In a scheme repeated thousands of times in the 1970s and 1980s, a westbound Southern Pacific freight grinds upgrade on the Palmdale Cutoff, SP's shortcut between Bloomington and Palmdale over Cajon Pass that allowed trains to bypass the congested Los Angeles Basin. The Cutoff opened in 1967, and was the last major railroad construction over Cajon Pass - until the Santa Fe realign the trackage across the Summit in 1972 and, more recently, the addition of a third mainline (and with it, the elimination of the Pass' two tunnels) in 2007-2008. But, back to this train, photographed on October 18, 1980, which features a typically Southern Pacific consist: SD40T-2 8503, U33C 8637, SD40T-2 8328, SD45 9125, U33C 8601 and U33C 8629.
