Cool Chromes -- A Quintessential Short Line of the South

Aberdeen, Carolina & Western; Star, N.C.; May 1992

The short line railroads of the south have their own charm. They have a reputation of being laid back and friendly, and many have a storied history. Some are prosperous, some just hang on.

One prosperous short line that has (or at least had) the appearance of "just hanging on" is the Aberdeen, Carolina & Western. Today's AC&W has sharply painted locomotives operating over 150 miles east of Charlotte. But when I first visited the railroad in 1992 it was only five years old and scratching out a living between the towns of Aberdeen and Star. The line's shop was in Star, and on my first visit it showed a lot of hardscrabble southern charm. The freight house showed its Southern Railway heritage thanks to the distinctive green sign on the building, and a former Chesapeake & Ohio EMD GP9 sat outside. Definitely a hand-me-down railroad.

My next visit to Star was five years later on May 6, 1997. This time I was there at night and wanted to do some night photos. The shop was wide open on the warm spring night, the lights were on, but no one was around. Not finding anyone, I took a few night shots and left. Once again the hand-me-down life of the railroad was evident by the locomotive in the shop -- ex-Chessie System GP38 No. 2077.

Aberdeen, Carolina & Western; May 6, 1997

It looks like this year I'll be making a couple of trips southward during the winter, and the short lines of North Carolina are high on the list of places to visit. The Aberdeen, Carolina & Western will certainly be one of those.

Cool Chromes - The Quebec Central Railway

Quebec Central; Ste. Rose, Quebec; May 2002

One of the more interesting rail operations in Canada sprung up at the turn of the 21st Century in Quebec. A trucking firm revitalized the Quebec Central Railway after the line had been abandoned for almost six years.

First a little background. The original Quebec Central was incorporated in 1869 as the Sherbrooke, Eastern Townships & Kennebec Railway, changing its name to the Quebec Central in 1875. In 1912 the Canadian Pacific leased the Quebec Central for 999 years, but retained its QC identity. Passenger service ended in April 1967 and freight service ended in November 1994; a month later CPR officially abandoned the railroad.

However, since CPR only owned ten percent of the stock in the line, it could not rip up the track and dispose of the assets. The track lay dormant for almost six years until Jean-Marc Giguere, owner of trucking firm Express Marco, Inc., purchased the railroad in December 1999. By June 2000 trains were running again.

I had the pleasure of visiting the railroad in May 2002 along with George Pitarys and Bill Linley. The highlight (at least as far as locomotives go) was a high-nosed ex-Southern Railway U23B. The new QC's locomotives had a unique numbering system that combined names of Giguere family members and a number; the U23B was numbered JMG1 (Jean-Marc Giguere 1). We caught it at Ste. Rose crossing a small stream (above).

The railroad operated out of Sherbrooke right up to the Maine border at Lac Frontiere. However, it was on no particular schedule. Wherever the train finished work one night would be where it would start the next, and finding the train was no easy matter. A roll of Canadian pennies was sacrificed as we pennied the tracks at various grade crossings, then went back to check later to see if a train had gone by. After several squashed pennies, we were finally able to zero in on the train. We eventually photographed the train at Daquaam, just a stone's throw from the Maine border, loading woodchips.

Quebec Central; Daquaam, Que.; May 2002

Other power on the railroad included a pair of ex-Illinois Central GP11s (one an ex-reading GP7 and the other an ex-New Haven GP9) with numbers SG2 and GG3 (Silvain and Gaston Giguere, respectively), ex-Delaware & Hudson U23B GG4 (Dany Giguere), ex-Maine Central GP7 RG5 (Roger) and an Alco S2 that broke the numbering pattern with GS9 (Giguere Switcher 9). We caught one of the GP11s and the GP7 at Dudswell Junction, where the sun made a very rare appearance on this trip.

Quebec Central; Dudswell Junction, Quebec; May 2002

The railroad was ultimately abandoned again in 2006, but this time was purchased by the Quebec Ministry of Transport. Service has since been restored to parts of the railroad. The 2000-2006 version of the Quebec Central was a neat operation, and I'm glad I had a chance to see it.

