A vintage SW8 spends its days shuffling cars around the Stepan Company plant in Elwood, Illinois. Labeled as the SCLX 2001, this unit's past is a bit of a mystery, but I'm always open to hearing i... (more)

Napa Valley Railroad NVRR 69 sits outside the diesel shop waiting for repairs.

Plying the same right-of-way once graced by the Southern Pacific's famous Daylight passenger trains, today's Coast Starlight begins to bite into the grade of Santa Susana Pass as it ... (more)

NWP 1922 sits with SP 4435, SP 4347, SP 4451, B&LE 716B and B&LE 718A (F-7 A and B units), plus other rolling stock that could be in museums, in Schellville, California.

Lead by Unit Pacific 2584, brand new NCTC 5006, 5007, 5008 and 5009 sit in the West Colton yard as a storm off the Pacific Ocean approaches. Soon the new locomotives would be turned over to the B... (more)

San Diego and Imperial Valley 702 has a crane on each side of the locomotive. When I took the photograph, I figured the engine had derailed and was now back on the rails, or it would soon be lift... (more)

Grain dusted SD9 No3 idles after uploading a string of hoppers at Sierra Grain Terminal near Hughson Ca.

Former Rock Island unit. Photographer unknown.

Union Pacific LOF 67, the Guadalupe Local, holds the siding at Seacliff for Amtrak California Pacific Surfliner No. 777, Highballing north to San Luis Obispo

As a spring storm heads east, Metrolink train 684 rolls to a stop about halfway between Los Angeles and the mouthful station of Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo. (Fun fact: There is no mission in Mis... (more)

TRC's afternoon train to Searles glides through the high desert near the Trona Pinnacles. Moments like this, watching SP SD40s roll through beautiful scenery while the purr of the 645 diesels mixe... (more)

After turning their power around on the wye, TRC puts together their outbound train. Most of the train is comprised of empty mineral hoppers, with a few chemical tank cars, and one Department of D... (more)

NPCU 90225 is on the end of northbound San Joaquin 713 at Ballico Ca.

Close enough...The Southern Pacific (Northwestern Pacific) and its successors were doomed from the start in Humboldt County, California. The main reason none of these railroads could ever be profi... (more)

While visiting Railfair '99 in Sacramento I crossed paths with the M&ET doing some switching.