I miss SP

[Sunset Limited]

I feel everybodies grief. I grew up with SP. My Grandfather was a welder at the SP roundhouse here in El Paso in the late 20's-30's. I rode on a few rides in the cabs and also went on a small excursion with my dad to Ft. Bliss in the late 60's. I miss seeing that Lark grey and red! Just what dwolfgram said 'At least the SP lives on for those of us who model it'. That's what I'm doing also. Modeling back in time! The time that made me really enjoy railroading! [:(]

[bluepuma]

The loss of SP is another thing I miss from growing up in Los Angeles County in 1950, 1953-61, and 1969 to '96. My first trains were the PE red cars in Long Beach in '50, and a RS-2 or such in Highland Park, Los Angeles. Later moving to Puente along the Sunset Line next to Valley Blvd, watching the trains roll by, load/unload beef cattle at the feedlot there, F7AB in Black Widow, usually more than just two units, and a string of stock cars. There I saw my first Bay Window caboose, Dad told me what it was, looked strange, orange bays and all compared to what was seen before. Used to watch SP in Gardena, street running, and to the REA pickup/drop point in 73-75. I used to sleep in Ontario/Montclair at Mountain Ave, next to the SP tracks, the tracks gave me an in with my motorcycle to the lemon groves to sleep a few hours when I used to drive from Pheonix to Pomona, the tracks crossed the deep ditch next to the road. Used to see SP on the run past the Salton Sea when we camped, early morning, sunrise and train, and the nights from Indio up the pass toward LA, the trains heard, felt, screeching up/down the pass, snaking along the bottom. Later SP in Bisbee, Arizona, Cochise Country through Herford, a dot on the map closest to home for a few years, then later SP in Tucson, Fall 64.

Went back to California in '69, SP by the Ontario airport, and along Arrow Highway, Pomona, Covina, but lived close to the ATSF line to Pasadena, got to see the E8/9 AB with Budds, later lived near the UP line next to the LA River in Southgate, see and feel those for the next 23 years.

Missed seeing SP then, and ATSF in Blue and Yellow and Red and Silver, odd those ATSF trains headed off for Chicago, now I live 120 miles from that end of the line, and BNSF & Amtrac, NS runs through my town now on Conrail, Penn Central, and NYC tracks, used to hear several trains a day blowing through town.

If I want to see SP, it's a trip to the UP line at Clinton, Iowa or Sterling or Rochelle, and it's always a good day to see Red and Grey, even patched, or SP autoracks, boxcars, hoppers, tankcars. A good day at Rochelle to see BNSF in Red/Silver.

I have SD70 in BNSF, but plan no more in Pumpkin orange and green, and have UP SD60M, and other UP that SP did not have, and ATSF E8A/B, SP PA/PB in Daylight, but I like a F7A/B in SP BW best, SD7 in SP BW. We were always too poor for 1st Class, so my one major train trip from Nashville to LA was coach, via Ft. Worth, no clue what line, was 7 then. Like my B&O E6A/B and NYC FA2/FB2, UP FA1/FB1. I like cab units!

Thank Atlas, Kato, Lifelike, Micro Trains for the N models that let me live the trains I loved, collect and run the locos and freight cars from far away places.

Hey, we all miss stuff from our youth, but 16 y/o girls get old and fat, things change, and all the land that got developed will never again be farmland, plowed back to fields of beets, cotton, onions, cabbage, strawberries, walnut groves, lemon or orange groves, once the orange juice plant is razed, the smell of cooking oranges is lost, model the parts liked best.

[Anonymous]

At least the SP lives on for those of us who model it. I get to watch the Daylights, the Lark and the ACs on the Cuesta Grade everytime I feel like running them. It's winter up here in Montana, but its always sunny California on the N-scale San Luis Obispo Pacific.