Cool Chromes -- Cotton Belt 819

Cotton Belt 819; Bernie, Mo.; June 12, 1990

Cotton Belt 4-8-4 No. 819 -- the classic example of a locomotive all dressed up with no place to go. The Northern-type locomotive was built in the shops of the St. Louis-Southwestern Railroad (better known as the Cotton Belt) in Pine Bluff, Ark., in 1943, the last steam locomotive built by the railroad. It was to some extent a copy of ten Northerns that Baldwin had built for the railroad in 1930 (Nos. 800-809). Cotton Belt built five additional Northerns (Nos. 810-814) in 1937. The last five (Nos. 815-819) were slightly different from the rest, as they had steel number plates and numerals, and no chrome plating (war time restrictions were in effect). No. 819 served the Cotton Belt only slightly more than a decade, and was retired in 1955 and presented to the City of Pine Bluff to recognize the important role the town had played in the history of Cotton Belt steam.

In 1983 the locomotive was removed from display and taken back to its birthplace, the Pine Bluff shops, for restoration as an excursion locomotive. It returned to service in 1986 and ran until 1993. In 1990 it ran to the National Railway Historical Society convention in St. Louis, taking two days to get there. That's where our photos begin. The first day (June 12, 1990) saw the train run from Pine Bluff to Illmo (Scott City), Mo., including a meet with a Cotton Belt freight at Bernie, Mo. (above).

The next morning the photo line was huge at the Cotton Belt bridge over the Mississippi River at Thebes, Ill. Photographers were stacked about five high to get the shot. Fortunately, maintenance work had one track shut down (the equipment was parked on the bridge, so the photo line knew there would be no interference from trains) making for some room at the end of the bridge for a shot.

Cotton Belt 819; Thebes, Ill.; June 13, 1990

From here the photo line quickly dispersed into all directions. The next time we caught the train was just up the road at the signal bridge in McClure, Ill. The train made several servicing stops along the way, allowing the photo line to skip ahead for additional shots (the train was authorized for 55 m.p.h., so the stops were a good thing).

Cotton Belt 819; McClure, Ill.; June 13, 1990

In St. Louis, No. 819 shared the stage with three other steam locomotives -- Norfolk & Western 2-6-6-4 No. 1218, Union Pacific 4-8-4 No. 844 and St. Louis-San Francisco (Frisco) 4-8-2 No. 1522. The quartet was parked at Union Station for the convention, and each evening you could find one or more resting along the platforms.

Union Pacific 844 and Cotton Belt 819; St. Louis, Mo.; June 1990

My last encounter with 819 would be at the Pine Bluff shop in 1993. The locomotive was mere months away from its second "retirement." The Cotton Belt was purchased by Union Pacific, and the UP has a pretty strict policy that only its own steam locomotives can operate on its lines (this rule has been broken only rarely). Firmly entrenched on the UP, No. 819 found itself landlocked. Today, the Cotton Belt shops are the Arkansas Railroad Museum and No. 819 is undergoing another rebuild. Where will it run once the rebuild is finished? That is the question....

Cotton Belt 819; Pine Bluff, Ark.; March 27, 1993

Cool Chromes -- Conrail in New York State

Cool Chromes is a semi-regular feature that looks at slides that have passed through the scanner.

Conrail; Selkirk Yard, N.Y.; May 18, 1997

Conrail; Hudson, N.Y.; Feb. 22, 1999

April 1st of this year marked the 38th anniversary of the creation of Consolidated Rail Corporation (better known as Conrail). Since then, April has been a sort of unofficial "Conrail Month" among eastern rail enthusiasts, even though Big Blue ceased to exist in 1999. Conrail was certainly a fun railroad to shoot -- the locomotives were usually kept clean, and motive power consists were almost always matched blue units. I often headed to New York to shoot Conrail, and here are some of mu favorite Empire State memories to commemorate Conrail Month. First up, we see a lot of blue power at Selkirk Yard (above) outside Albany -- Selkirk was the nerve center for trains operating on former New York Central and Boston & Albany lines. Trains from the west would proceed beyond Selkirk to northern New Jersey on the NYC's West Shore line or into New England on the former B&A (itself a NYC subsidiary). Selkirk was (and is) important to New England, as since 1974 it marks the farthest point south a freight train can cross the Hudson River and enter the easternmost states.

