At the Southern Pacific diesel plant near downtown El Paso, Texas - Six month old SP GE B39-8E #8008 and eight year old Santa Fe EMD SD40-2 #5136 are resting with an assortment of other motive power while they are all being fueled and sanded. – March 6th, 1988 ~~ A Jeff Hampton Photograph ©

© All Rights Reserved

Eastbound Wisconsin Central train T048 with a pair of Southern Pacific General Electric AC44CWs is pulled down and stopped just short of Pioneer Road for a Rugby Junction meet with a westbound.

This SP power would have come up to North Fond du Lac with an empty coal train whose hoppers would then be cleaned out to be readied for a load of taconite pellets off the Missabe.

Very often while the hopper car cleaning process was taking place there at Shops Yard, the SP power would be “borrowed” for a quick turn down to Chicago or Milwaukee instead of sitting idle during its layover. – July 13th, 1996 ~~ A Jeff Hampton Photograph ©

© All Rights Reserved

Sunrise is still about an hour away the foggy morning of October 14th, 1994 where an eastbound Wisconsin Central 107 car loaded iron ore train pauses for a crew change near the yard office in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

The power is a solid set of four month old 8100 series Southern Pacific C44-9Ws that will be taking this taconite train all the way out to Geneva Steel in Utah. ~~ A Jeff Hampton Photograph ©

© All Rights Reserved

This is one of those shots where I was not at all thrilled with the power consist back when I caught it on September 10th, 1993 - But now many years later those grimy old EMDs somehow seem so much more appealing.

Southern Pacific SD40T-2 #8384 leading the IC 6070 & EMD 184 near the North Ash Avenue crossing in Wood Dale, Illinois. – My notes from the day show this as an “SP detour on the CP”. ~~ A Jeff Hampton Photograph ©

© All Rights Reserved

Adjacent to the big Southern Pacific freight yard in Tucson, Arizona there used to be a Pacific Fruit Express repair facility that featured everything needed to maintain the large fleet of PFE cars including a Machine shop as well as a wood, reclaim, wheel and other specialized shops.

They also featured this handsome little 1946 vintage EMD NW2 switcher with its Southern Pacific Daylight inspired paint scheme for moving cars around.

Pacific Fruit Express was once jointly owned by the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific, (with the Western Pacific also participating for a number of years) and as far as I could tell the last PFE repair location which was located in Nebraska was closed back in the year 2022 with all work transferred to Union Pacific car repair facilities. – March 2nd, 1990 ~~ A Jeff Hampton Photograph ©

© All Rights Reserved