QUOTE: Originally posted by CFournier ericsp Did you see the picture of an SP loco in full SP colors, lashed-up to a QG RR consist of orange locos?? Chris
"No soup for you!" - Yev Kassem (from Seinfeld)
The first locomotive I was ever up close to was at 7 in '53 in Highland Park, near Ave 60 and the Arroyo Seco Parkway, it looked like a RS1 or RS3, and it moved not much faster than a walk, with a few cars behind, would guess less than 10. Long nose forward, moving toward a diamond with a rail line that crossed the now Pasadena Fwy. More traffic on that line, maybe ATSF. Was hanging with Jimmy (3 years older) and Steve (1 or 2 years older), one of them showed me putting a penny on the rail provided a really stretched out flat thin penny. That was when 1 cent bought a Bazooka Bubble gum with comic wrapper, or two pieces of hard candy. I flattened a few pennies, maybe a nickel. They taught me to stay off the tracks and far enough back. I think the loco or loco's were in Black Widow, no crossing gates or lights where it crossed across the alley where the iceman parked while delivering 25 lb. ice blocks for the old folks ice box top, slowly through the residential area next to Echo Home where some old folks lived and worshipped in the Tabernacle. We stayed there when we first returned to California after returning from a stint in Samoa as Missionarys, dad helped the mission work there at Echo Home. Bro. Smith, Jimmy's dad was in charge there, they had another place out on the high desert, "Mountain Home" which was built mostly of desert rock and motar. Jimmy had Lionel trains, turnouts, etc. at his house. Like many train sets at the time, steam was king, his may have been NYC, like my first train set two years later. Stayed at Mountain Home a few weeks earlier, they had a cow, chickens, no trains near.
SP ran trains through twice a week, maybe to maintain rights to the old PE tracks like they did on the PE line from El Monte to LA in the center of the San Bernadino Freeway (I-10).
The last locos I bought in SP were RS3 in N scale. Still want some Black Widow AB F7's.
Funny thing about the tracks near the LA river and I-5, Golden State Fwy, was driving home from Burback back to Lynwood in '95, smelled a skunk, had to smile. Funny to be so close to downtown LA with skunk as wildlife, smelling, but a lot of hills, brush, wild area, parkland.
Our skunks in Illinois don't smell nearly as much as California and Arizona skunks, but I'm glad the creature that waddled out in front of me last Friday was a possum, not a skunk. We brushed one in our VW in Arizona during the winter, every time we turned the heat on, slight skunk smell. The VW was the air cooled bug. I never did see SP on the tracks running near the bottom of the valley between Sierra Vista and Tombstone, but the rails were shiny, not rusted brown. A friend in Long Beach said they saw a possum there, and had skunks around too.
A garden... I still miss SP... one constant no more! sigh. BluePuma
When I was five my house was right on the tracks between Yuba City and Orville/Chico. Everyday the F's and Es would shake the foundations of my house and scare the bejeezes out of my toad collection (I had over 100 that I kept in a wading pool.)
Anyway, I'm starting a fund to buy back SP from UP. Send your donations to my email account via Paypal. I'll send you a receipt so it's tax deductable.
If we fall short, I'll buy them back one N-scale loco at a time if I have to.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
Ahhhhh, yes.
Born n' raised in So. Cal.
Tehachipi, Cajon, Oil Cans, bay windows, gyra lites....
Let's observe a moment of silence.
You could do something like this. That's what I am starting to do.
For more pics of these engines go here.
http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2449
-dekruif
Nice try, Chip. Reminds me of a story my dad told me when he was working for Northrop out at Edwards AFB in the mid 50's. Seems a fellow put out a coffee can marked "The Hart Fund" to collect donations. Apparently, a lot of people just thought it was a misspelling and quite a bit of money was collected. The name of the guy who put the can out was Jeremy Hart.
I'm seriously thinking of getting my name legally changed to Redd Cross.
Andre
P.S. Lived in Mojave during the last years of steam operation over Tehachapi.
I too follow the crowd by saying the SP is missed here too. This past weekend I was lucky to have seen some units that still hold the old SP gray. Here is one that brought great joy to my eyes:
I don't model SP but I do have about nine engines that I won't part with and will somehow still run on my Montana based layout.
--Zak Gardner
My Layout Blog: http://mrl369dude.blogspot.com
http://zgardner18.rrpicturearchives.net
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zgardner18 wrote: I too follow the crowd by saying the SP is missed here too. This past weekend I was lucky to have seen some units that still hold the old SP gray. Here is one that brought great joy to my eyes:I don't model SP but I do have about nine engines that I won't part with and will somehow still run on my Montana based layout.
That's a rare unit. It's one of 10 SDP-45's built for SP in 1967 to replace the last of the PA and E units. They later became part of the commute pool and, when CalTrain took over Peninsula commute services were put into the freight pool.
IIRC, 6 of the units, including the one in the photo were rebuilt (including new rear hood ends) to SD40M's by Morrison-Knudsen.
Hold onto the photos.
andrechapelon wrote:[i] Anyway, I'm starting a fund to buy back SP from UP. Send your donations to my email account via Paypal. I'll send you a receipt so it's tax deductable.
Here is what I have to offer:
andrechapelon wrote: zgardner18 wrote: I too follow the crowd by saying the SP is missed here too. This past weekend I was lucky to have seen some units that still hold the old SP gray. Here is one that brought great joy to my eyes:I don't model SP but I do have about nine engines that I won't part with and will somehow still run on my Montana based layout.That's a rare unit. It's one of 10 SDP-45's built for SP in 1967 to replace the last of the PA and E units. They later became part of the commute pool and, when CalTrain took over Peninsula commute services were put into the freight pool. IIRC, 6 of the units, including the one in the photo were rebuilt (including new rear hood ends) to SD40M's by Morrison-Knudsen.Hold onto the photos.Andre
I heard that those SD40M-2s that M-K rebuilt from SDP45s were from Conrail/E-L. I saw one of those a few days ago, unfortunately it was patched.
Yep, miss 'em too.
Me too.
My favorite diesel of all is the Espee snooted SD-40T-2 tunnel motor. It's a powerful and sinister looking beast with the silhouette of a reptile. For me, N scale Intermountain tunnel motors came first followed by a rolling stock collecting binge and a layout so I could lash them and run long trains.
Second favorites are black widow F7's followed by black widow SD-9's.
I never got to see espee power in real life. I grew up in Washington state and my general intrest is GN, NP, UP etc. But the aforementioned engines are my absolute favorites.
Hey, Bluepuma, stop! It's been bad enough reading these memories of the SP, but now you've got me getting all sobby reminding me of LA County and growing up watching trains in the 70's in almost all those same places. I only got as far away as AZ so I still go back every once in awhile and ride the light rail into Union Station to keep the memories fresh.
Yup, it's gray and red on my layout too.