Spring Time In California,
Part II
by Ken Rattenne
It's the late afternoon of March 29, 1980,
and I was heading to Southern California from my home in San Jose for a
week of photography. As I sped east through Livermore I heard a radio transmission
indicating Western Pacific's San Jose Turn was on at the east end
of Altamont Pass and heading my way on it's six-days-a-week trip to Milpitas.
Without hesitation I exited from I-580 at Greenville Road at the west end
of the pass and began driving up the winding Altamont Canyon, praying that
the train didn't show up first. I quickly attained the first decent photo
location and set up.
I didn't have long to wait. I no sooner had
grabbed my trusty Nikon FM2 from my 1972 Dodge van when the familar sight
of a rounded green and orange snout peeked around the bend curve. Cool!
The F-units! Well, almost.
In charge of today's
Turn were two
of the four Fabulous Four F-units: The 917, in the lead, and the 918 third
unit back. The second unit was high hood GP20 2006, and fourth unit back
was one of the railroads quirky U30Bs in New Image paint. While mildly
disappointed that the queen
of the fleet, silver and orange 913, was not in the consist, the train
still looked freakin' good!
The hills that
seperate the Bay Area from the Central Valley are alive with spring colors
on March 23, 1989.
By the spring of 1980 both of the F-units
in tday's train had been rebuilt then repainted into the carbody version
of the WP's New Image scheme; in fact, only GP20 2006 was still in the
older (and darker) Perlman Green. By the time of the Union Pacific merger
in 1982, the only GP20 to receive the updated paint was 2010.
(Click the top photo)
A Spring day two years before finds the San Jose Turn of March 24, 1978
fighting gravity as it works the 1% uphill climb to Altamont Summit. The
fourth active F7A on the WP was not yet back on the proprty after its rebuild
at Morrison/Knudsen in Idaho.
"You Shoulda Been
Here!"
Upon my return to San Jose I discoverd that
the very next day following my departure (and this photo) every railfan
in northern California was out in the early chill to chase a sold lashup
of Union Pacific E-units pulling a long string of Armour Yellow passenger
cars on what would turn out to be the first of sevreal inspection trips
over the WP. Thhe kicker to this news? The Armour Yellow streamliner met
the WP's last four F-units on - you guess it - Altamont Pass.
That beautiful streamliner would prove to
be the prelude to the future merger of the Wobblie into the UP and Missouri
Pacific systems.
So, while most Norcal railfans were up at
the crack of dawn chasing the UP special, I was down in Cajon Pass blissfully
photographing the Santa Fe, unaware of what I was missing..
Photo Details
This photo was made
with a Nikon FM2 equipped with a Nikon E Series 75-150mm lens shot on
Kodachrome 64 slide film. The frame was exposed at f5.6 for 1/500 of a
second.
Text
and photographs copyright ©2000-2018 by Ken Rattenne & KPR Media
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