In California, the F-unit, that colorful  icon of streamliners and simpler times, was all but extinct from the rails in the Golden State. Only two pockets of "resistance" could be found, both in Northern California: Amtrak, which was running a small fleet of ex-Southern Pacific FP7s on the Oakland-Bakersfield San Joaquin, and the Western Pacific, which still rostered six freight Fs used in mostly a captive service hauling a pair of trains between Stockton and Milpitas-San Jose twice a day, six days a week! 

In that year of 1975 WP's last six F7A units were well-known to railfans throughout the state even though two of them were stored out of service at the Stockton roundhouse never to run again. Also well known were the trains the last F-units were assigned to. The morning run was carded as the APF/SJM and the afternoon run the SJT/SJP. 

These trains were as close to regularly scheduled freights as one could get. Because the morning run was accomplished mostly in the pre-dawn hours, railfans focused on the afternoon train, the SJT. Photographers could count on the train departing Stockton around 1:00 pm, allowing one to take up position anywhere along First Subdivision and reasonably predict when the SJP would show up. 

In the photo above, the returning SJP is sitting on the Milpitas Yard departure track waiting for a highball from the dispatcher. In the lead is GP9 727, pinch hitting for F7A 913, which was out for its monthly inspection. In the background part of the Ford Motor Company logo can be seen, marking Ford's Milpitas Assembly Plant, WP's most important shipper. To the left of the train is nothing but empty fields, a far cry from the industrial parks and asphalt that surround successor Union Pacific's yard today.

Still in the future is the near loss of three of the four Fs due to fire and a grade crossing accident, and their resurrection through a surprise rebuild in 1978. 

(Right) WP 727 on display in Elko Nevada on September 9, 1988 (click photo to enlarge)


In fact, all four units pictured above made it into the 1980s and merger with Union Pacific. The four F-units are now consigned to museums while GP9 727 holds the distinction of being the only WP Geep to be donated to a city, now residing in the city of Elko Nevada and on display downtown where WP's and SP's paired track once lay.

For those of us following the WP, those were exciting times!