Southern Pacific Freight Southern California 1970's Color Sound Nick Muff 

I grew up in SoCal, had a neighbor that was an SP Engineer, Billy Welch. He had a regular run from LA to Indio, we had a place out in the desert and when we would drive along I-10 we used to look to see if he was driving the train we were passing. Saw him several times, was a real kick for me when I was a little kid!

I love the old "bloody nose" SP units, with all of their special headlights, section lights, etc.....and no graffiti on the cars...

I really enjoyed this , Thank you , Before the world went to hell.

This is some great footage. The wood service only boxcars , with the yellow slash on the door (10:50) really bring back memories. I used to see solid strings of those on the Siskiyou line in the 70's .Didnt get to see tunnel motors at speed like (22:00) though. That was cool.

Bright paint and no graffiti!! Wonderful video- a little bit of everything!!

Great to see the old SP in action and climbing Cajon Pass. There was still plenty of smog around back then.😮‍💨

Fantastic beautiful footage

I remember watching a Pentrex program about old stuff in the 70s and hearing about the cookies ladies, but actually seeing them in person and hanging off cookies to the crew, now that was cool!

Well done, Nick. Glad that I'm not the only one that enjoys a switch machine operating. Good wishes to all.

I remember playing on the dead tracks for locomotives , i lives in El Serino Alhambra. There was a staging tracks parallel to Valley Blvd. We played engineers pretending that we were traveling all over the country. Oh fun days these were. Thanks for the memories.

SP used to pick up oranges and lemons behind my house until the bridges got washed out in 69.

Great footage - you really can appreciate the height and size of the U50. They were goliaths!

Now these are freight trains.

Fantastic footage!! Love seeing those Hydra-Cushion boxcars on LA area!!

My father worked for SP after he got out of Vietnam. He started out doing teletype .I was born in 76 and vaguely remember the teletype. We were on the Oregon coast and once that was phased out .he was the extra board for 5 yrs he got to do a lot of cool stuff .Race in front of the train for 80 miles closing 3 trestles to let the train across or starting out and coming back to the cold bay depot .Some days we would just control the cops bay trestle crabbing and fishing all day .I got to ride from the depot to the farthest point in both the lead engine and in a few cabooses .I love the red nise

I'd take that brand new Chevy Blazer on the top of that auto rack! I wonder what those went for new in the 70s? GeeeeZzz, I feel old.

fantastic video! Catching the U50B's is impressive since SP only had 3 of them. I saw 9950 and 9951, very cool.

This brings back memories of watching SP freights in Pomona with my mom. Since the UP paralleled the SP through Pomona, we'd sometimes see a UP train flying past with a Centennial in the lead. Good times!

I worked out of Bakersfield mid 90s and the old heads talked about the cookie ladies.

Le monde a changé depuis, des trains encore plus long plus lourds et plus de cabhoose. Mais nous nous rappellerons toujours de Southern Pacific.

Loved one of the first shots along Los Angeles Ave in Simi Valley at Tapo St!!!

Love the good ol days of open auto racks. My, has society changed...

Reminds me of “Duel”

You can never get tired of watching trains go around the loop

Classic SP Hammer Footage,,, ♡♡Thanxs

Wow! Lots of classic action! Plus some Alco's to boot! :)

21:01 Is an SP freight at Lerdo in the San Joaquin Valley North of Bakersfield. Photographer is standing on the Lerdo Highway overpass.

Great shots! Had a good mix of everything. Only thing missing was some FM train masters.

I have to admit Southern Pacific had an impressive fleet of Alco locomotives both early and late models probably my favorites were some of their RS11s that were built with low nose configurations

Beyond compare! This is how I remember the SP growing up in the 60's and 70's. Thank You so much for sharing this!

this is a real treat.......thank you

Man! What a video. Color and sound film back then must've cost a fortune!

Love the SD-39 5316 at 12:42. The SD-35's and the SD-39's were my favorite locomotives. Distinctly Southern Pacific. Watched many of them over Tehachapi before the tunnel motors showed up. Still live in Bakersfield but without the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe it's not the same.

great video love the esspee

My favourite railroad of all time. Fantastic footage, well edited. Thank you for posting this video.

What a great page! Terrific train videos. Bravo.

nice video

First scene is in Simi Valley at Los Angeles Ave. and Tapo St.

Awesome! I am very happy to see you captured the video and sound of the dispatcher controlled switch machines as the dispatcher was throwing the turnouts!

Thank you so much for this absolute treat! The sweet memories of my childhood: watching the Espee with my dad and the 16 mm sound films! You’ve made my Sunday afternoon.

I think I saw this film on Movie Day Friday in elementary school....in the 70s.

Based on the freightcars, I'd say these were shot around 1974 or 75. Most of my SP watching during this period would have been in Davis CA or Sacramento up north.

Fantastic.

I been watching the SP RAILROAD going through Cabazon and San Timoteo canyon and Colton tower back in 1974 also running through banning and Beaumont California and watching SP running at the loop in Tehachapi

13:42 was that the lady with the cookies? I remember the old heads talking about her.

Those 4 engines where getting it,and then the 3 d.p.u s on the rear where nice

Back when the inland empire air was often thick brown or brown-yellow. Most days you couldn't see the mountains.

Funny thing never changed through the years the SP and the Cotton belt never like to give locomotives baths lol Also look at all the ungraffitied cars 2 it's amazing to see compared to the last 15 years when you look at railroad footage

0:30 That's the Santa Susana depot, Simi valley CA. Still there, moved a mile up the line in the late 70's, now a museum and model railroad society...

3:09, Four Units lashed up together without any Train behind them. Immediately, it reminded me of the Movie Runaway Train.

Southern Pacific U50 RIP

No graffiti on any of those cars.

do you have any footage of the santa monica air line, beverly hills branch, amoco junction, burbank branch and alla junction?

And cabooses!

I really enjoyed reading the comments on this video, I also remember the 70’s as a boy, I was born in Sacramento in 1965 and lived in Roseville when the Roseville yard blew up! That was insane, the house rattled forever it seemed. Then a year later we moved to Dunsmuir then Klamath Falls, OR. Dad worked for SP since 1965 and hired out of Oakland and retired about 12-15 years ago. I remember rural California just as seen in this video, everything then was a lot slower and wasn’t flooded with people. Then I consider how life is today for the people in California and it’s shocking how people tolerate all the garbage from the State government, not to mention how bad the illegal immigrant population has grown to, unbelievable. We sacrificed so much to build our country and State all to just gradually give it over to a replacement population. Oh well.

1:33, 9:41 Can anybody tell me where/which crossings those shots were filmed at?

am i crazy or are those 40' box cars in the very first clip?

Very cool. Open car carriers! What has happened to our society where now everything must be locked up? Very sad, lack of respect with people.

Yes no graffiti!

wonderful footage, but if he would have stood back from the tracks a little further you could see the details of the locomotives and freight cars a bit better.