One of the coolest places to shoot Conrail was on the street running in Hudson. A local freight would diverge from the NYC main line and head up a steep hill to serve a grain mill. The return trip would find the train passing the Iron Horse Bar (left) as it made its way back down to the main.

The day I shot the train in Hudson (February 22, 1999) turned out to be a pretty good one. I set up at the big bridge in Catskill and was rewarded with a southbound train using a pair of Conrail's SD80MAC diesels. The '80MACs used alternating current to power the traction motors (most diesels of the era were direct current) and couldn't be mixed in consists with d.c. diesels. Thus, to make sure they ran only with other a.c. engines, they were made visually different by adding a white bow wave to the nose.

Conrail; Catskill, N.Y.; February 22, 1999

Usually chasing trains on the NYC Water Level Route is a tricky prospect. Only local roads follow the tracks and train speeds are pretty decent. But for some reason the SD80MAC-led train ran into some slow going, and I was able to get ahead as it went through the cement plant in Alsen.

Conrail; Alsen, N.Y.; February 22, 1999

Next we'll head west on the NYC and wind up in Syracuse. The city skyline forms a backdrop as a westbound train leaves town in late afternoon on a hot summer day.

Conrail; Syracuse, N.Y.; July 21, 1998

Of course, the best place to shoot Conrail in New York was the Hudson Valley. One day I went exploring near Marlboro and wondered what the shot was like around the curve south of town. As I got a bit more than a half-mile from the crossing I began to see something above the tracks; it kind of resembled a bridge. It turned out that there was an abandoned quarry or something along the tracks and a loader spanned the railroad to load barges on the Hudson. The loader hadn't been used in a few years, by the looks of things, and it did appear rather rickety. Nonetheless, I made my way out onto the loader and was rewarded with a nice shot of a southbound train.

Conrail; Marlboro, N.Y.; March 27, 1998

Of course, the best place in the Hudson Valley to shoot was -- and remains -- Bear Mountain. We finish our look at Conrail in New York by standing on the Route 9W bridge overlooking the Conrail bridge over Popolopen Creek. Bear Mountain is slightly south of here, and the bridge of the same name spans the Hudson; that's Anthony's Nose (named for Mad Anthony Wayne) on the other side.

Conrail; Fort Montgomery, N.Y.; October 1988

A complete Conrail gallery can be found on the website here. A complete New York State gallery can be found here.

Cool Chromes -- VIA's Yellow Nose F40s

VIA Rail Canada; Lake Louise, Alberta; September 1988

The current F40PH paint scheme

VIA Rail Canada is the national railroad passenger carrier in the Great White North. After its inception in 1976 when it took over passenger operations from Canada's freight railroads (primarily Canadian National and Canadian Pacific) it set about to modernize its locomotive fleet. Much like Amtrak in the U.S., VIA settled on the F40PH locomotive from the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors. The locomotives came in an attractive silver and blue scheme with a bright yellow nose (such as No. 6404 above at Lake Louise, Alberta). In the years since, the F40 fleet has been thinned due to age, and the survivors all wear VIA's new scheme (inset). Here are a few of my favorite photos of the old paint scheme that served the F40 fleet so well.

We'll start in the Maritimes with the Ocean, VIA's train from Montreal to Halifax. Here No. 6409 is leading the eastbound train at Beaver Brook, New Brunswick. The "Canada" under the headlight was a later paint scheme modification, moving "VIA" to above the headlight, a positive development for the paint scheme.

VIA Rail Canada; Beaver Brook, New Brunswick; June 20, 2005

Sticking with the Maritimes, we next see the Bras D'Or, a fairly short-lived train that ran from Halifax to Sydney, Nova Scotia. Largely a tourist train, the once a week trip headed out of Halifax one day and returned the next through some spectacular oceanside scenery, We see the train at Boisdale in July 2002.