Happy Rails,
Diane

Diane

[markpierce]

Yes, those automats were pretty bad. Thank God for the U.P. and its diner cars between Utah and Omaha to see grandparents in Iowa. But I'll never forget the stark beauty of black and white over Donners pass in the eary morning winter.!

[twhite]

Actually, I wish SP had remained as solvent as it was in the '40's, then it could have gobbled up UP and then everyone in Cheyenne could wonder how come their yellow and gray suddenly turned into bloody noses. At least they'd know how WE feel out here in SP-land.
Tom [banghead][banghead]

[ericsp]

I never got to see solid PFE block, wood beet gondolas, or the Kaiser Steel ore trains. However, I do miss seeing four tunnel motors (without yellow) hauling a train, locals with a GP9 on the head end and a bay window caboose on the back end, riding in a car on Freeway 99 at night and seeing a Gyralite in the distance and knowing a SP train was coming.

I started this thread on the Trains forum.
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=28309

[Anonymous]

At least you guys get to see that kind of stuff. Up here i'm lucky to get a UP Engine much less a SP. Besides I never got to see CNW in action. Feel Very lucky

[brothaslide]

QUOTE: Originally posted by swedtrain

I also miss SP...

but still we can have them alive at our modelrailroad.

Swedtrain - Great picture[:D] How about posting some more!

[Anonymous]

I grew up on the East Coast and was [still am] a C&O/B&O fan. However, during my Navy enlistment in 1973 while stationed in San Diego, I made a 'pilgrimage' to Tehacheppi... I tell ya, seeing those SD9s mu'ed with U-boats and tunnel motors, barking up the grade...THAT made an SP lover out of me![:P] I bought 4 brass SD9s (Athearn hadn't introduced theirs yet) and painted them in the bloody nose scheme.
Did frequent 'power pool' lashups on my B&O trains, just as I saw on the prototype.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by AggroJones

Of all modern units, loved the Bloody nosers the best. A shame I barely see them anymore. A few days ago I saw a GP40-2 leading a large lash up, still gray, but with that ugly yellow patch under the cab window. [sigh]

Too bad I missed the greatest Espee show by about 30 years. Friggin' Cab-forwards, Blackwidow F units and Trainmasters, PFE reefer blocks, and Daylight passenger trains.

Yesterday, at our club railroad, I was "running" "my" AC-5 4120 (much cleaner than yours) and we have a SP Trainmaster too. Then at a the station we get a meeting with a challenger, we all three locomotives with sound. What a feeling! We where like "transformed" back in 1952 at some SP junction on the west coast!!
Model railroading is fun and feelings...
Link to our club webside: www.jmjk.se/default_eng.asp

Best regards too all SP fans... "One day" we get SP back...and we put a grey "dot" on the "yellows number"!

[andrechapelon]

QUOTE: Originally posted by AggroJones

Of all modern units, loved the Bloody nosers the best. A shame I barely see them anymore. A few days ago I saw a GP40-2 leading a large lash up, still gray, but with that ugly yellow patch under the cab window. [sigh]

Too bad I missed the greatest Espee show by about 30 years. Friggin' Cab-forwards, Blackwidow F units and Trainmasters, PFE reefer blocks, and Daylight passenger trains.

Aggro, forgive me for this. As a kid, I lived in Mojave, CA, during the last couple of years of steam helper operations. Rode the "San Joaquin Daylight" into Glendale with my dad and the "Owl" back out. Saw the steam powered "Coast Daylight" at Glendale. Remember seeing a freight with a cab-forward helper where the Angeles Crest Highway crossed the tracks (at Vincent, I believe). The line in the Antelope Valley was still equipped with lower quadrant semaphores if age isn't playing tricks with my memory.

When we moved to Santa Clara in the late 50's, I used to go down to the station and watch the commutes go through, many with Trainmasters, first in Black Widow and later in bloody nose.

In '67, when I was stationed in Oregon, a friend an I drove down to McCloud for a steam excursion. Up around Dorris, we saw a freight train with an ABBBBA consist of F-7's all still in Black Widow.

