Napavine, WA

Northbound out of Bakersfield, 1985

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Santa Fe northbound freight

Northbound Santa Fe freight pulls out of the yard in Bakersfield, California, on June 7, 1985.

There's a lot I don't know about this picture. I don't know the train symbol or the engineer's name. I don't know the train's length or tonnage or priority. I do know it's a Santa Fe freight heading north out of the yard at Bakersfield. By the look of the straight-down shadows it's around high noon. I do know it was hot because I remember trying to stand in the shade of a telephone pole. It was very bright as the bleached out dirt in the foreground attests. No, it's not snow. The Apocalypse would have occurred if there was snow on the ground in June in Bakersfield.

I'm sure a lot has changed. The signal wires and poles are gone. The searchlight signal and cantilever tower are gone. I'm sure the locos and rolling stock no longer exist, at least in these forms. The near siding is still there, but it's partner on the inside has been taken up. The dirt, scrub brush and tumbleweeds are still there.

The film was 35mm Kodax Plus-X, ASA 125 (not DIN), 36 exposure roll. We had to manage our shots then so we wouldn't run out of film. In those days I was raising a growing family so I also had to budget cash. Slide film was a luxury, and it was available for railfanning only if there was a frame or two left after an important family event. Any other time I used bulk black & white film that came in 100-foot rolls, which I had to cut into 6 foot lengths then load into daylight cartridges in the pitch darkness of a closet. Standing in the closed end of a dacron sleeping bag. Under a wool blanket. Ultimately, I obtained a daylight loader to avoid the bags and blankets. It still was cheaper than buying film in a yellow box off the shelf. After shooting, it was off to a dark (bath)room to develop the negatives. Most of the frames were never printed, such as this shot. Everyone wanted to see locomotives.

ATSF 2909 GP35

ATSF 2909, GP 35

ATSF 2735 GP30

ATSF 2735, GP 30

ATSF 2855 GP35

ATSF 2855, GP 35

Santa Fe northbound freight

Crossing over the new Truxtun Extension in preparation to crossing the Kern River. Apparently the taggers took the bait the city provided in the form of a new bridge and have left the rolling stock alone.

ATSF 623078 boxcar

I probably took this because the boxcar looked new and shiny. Now I wish I had used the film on the first boxcar following the locomotives with its riveted sides and high mounted brakewheel (see above). Stenciling indeed shows that ATSF 623078 was new in June 1980, being a Santa Fe class Bx-212 and AAR code XLI (loader equipped and insulated).

ACFX 78380 tank car

There were plenty of tank cars in petroleum-rich Bakersfield. Two harbingers of the future flank the tanks: a BN gondola and a single stack container on a flat car (COFC). SP's Tehachapi line, jointly shared with Santa Fe, had not yet been improved to allow double stacks through it's tunnels.

ATSF 76994 2-bay hopper

Three lettering styles in as many cars head up a string of two-bay hoppers.

ATSF 999382 caboose

Trailers on flat cars (TOFC) are still in use today, but now ' Trailer Train' prefers to be known as 'TTX' instead. Norfolk & Western is now part of Norfolk Southern. The caboose was on the verge of disappearing, and I was happy to capture this one, complete with nostalgic factory-equipped air-conditioning, i.e., open the doors and windows. That's what we had in grade school!

Photos by David J. Cooley