Eucalyptus and Palm Trees … We’re either in Australia, or California…
Union Pacific's MLBWC-08 is assembling its train, the Long Beach Hauler, which will soon depart Long Beach for West Colton Yard, as it works Manuel Pass 1, near the Port of Long Beach. On this day, the train is led by UP SD70M 1979 (ex-UP 4332), recently repainted into this colorful "We are ONE" paint scheme to honor the railroad's various employee groups (the Asian Employee Resource Organization - AERO; the Black Employee Network - BEN; the LGBT Employee Network - Bridges; the Council of Native American Heritage - CONAH; Educate Advocate Support Encourage - EASE; Lead Educate Achieve Develop … A Women’s Initiative - LEAD; the Latino Employee Network - LEN; Connecting and Developing Young Professionals - TIES; and the Veterans and Employees Continuing to Serve – VETS). Fittingly, once the train was ready to depart, the dispatcher said, "UP 1979 has permission to depart Manual One, Union Pacific One,” referencing both the train’s location and the special engine assigned to it … and at this point Engineer Fox turned on the headlights. (Long Beach, California – January 8, 2022)
