SP Passenger Trains

[drew1946]

SP GP9 #3002 with the next to last Eastbound Del Monte, April 29th, 1971

[drew1946]

Train Master #3020 at Cahill St. with commute #139 in July of 1969. Note the older two tone paint on the 2nd car.

Note: I will be posting some SP stuff here as I was banished from Toad Odors.

[drew1946]

It was the 2nd day of Amtrak, May 2nd 1971 but it was still every bit an SP train---seen at Alviso.

[drew1946]

FP7 #6455 leading Train #99, The Coast Daylight, at San Jose in March of 1971. The Daylight had the distinction of being the only passenger train the SP never tried to abandon.

[drew1946]

The SP's PR department dubbed this train, #76, the Eastbound Lark, "The Bird That Couldn't Fly". Seen in March of 1967 at San Jose, the baggage and RPO cars are being worked and the train will soon continue its journey to LA. In a little over a year, after the loss of the RPO, the Lark made its final trip.

[drew1946]

Easter Sunday 1971, the war in Viet Nam was still raging, it had been less than two years since Niel Armstrong set foot on the moon, and the name "Watergate" had not entered our lexicon. In Fresno, SP Train #51, the Westbound San Joaquin Daylight was making its daily station stop. The third car after the baggage was one of SP's beloved "automat" cars.

[drew1946]

Train #54, the Sacramento Daylight, making its morning stop at Lodi, CA. The train will continue on to Tracy where it will meet The San Joaquin Daylight. It is April of 1971 and the little train will stop forever on April 30th.

The Lodi depot survives but has been moved from this location.

[espeelover]

Very nice stuff! Have a Karma point for your efforts...

[espeefoamer]

I liked them all.Especially the Del Monte,taken in that sweet evening light.

[drew1946]

First weekend of April (I think) 1971, SP GP9 #3000 and three stable mates from the commute pool have arrived at Cannon on the Cal-P with and excursion which had originated in San Jose.
The SP power would cut off and a lone Sacramento Northern ALCO switch would take the entire train over to Dozier and ten to Rio Vista Jct. and what was then known as the California Railway Museum.

[drew1946]

May 1972---SP FM Train Master #3025 is racing past Newhall Yard in San Jose with Train #153 and a single gallery car in tow. In the background is the now gone Newhall Tower.

I grew up about 200 yards from where this was taken.

[drew1946]

Where Newhall St. once crossed the SP, FP7 #6452 heads West with Train #99, the Coast Daylight. It is May of 1966 and the train number is still displayed, a practice which would end a little over a year later. While most of SP's FP7's would go to Amtrak, #6452 was one of three that did not. It would be destroyed in an accident while working on the Sunset.

[drew1946]

Floriston, CA, January 1971. That years Pacific Rail Society's Snowflake Special is seen Eastbound at Floriston. The train had made an overnight run up the Coast, the over Donner Pass arriving Reno in the late afternoon.

[drew1946]

The Coast Division odd ball---built as Cotton Belt #306 (in Daylight regalia) then #320, it came west when CB passenger service ended. Not equipped without either dynamic brakes or a standard plow, it spent its remaining years in the commute pool. Seen here being added at San Jose to the front of #98 in early 1971.

[drew1946]

#6462 With commute #110 at Santa Clara in April of 1970