The Tunnel Motors were designed to keep units from overheating in tunnels and snowsheds like those on Donner Pass. The tunnel motor design was applied to 245 SP-SSW SD45T-2s and 239 SP-SSW and... (more)

Southern Pacific EMD SD40T-2 No. 8355 waits on a train at the SP’s yard in Mojave, California, on March 6, 1995. The optional extended nose houses radio and electronic equipment used for remote-... (more)

October 14, 1996 - at Dolores Yard in Carson, CA (although I may be over the Compton border for this shot), a pair of speed lettered SP brutes await their next assignment. I was just getting back ... (more)

In October 1987, a pair of slug sets normally found on Southern Pacific's Toledo Hauler are working as helpers in the Cascades. They display the result of ongoing operation in this service as they... (more)

Three southbound Southern Pacific trains sit in the SP yard at Mojave, California, on March 3, 1994. Both freight trains on the left are led by SP EMD SD45T-2s, while the oil cans in the distance ... (more)

SP purchased in 1974, three GP40P-2s originally built for commuter service. In 1993 they were rebuilt and converted strictly for freight service by removing their steam generators. Originally bu... (more)

Intermodal, 1970s Style!

A westbound Southern Pacific intermodal train, full of those "long" 40' containers (two per 89' flat!) has just crossed the Santa Fe's Third District. T... (more)

Rolling along the Missouri River, an eastbound Southern Pacific transfer freight exits the West Bottoms area of Kansas City, Missouri, on the morning of September 16, 1990.

Former Southern Pacific GP60 #9752 found itself a long, long way from home in this 2004 photograph I made in Catawba, South Carolina. She was being used by CSX at the former Bowater plant in York ... (more)

A Southern Pacific train of empty beet racks passes through Modesto's "South Ninth" neighborhood on its way from the Spreckels Sugar refinery in Manteca back to Fresno, where the train's cars will... (more)

Bringing up the rear of an eastbound Southern Pacific freight departing West Colton Yard is SP bay-window caboose 4621. Built by Pacific Car & Foundry in 1978, this was one of fifty C-50-7 class ... (more)

On August 2, 1996, Southern Pacific’s westbound KCOAF (Kansas City to Oakland Forwarder) has just arrived at Colorado’s scenic Tennessee Pass. Led by EMD SD40M-2 No. 8650 (still looking like a... (more)

Rolling southward freight (eastbound in Southern Pacific parlance), a trio of EMD SD45s, consisting of SP 8898, 9120 and 9100, is nineteen miles from San Luis Obispo, at which point this crew will... (more)

Passing another train that is tied down in a siding, a westbound Southern Pacific freight, led by Cotton Belt GE B40-8 No. 8080, approaches Tucson at Wilmot, Arizona, on the afternoon of April 21,... (more)

Southern Pacific train No. 52, the southbound "San Joaquin Daylight," running south of Caliente in the Tehachapi Mountains of Southern California in January 1960. Photo by Southern Pacif... (more)