Nostalgia & History > Hot Trains Don't Always Get the Best Power

Here is an example of what looks to be the remanent of SP's LA to Portland PCX intermodal with a mixed bag of UP, SP and leased power at Bealville and Caliente, CA in the summer of 1998.

You must be a registered subscriber to watch videos. Join Today!

Nice catch!

Some things never change, it seems:
Back in SP days, I was on the hottest train on the railroad, a short-lived Salinas CA - Chicago train that SP put on in an attempt to recapture the Budd of California perishable pig traffic that it had lost to Santa Fe (some years prior, Budd had begun trucking their trailers 125+ plus miles to ATSF, Richmond rather than suffer at the hands of SP). The train had two well-broken-in U-Boats on the head end when my crew picked it up in Watsonville Junction.

The day prior, we had assumed the same two units in West Oakland for a down train, and one of them proceeded to leak out all of its cooling water before we ever pulled out of town, necessitating a trip back to the roundhouse.

Beyond the two GE's, our Chicago-bound hot shot had two pigs and a caboose. We whizzed up to San Jose (excepting when the harrassed dispatcher fumbled a meet, delaying us considerably), where that one unit ran out of water again, and perhaps in sympathy, the other just plain died. We eventually completed the 100 mile run with one motor within the twelve hours allotted to us by Hours-of-Service.

When I hear haughty talk about "SP tradition", this is the sort of thing that I tend to think about.

EO

 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/16 10:14 by hogheaded.

Great story - I'm guessing that business never did come back.

Are we talking about the SMOKEY? I worked the Smokey countless times and we burned up the rail between SLO
and Taylor. All had good power and plenty of it. 5, 6 &7 HP per ton every trip! Could and did beat the daylight's time
by 45 minutes no sweat.

MaineLines Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great story - I'm guessing that business never did
> come back.

Nope. I'm not sure if this was the summer or the next that standard reefer car loadings in the Watsonville Jct. area (mainly Salinas Valley ) fell below those needed to fill a standard 80 car reefer block for points north and east (a couple of years before, two trains ran each night).  Essentially, SP's Salinas Valley traffic bled away during the 1970's. Those four GP40X's were purportedly ordered so that SP could combine the two perishable trains into one gargantuan block, but by the time that they arrived from EMD there was only enough traffic for one train (SP then rebranded these remote units as "fuel-savers" and proceed to use them on (headend only) on another failed attempt at expedited service, the LAOAC / OALAC). Essentially, SP's Salinas Valley traffic bled away dramatically during the 1970's, and management was unable to find an effective fix. Loss of said prime traffic was a harbinger of SP's dismal future under Staggers (transportation deregulation), which occurred within months of my story.

ValvePilot Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Are we talking about the SMOKEY? I worked the
> Smokey countless times and we burned up the rail
> between SLO
> and Taylor. All had good power and plenty of it.
> 5, 6 &7 HP per ton every trip! Could and did beat
> the daylight's time
> by 45 minutes no sweat.

No, I'm speaking of the Salinas-Chicago Trailers, which ran geographically northward out of WJ. The Smokey dates back at least into the 1930's, as far as I can tell. You're right about it being a fast run (barring unexpected difficulties), at least in my experience. The first run that I ever took as a young brakeman out of SLO was the Smokey, with conductor Kadlubowski (my mind is going blank about his first name - I worked with 3 Kadlubowskis over the years), as kindly an old head that ever inhabited the RR. SLO had the sweetest bunch of old head conductors that I ever ran across as a young boomer - the Swain Brothers, Foghorn Fagan...

EO

Love the video!   Not much is seen online of the SP after merger.    Dole was alive and well on that train, and Im surprised to still see a May trailer on there.
If you have more, please share...

Those LAPCX trains should have been labeled as the "Banana Express" hotshots with all of the Dole containers full of that product on there.

​Five things I learned from this video:

​(1) Didn't realize the PCX trains were still running two years after the UP/SP merger, but the UP's 'meltdown' of the late 1990s would soon take care of that part of the equation.
​(2) As noted by the OP, crappy-looking power on what was then UP's hottest train on Tehachapi, but the answer to that is from #1 above, as good power was at a premium with the meltdown and trains parked everywhere around the system.
​(3) I also noted the one May trailer on there; that business should have been gone years before 1998, when both May and Gordon got off of the trains...or so we thought they did.
(4) Also saw the Interstate and CF 'pup' trailers on that train, which was news to me. I knew Interstate ran on the trains, but with the bigger vans. Also had no idea Consolidated Freight was on those trains, either.
​(5) Missed opportunity for UP to keep that service running even with the meltdown in full-blown mode by that time. Espee had built the PCX business up to the point that 2nd sections of the trains were running several days week, but I guess UP decided that the I-5 Route was not a priority, hence the trains disappearing soon after the video shown here was taken.  

​Love the video look back to better days on the hill...thanks for the post on here.

boomer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Those LAPCX trains should have been labeled as the
> "Banana Express" hotshots with all of the Dole
> containers full of that product on there.
>
> ​Five things I learned from this video:
>
> ​(1) Didn't realize the PCX trains were still
> running two years after the UP/SP merger, but the
> UP's 'meltdown' of the late 1990s would soon take
> care of that part of the equation.
> ​(2) As noted by the OP, crappy-looking power on
> what was then UP's hottest train on Tehachapi,
> but the answer to that is from #1 above, as good
> power was at a premium with the meltdown and
> trains parked everywhere around the system.
> ​(3) I also noted the one May trailer on there;
> that business should have been gone years before
> 1998, when both May and Gordon got off of the
> trains...or so we thought they did.
> (4) Also saw the Interstate and CF 'pup' trailers
> on that train, which was news to me. I knew
> Interstate ran on the trains, but with the bigger
> vans. Also had no idea Consolidated Freight was on
> those trains, either.
> ​(5) Missed opportunity for UP to keep that
> service running even with the meltdown in
> full-blown mode by that time. Espee had built the
> PCX business up to the point that 2nd sections of
> the trains were running several days week, but
> I guess UP decided that the I-5 Route was not a
> priority, hence the trains disappearing soon after
> the video shown here was taken.  
>
> ​Love the video look back to better days on the
> hill...thanks for the post on here.

1 &5)   The PCX trains never really disappeared after the merger.   They always ran, but without the moniker, enthusiasm, and without many of the contract truckers.    But it did run as the same hot train from both destinations.   A staple would have been the Interstate trailers from early on and still happening today.   That's about the only trucker who stuck with it during the service problems.   JB Hunt and Schneider also stuck around.
3)   Perhaps it was a stray May trailer, or got mixed up at the terminal.   I agree, they were off trains for quite some time by then.
4)   For sure the CF and Roadways pups were a part of the mix, but more after the merger.   Prior to that, CF trailers showed up in equal amounts on the PCX and the similar LABRF/BRLAF.   Not so much the Roadway pups, but yes to longer Roadways trailers.    Overnites popped in sometimes too.