posting these and similar images in other threads.
GK

Super group of images for T-giving, thanks Evan!

Really like the first image at Spadra.  The line of trees are long gone, and soccer fields would now be seen beside the train.  Not to mention the 3 mains there now.

Rich



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/24 17:32 by PasadenaSub.