VIA Rail Canada; Boisdale, Nova Scotia; July 2002

LRC trainset with original locomotive

VIA purchased several sets of low-slung railcars with matching low-slung locomotives (for taking curves at higher speeds). The cars on the LRC train sets (Light Rapid Comfortable) would outlive the locomotives by quite a bit, so F40s could often be found towering over the trailing consist. Interestingly, even though the F40s had a much higher profile than the LRC locomotives, the higher speed limits for LRC trains on curves remained in place. F40 No. 6434 is dashing through the snow with an LRC trainset at Ile Perrot, Quebec, just a few minutes away from its destination in Montreal.

VIA Rail Canada; Ile Perrot, Quebec; December 12, 1997

Let's head to western Canada for a couple of shots. We'll start off in Revelstoke, British Columbia, as the Canadian makes is after-dark station stop. In the 1980s the Canadian railroads remained far friendlier and accessible than the U.S. railroads, which were beginning to clamp down on access due to liability. We went to the end of the platform with our flash gear before the train's arrival and asked an employee "where will the locomotive stop when it gets here?" His reply: "Where would you like it to stop?"

VIA Rail Canada; Revelstoke, British Columbia; September 1988

There is no scenery in North America quite like the Canadian mountains of Alberta and British Columbia. F40 No. 6428 pauses with the Canadian at Banff, Alberta, the gateway to the heart of the Rocky Mountains.

VIA Rail Canada; Banff, Alberta; September 1988

Certainly a favorite train for both photographers and riders is the Chaleur, a try-weekly train that runs on the Gaspe peninsula in Quebec. The train leaves Montreal combined with the Ocean for an overnight run to Matapedia. At daybreak the train is split, with the Ocean continuing to Halifax and the Chaleur proceeding to Gaspe. Adding to the train's charm is the equipment -- the coaches are all stainless steel cars produced by the Budd Company in the 1950s. There are several high bridges on the route, including this one at Ste. Therese, Quebec.

VIA Rail Canada; Ste. Therese, Quebec; July 2002

At Gaspe the train turns on the wye and pauses for a few hours before returning west, making it a perfect train for a day trip of either photography or riding. The train has discharged its passengers and is backing into the station for the lunch break after turning in the photo below. Alas, as this is written, the track on the Gaspe peninsula has deteriorated to the point where the Chaleur is now suspended. It's future is very much in doubt.

VIA Rail Canada; Gaspe, Quebec; July 2002

VIA has never been shy about painting its locomotives into rolling billboards. Everything from hardware stores to television stations to beer have been on the sides of F40s. I have had bad luck shooting most of these schemes, but the one scheme I did see (and I saw it a few times -- six F40s got the treatment) was for the Spiderman movie. We'll take a look at Spidey rolling through Bayview Junction near Hamilton, Ontario, to bring an end to our look at the yellow nose F40s of VIA.

VIA Rail Canada; Bayview Junction, Hamilton, Ontario; January 30, 2005

Cool Chromes -- Colorado 1985

Amtrak; Denver, Colo.; May 1985

Ask any well-traveled rail photographer to list their top five states for shooting, and the odds are pretty good that Colorado will appear on that list. With the spectacular Front Range of the Rockies just outside Denver, a busy multi-railroad line heading down to Pueblo and some of the best tourist railroads in the land, Colorado has quite the variety. My first visit to Colorado was in 1982 to attend the convention of the National Railway Historical Society. I didn't have a car for that trip, so non-convention photos are rare. But I returned in 1985 to ride a trip behind Union Pacific's Challenger No. 3985 (we did a post on that earlier) and again in 1988 to attend the 50th Anniversary of the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club. We'll concentrate this post on the middle trip, starting in Denver Union Station in 1985 (above).

Next, we're following Amtrak's westbound California Zephyr into the Front Range. It is about to enter the first of over two dozen tunnels on its climb up the Rockies, which will ultimately top out inside Moffatt Tunnel.

Amtrak; Tunnel 1, Plainview, Colo.; May 1985

Next, we'll follow Union Pacific north out of Denver towards Cheyenne, Wyo. We see a northbound rail train passing the Monfort meat packing plant.

Union Pacific; Greeley, Colo.; May 1985

Back at Union Station in Denver, we find the eastbound California Zephyr pausing just after sunset. The descent down the Rockies was made as twilight consumed the plains and the lights of Denver started flickering on in the distance. The Denver & Rio Grande Western, the host railroad for the Zephyr on this leg of the trip, added a freight locomotive for braking down the grade from Moffatt.

