An SP brute leads the pipe train from Napa. As Jason noted below #8961 was one of the last unrebuilt 45s left on the roster at this point. Built by EMD in May of 1968, at this time it only had a year left on the roster. It went to Morrison-Knudson in September of 1990 to be rebuilt into CSXT SD40M-2 #8471. Back on this day, a non-railfan friend who occasionally liked to tag-along and I were making our first ever visit to Tehachapi. We found a lot of trains that day, as well as a lot of railfans, set up all around the loop.
