Blast from the Past -- EMD GP60s Pulling a Union Pacific Freight Train in Templeton, Calfornia
by Darin Volpe
Title
Blast from the Past -- EMD GP60s Pulling a Union Pacific Freight Train in Templeton, Calfornia
Artist
Darin Volpe
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
This EMD GP60 may have pulled trains through Templeton years before, while it was still gray and owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad.
The Coast Line in California was once a well-used route for Southern Pacific. Several trains per day, including their famed Daylight passenger train from San Francisco to Los Angeles traveled this stretch of track. A shorter route than the line up the San Joaquin Valley, the Coast Line had more hills, and so was secondary to that line for freight. Still, through the 1980s an average of ten freight trains per day traveled up and down the coast line.
As the 1990s progressed, more and more traffic was sent through the San Joaquin Valley, and traffic began to fall off. With the Union Pacific's takeover of the SP in 1996, the Coast Line saw fewer and fewer trains. Today, freight trains are a rare sight on the Coast Line. Those that do come though are either work trains or, as in this case, locals pulling just a few cars.
On this day I was lucky to get a daytime freight train that came through just after another rare event - a storm that brought 3-1/4 inches of rain to the Central Coast of California. The formerly gray GP60 locomotive, long repainted in Union Pacific yellow, reflected beautifully as it passed through a picturesque scene in the small town of Templeton.
Uploaded
January 10th, 2022
Embed
Share