Amtrak/Denver & Rio Grande Western; Union Station, Denver, Colo.; May 1985

Heading south from Denver, we are on the Joint Line to Pueblo. The Joint Line is so named because trains from the Rio Grande, Burlington Northern and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe all used the tracks at this time. A northbound Rio Grande freight was spotted along the shores of Palmer Lake.

Denver & Rio Grande Western; Palmer Lake, Colo.; May 1985

Still on the Joint Line, we see a southbound train at Castle Rock behind a trio of the Rio Grande's way cool SD50 locomotives. The Joint Line was built as two different parallel railroads (Rio Grande and Santa Fe), but consolidation led to the railroads sharing the tracks with Rio Grande's line being used for northbound trains and the Santa Fe's for southbounds. This southbound Rio Grande train was actually running on the northbound track, which lined it up quite nicely with Castle Rock.

Denver & Rio Grande Western; Castle Rock, Colo.; May 1985

The Rio Grande had some interesting names along its route. West of Moffatt Tunnel was one of my favorites. We finish our visit to Colorado in 1985 with a stop at Troublesome.

Denver & Rio Grande Western; Troublesome, Colo.; May 1985

Cool Chromes -- The Bay Head Streamliners

Cool Chromes is a semi-regular feature where we look at slides that have recently passed through the scanner.

NJ DOT; Bay Head Junction, N.J.; July 26, 1981

One of the great commuter shows in the country -- especially among the commuter operations run by a state agency and not a classic railroad -- was along the northern New Jersey coast in the early 1980s. The New Jersey Department of Transportation's North Jersey Coast Line (also known by its legacy name of the New York & Long Branch) was operated by Conrail under contract for NJDOT, with the state agency supplying equipment. The NY&LB was shared by two railroads -- the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Central Railroad of New Jersey, both of which became part of Conrail in 1976 -- and into the NJDOT years the trains from the two railroads maintained separate looks. The former CNJ trains were diesel powered from Hoboken, but it was the former PRR trains that stole the show. Coming from Pennsylvania Station in New York, the trains were powered by electric locomotives to South Amboy, N.J., where the electrics were replaced by diesels to continue on to Bay Head. This locomotive change continued for several years into the New Jersey Transit era (which began in 1983) until electrification was extended to Long Branch.

The ex-Pennsy trains were powered by E8 diesels, most of which came out of the PRR merger into Penn Central pained solid black. NJDOT adopted a nice blue scheme with a silver cigar band (see No. 4320 in the photo above), which was a not bad scheme (certainly better than the solid black). But when NJDOT turned that cigar band into a bow wave (the other two locomotives above), then they really had a nice scheme. A later variation of the bow wave had a state outline in a circle added. Bay Head Junction was the end point of the railroad, where a turning loop and yard were located. The evening and weekend lineup of trains there was always worth shooting.

Further up the line at Red Bank we see a southbound train led by a pair of E8s. Note the lack of the state outline on the nose.

NJ DOT; Red Bank, N.J.; August 30, 1980

Needing to bolster its E8 fleet, NJDOT purchased additional units, including a couple from the Southern Railway, When Amtrak was formed in 1971, the Southern opted to stay out of the national passenger carrier and operated its Southern Crescent with E8s between Washington, D.C., and New Orleans, La. Southern eventually joined Amtrak, making its E8s surplus. Though battered by age, the former Crescent units were a nice addition to the NY&LB.

NJ DOT; South Amboy, N.J.; July 1981

At South Amboy the E8s gave way to electrics so the train could finish its run into Penn Station. But these weren't just any electrics -- these were classic GG1 locomotives from the Pennsylvania Railroad. Indeed, the NY&LB would be the last place these veteran locomotives from the 1930s would operate. Weekends at South Amboy would find E8s and GG1s sharing the compact engine terminal.

NJ DOT; South Amboy, N.J.; March 23, 1980

GG1 powered trains coming into South Amboy from New York had to cross Raritan Bay on a long bridge. This bridge became one of the most photographed railroad locations in New Jersey during this time period. The GG1s, much like the E8s, wore black from Penn Central. Unlike the E8s, all the GG1s (save one) never got a new coat of paint.

