It's 1962, and the
engineer of this Southern Pacific helper set has his train in hand as
his train crosses Wolf Creek trestle amidst the howl of a four unit
mid-train set of SD9's in dynamics braking mode. Helper operations were
the norm for most of the SP's tenure on the Tillamook branch, until
traffic began to trail off in the latter decades of the last century.
Today, this power lashup could easily be leading a POTB train, albeit
with centerbeam cars in tow instead of boxcars. Photo by Elmer Radamacher,
who was a brakeman for the SP on this line.
