Nearly three years after Union Pacific acquired Southern Pacific, a solid set of SP power works the Seattle to Los Angeles Z train.

A non-clearing eastbound holds up the RoadRailer on a cloudless summer morning in the Butte Valley. Lead unit SP 8626 had been built for Chicago Great Western 30 years earlier.

Grimy but still SP
On the morning of April 23, 2002, an eastbound Union Pacific coal train heads downgrade at mile 22.6 at the mouth of Coal Creek Canyon between Plainview and Clay, Col... (more)

Southern Pacific train 51, the San Joaquin, is seen at Bakersfield California in 1934. Otto Conrad Perry photo, from my collection.

SP 290 leads a Wisconsin Central intermodal hotshot train north approaching Marsh siding at the County Highway D crossing located between Slinger and Theresa Station, WI. WC developed this service... (more)

My great, great uncle Robert F. McKee, Sr., was a design engineer at Baldwin and he would give my father different Baldwin Locomotive Works builder's cards when my father would visit him in Collin... (more)

In 1976 SP borrowed some BN Locotrol Masters and slave cars in an early effort to institute unmanned helpers. The only testing I saw was on Beaumont Hill. Evidently it didn't work out. No compl... (more)

Imagine my surprise when during a furtive little drive and a "hardy hi you silver" found this beast sitting, waiting for its run. Got him on the road and the sun was great, but on the wrong side... (more)

Now at Larry's Truck the SP 2641 was Brand New and shiny in 1972. The now rusty and picked over SW 1500 sports LTEX reporting markings and the paint is nearly gone but the Southern Pacific Lineage... (more)

Yes, this is Bliss just outside the fence at the Fort. I hope you've been to Bliss somewhere else 'cause this one ain't so much. WB mixed freight.

A trainload of empty garbage containers heads south on the Shasta Route. The train was operated from Roosevelt, Washington by BNSF. Union Pacific will take the train to Suisun-Fairfield, where it ... (more)

An eastbound Southern Pacific coal train meets an westbound SP train at Soldier Summit, Utah, on September 7, 1995. During this era, SP AC4400CWs were common on this former Rio Grande main line.

A fine example of the ill-fated "Kodachrome" paint scheme this unit also has something called the "5 Cab" for cabooseless operation on locals. Photo by Dave Petke. From my co... (more)

The Louisiana Worlds Fair Daylight climbs the 1% grade to the Oregon/California state line on the second morning of its trip to New Orleans. Twenty minutes earlier, the train had departed Klamath ... (more)

Larry's Truck never disappoints with the variety of relics on display. Heading up a row of old iron horses the SP 9391, Originally built as the St. Louis Southwestern RR "COTTON BELT" 93... (more)