SP, thanks for the memories.

Andre

[AggroJones]

Of all modern units, loved the Bloody nosers the best. A shame I barely see them anymore. A few days ago I saw a GP40-2 leading a large lash up, still gray, but with that ugly yellow patch under the cab window. [sigh]

Too bad I missed the greatest Espee show by about 30 years. Friggin' Cab-forwards, Blackwidow F units and Trainmasters, PFE reefer blocks, and Daylight passenger trains.

[espeefoamer]

I miss the SP too![:(] I recall SD45s,tunnel motors,and GP9s and SD9s running into the 90s.I miss solid trains of wood beet gons, the Kaiser ore trains,and bay window cabooses.The Daylights were the most beautiful trains anywhere.I remember them in the Daylight paint with a SP built 3/4 length dome.
However, I do NOT miss the food in the Automat cars[xx(]!This was the worst idea ever in the history of railroad dining[:(!][B)][8]!

[jfugate]

Me too ... that's why it's going to always be the 1980s in my basement!

SD9E 4408 leads the way as the Dole Turn approaches Roseburg

P.S. Yes, I kind of liked the Kodachrome scheme ... since my layout's always 20 years behind right now, it just turned 1985 in my basement ... the first kodachrome unit's going to show up in early 1986, just as on the prototype ... :-)

[Anonymous]

I also miss SP...

but still we can have them alive at our modelrailroad.

[Anonymous]

OH yes, me too. Remember that SSW also shared the bloody nose. I miss them also. [:(]

[twhite]

[:(][:(][:(]
You guys miss SP? Hey, I GREW UP with AC's and GS's and Decks and cute little 2500 Consols and Valley Mallets and those incredible Mountains with skyline casings! I miss that and the Daylights and the Black Widows and even the Bloody Nose Tunnel Motors. Ain't the same around here with yellow and gray. Sorry, but it doesn't look 'railroady'. Everytime I watch a consist go by with an as-yet unpainted grimy gray and red diesel in the consist, I kind of sigh and smile and think, 'Well, at least there's ONE locomotive in the bunch!'
Tom [:(][:(][:(]

[Anonymous]

Call me crazy, but I also miss the SP--loved the bay window cabooses and seeing a Gyralite equipped engine approaching. Good ole day syndrome I suppose. But am I the only one who liked the SP-SF proposed Kodachrome Scheme?

[Jetrock]

Ahh, sign me up too..I mean, I still see ex-SP units resplendent in grimy-gray "bloody-nose" that gets more grimy than the height of SP's never-repaint-an-engine policy, but they just aren't the same with the yellow patch with red numbers on it.

And yeah, I miss those silly bay window cabeese too...

[ericsp]

I miss seeing those Southern Pacific locomotives also. At the nearest year to me they are using an SP SD40T-2 as a yard switcher, unfortunately it is patched. It is nice to see an SD40T-2 in mostly SP paint but a shame to see that yellow on it.

On Thursday I saw a BNSF train with a CSXT locomotive and another BNSF train with a NS locomotive. Today I saw a BNSF train with a UP and a CSXT locomotive and an UP train with a CSXT locomotive.

[Anonymous]

BNSF must be doing a lot of power swapping/sharing -- I saw a pair of BNSF engines in a small Norfolk Southern yard here not long ago. Since you saw CSX, it must be going both ways.

I miss the Santa Fe -- the BNSF colors are hideous. [xx(]

[brothaslide]

I live in San Diego cty. now but grew up in LA around the SP. I saw a pair of CSX Dash 9s hauling an auto train down the BNSF mainline the other day. Not sure why a couple of CSX units were so far from home but it did make miss the days of Tunnel Motors crossing the bridge at Refugio State Beach or seeing the old box car red bay window cabooses before the days of FRED.

Just reminiscing. . .