New Jersey Transit; South Amboy, N.J.; May 13, 1983

At the opposite end of the bridge is Perth Amboy. The shore of Raritan Bay in this town became known by railfans as Bacteria Beach. It was packed with photographers on October 29, 1983, during the last day of GG1 operations. Doing the honor of pulling the last train was GG1 No. 4877, the only repainted electric motor on the New Jersey Transit roster (NJT had taken over rail operations from NJDOT and Conrail on January 1, 1983). But what a paint scheme it was painted! No. 4877 received the classic Tuscan Red and five gold pinstripes of its former owner, the Pennsylvania Railroad.

New Jersey Transit; Perth Amboy, N.J.; October 29, 1983

At Rahway the NY&LB joins Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. Amtrak had retired its GG1 fleet a couple of years ahead of NJT, replacing them with modern Swedish-designed AEM7 locomotives. So when a Bay Head-bound train met an Amtrak train, it was definitely a meeting of eras -- the last of the 1950s passenger trains meeting the trains of the 1980s and '90s.

NJ DOT and Amtrak; Rahway, N.J.

Cool Chromes -- Louisville & Nashville 152

Cool Chromes is a semi-regular feature that looks at slides that have recently passed through the scanner.

Louisville & Nashville No. 152; Marion, Va.; June 6, 1986

Some restored steam locomotives have been elusive for me. While Southern Railway 2-8-2 No. 4501 was one of the most photographed and widely traveled steam locomotives of the 1970s, I only saw it once. With lessons learned from steam locomotives that appeared and quickly vanished before I could see them, when I heard that Louisville & Nashville 4-6-2 No. 152 would be powering trips for Norfolk Southern out of Bristol, Va., I made plans to get down there.

Louisville & Nashville No. 152 is a Jersey girl, built by the Rogers Locomotive Works in Paterson in 1905, one of 45 Pacifics purchased by the L&N from the builder. Among its reported claims to fame is it powered part of the trip that took Al Capone to Alcatraz. It was retired by the L&N in 1953 and donated to the Kentucky Railway Museum. It returned to service for the museum in 1985, and in June 1986 it was tapped by Norfolk Southern to power a set of trips.

My brother Bruce and I headed south from New Jersey on Friday night, June 5, after work. A nearly all-night drive put us in Bristol on the Virginia-Tennessee border at about 4:00 a.m. We found No. 152 in the yard, and the night hostler was nice enough to turn on the headlight for us for a quick round of night shots. We then slept in the car until daybreak.

Louisville & Nashville 152; Bristol, Va.; June 6, 1986

The morning found No. 152 getting ready for the first of two weekend trips. The first one would take it north on the former Norfolk & Western's Shenandoah Line, a stretch of track that was often used by O. Winston Link for his magnificent night photos from the 1950s. Much of the line roughly follows U.S. Route 11, making chasing somewhat intuitive -- a good thing in this day before GPS systems or even decent maps. Near Marion, Va., we got the classic Pacific heading north.

Louisville & Nashville 152; Marion, Va.; June 6, 1986

The trip's destination was Walton, which is a railroad place deep in the woods along the New River near Radford. At Walton is a wye, which would allow the entire train to be turned for the southbound trip back to Bristol. We caught the train approaching the northern end of its trip at Dublin, just outside of Radford.

Louisville & Nashville 152; Dublin, Va.; June 6, 1986

On the return trip we went into the town of Rural Retreat. It was here that O. Winston Link made a classic night shot at the depot on a Christmas Eve, and recorded the sounds of a train passing through town as the church bells played hymns.

Louisville & Nashville 152; Rural Retreat, Va.; June 6, 1986

Signal problems dropped the train's speed to ten miles per hour as it followed a rural road above Marion. This allowed for multiple easy shots, including a pastoral scene at Atkins.

Louisville & Nashville 152; Atkins, Va.; June 6, 1986

From here the train proceeded back into Bristol, unloaded its passengers, and deadheaded to Johnson City, Tenn., for the next day's run to Bull's Gap and Natural Tunnel. The following day's chase was much more challenging (it was done using a state highway map that kind of showed railroads), but we got a handful of shots.

