For
over a month before I did the trip to San Diego to photograph the
40th Anniversary train, I had planned to take the "Vino Train"
from Los
Angeles to Santa Barbara aboard private cars Overland Trail and Silver
Splendor. This would put me in position to take additional
exterior shots of the Anniversary train at Los Angeles Union
Station. However, due to circumstances beyond my control, I
arrived 5 minutes before Vino Train departure, thus allowing me two
morning shots. Once aboard the Vino train, the owner of Silver
Splendor told me that he had heard the 3751 was going to be brought
into Union Station as part of the Amtrak 40th anniversary. She
came in after 10 am and was gone when we returned. A well known
rail photographer Charles Freericks got a great shot at 10:30 am of the
anniversary train and the 3751.
Upon retrun from Santa Barbara, I had more time to walk the length of
the train and play with the camera settings. I took more photos
with and without flash. I like the reflective paint mandated by
FRA rules.
The P-40 looks nice with the black mask over the cab and top.
The white disk to the right of the MTA building and above the "2011"
date on the locomotive body is the full moon. Even though I got
up early enough before sunrise, I missed the lunar eclipse.
Notice the void in the white stripe in the lower left photo of the
sleeper Pacific Bend. The window interrupts the white stripe.
I inspected the non powered cab unit, a former F-40 a bit more closely
this time. As it has been
turned into a non-powered unit, the traction motors have been
removed. It still has a fuel tank and I could hear the HEP motor
running.
Above right and both shots below show NCPU 90230 in Cascades
paint. It was on Amtrak Surfliner train 792 from San Luis Obispo
to Los Angeles. We caught it in Santa Barbara as our Vino train
return ride.
