Rolling off the Palmdale Cutoff, a 78-mile line opened in 1967 (nearly 55 years ago!) to allow some Southern Pacific traffic to bypass congested Los Angeles, on which trains from the SP’s Sunset Route and climb Cajon Pass (previously with no SP trackage) and proceed to northward to Palmdale and Mojave and, climb once again over the Tehachapi Mountains to access the San Joaquin Valley and a flat route to Sacramento. This was a massive construction project, begun decades after any other new mainline was constructed in this country. But I digress … Where was I? Oh, that’s right … Rolling off the Palmdale Cutoff is Union Pacific train MRVWC-22, a manifest (what we used to just call a freight train) arriving at the West Colton Yard from Roseville in northern California. UP ES44ACs 7710, AC6000CW 7032, and SD70M 5042 up front, and 2764 and 8222 on the rear. (Colton, California – February 23, 2022)