In the years since this trip, No. 152 has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places and was named the Official State Locomotive of Kentucky. It is now the oldest surviving Pacific-type locomotive in the U.S. It was retired from service at the Kentucky Railway Museum in 2011 and faces a future that will largely be determined by the ability to raise a large amount of cash.

Cool Chromes -- My First California Trip (Part 4 - North To South)

Amtrak; Norden, California; May 1991

In the last few editions of Cool Chromes we have been looking at scenes from my first trip ever to California in May 1991. In the first part we looked at a few random images; in the second part we focused on the Santa Fe Railway; and in the third part we chased Southern Pacific 4449 from Klamath Falls, Ore., to Sacramento. In this final installment, we'll do a quick tour from north to south in the Golden State. Since this was my first trip to California, I had to see it all and did cover the whole state from the Oregon border to San Diego. We'll start this last tour high in the Sierra Nevada as the California Zephyr emerges from the snowshed at Norden and is about to make its descent down Donner Pass on Southern Pacific tracks. Even this late in the year, the winter snow remains piled high.

Our next stop is in the Central Valley below Sacramento. Stockton is the easternmost port in California that ocean-going ships can reach (it's well inland, but the San Joaquin River is navigable from San Francisco Bay) and as such is a busy rail center. Two short lines serve Stockton, the Central California Traction and the Stockton Terminal & Eastern. During the 1991 visit the ST&E was still powered by diesels from the American Locomotive Company, including S4 No. 564 built in 1951.

Stockton Terminal & Eastern; Stockton, Calif.; May 1991

West of Stockton, the upper Bay Area is full of refineries. We caught Southern Pacific SW1500 No. 2662 hauling tank cars near the passenger station in Martinez. In 1991 only a couple of Amtrak trains served the small station here. However, Amtrak California greatly expanded service in the region, with trains serving Sacramento and Bakersfield from Oakland passing through Martinez. Today Martinez has a brand new station that serves over 30 daily trains.

Southern Pacific; Martinez, Calif.; May 1991

Moving down along the Bay, we are on the south end of the peninsula just north of San Jose to see Caltrain action at Santa Clara. Caltrain is the commuter line that heads south from San Francisco to San Jose, with limited service beyond to Gilroy. The circular ramp made a nice photo prop for F40 No. 902. Note the train number boards sticking out near the cab window indicating that this is train No. 32.

Caltrain; Santa Clara, Calif.; May 1991

Down in Los Angeles, the only passenger trains serving the city were Amtrak trains, coming into recently restored Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal. On the way into the station, trains had to pass by Terminal Tower, which controlled movements through the complex. Here's a somewhat unique Amtrak train with a baggage car and Amfleet cars; double-deck Superliners are more common in the west.

Amtrak; Terminal Tower, Los Angeles, Calif.; May 1991

Up next we head out into the desert east of Los Angeles on the former Southern Pacific. In 1991 Beaumont Hill was not seeing much traffic -- the stack train boom was in its infancy -- but it was still worth a visit. We caught GP60 No. 9707 (lettered for SP subsidiary St. Louis Southwestern -- better known as the Cotton Belt) passing under a cantilever signal bridge in Beaumont.

Southern Pacific; Beaumont, Calif.; May 1991

Next, we find an Amtrak Surfliner heading south (the locomotive is actually pushing the train) as it heads through San Clemente. In 1991 the coastal town was only 17 years removed from its claim to fame as the location of the Western White House, the residence of President Richard Nixon.

Amtrak; San Clemente, Calif.; May 1991

We started our tour on snowy Donner Pass and we'll finish our tour basking in warmth of the Pacific sun. In 1991 Los Angeles had no commuter train service -- Metrolink was still a couple of years away -- but there was one commuter-ish train running down the coast line from Los Angeles to Oceanside. The train had double-deck gallery cars from Caltrain's San Francisco commuter service, with an Amtrak F40 on the south end for power and an Amtrak cab car on the north end for the northbound trips. We see the train at the end of the run as it comes into Oceanside. This concludes our tour of California in 1991 and you can see why the Golden State is almost railfan heaven!

Amtrak; Oceanside, Calif.; May 1991