Tehachapi 1989 

Thanks, this is a repost of the video I did a few days ago. I wanted to improve the contrast as the other one was kind of washed out. I've got more.

It does seem a little more vivid than it did yesterday. I'm sure I speak for a lot of people here when I say PLEASE upload more! It will be a sad day when the stockpile of 8mm Tehachapi videos has run dry.

The master recording was made on VHS using the highest quality consumer equipment available at that time.

To be fair, the highway is much steeper than the railroad. Whereas the tracks snake through what seem to be endless curves, including the famous loop, Hwy 58 goes straight up the pass. On the other hand, each truck only moves a pittance of the weight of a train. The advantage of trucks is that they can take your freight from your loading dock directly to the other guy's loading dock. Railroads have the advantage over distances greater than 400 miles. That is why you see so many JB Hunt, Schneider, Amazon, FedEx and UPS, etc. vehicles on trains. Most of them are containers but UPS still prefers complete trailers on piggyback flat cars. The railroads don't like piggyback because of the higher tare weight and wind resistance at higher speeds, versus 2 containers per well (platform) on articulated double stack cars. I believe that UPS's reasoning is that their trailers have a below-floor-level cargo space that is built integrally with the chassis and can not be separated and stacked like containers can.

I believe to the Kaiser Steel plant at Fontana. That plant was subsequently closed, partially demolished, and turned into what is now California Speedway.

@@Sacto1654 Probably not, those loads were going north, Fontana is way south and would have been sent over Cajon from Mohave. Weird is that its got Rio Grande hoppers to boot which owned SP by 1989. Maybe those were leased or power balanced SF locos pulling that train, because SP would have used their own power if they could. I don't know if there was a coal fired plant in Northern Cal in 1989, but that's where they were going, or for export from Oakland or Portland. Maybe the Overland route over Donner was closed during this filming and they had sent them from northern NM or CO via the Sunset route?

SD 45-2 CABLESS

SD45-2B

By the late 80's and into 90's SP was not only short on cash they were going through a motive power shortage as well. Hence why older units stuck around on the property longer then they should have mostly due to SP rebuild programs to try to make them last longer as investors to financially back new motive power on the roster were few and far between. That changed in the mid 90's as the industry was going through a traffic upswing and suddenly SP's already power shortage problem was hit in full force. Hence why with a more positive outlook for the industry with the freight traffic levels rising SP was finally able to start acquiring newer power. However existing power such as what you see in this video was the best SP had at the time and consequently due to the power shortages as well as the financial instabilities SP was struggling with at the time, the money and effort it would have cost SP to pull power (especially road power) from active service just to spend money washing the units wasn't worth it. It'd have cost money to do so and wouldn't have mechanically given the units any benefit. Bare in mind SP was basically only throwing money at essential repairs at this point in time. Anything to keep the desperately needed power still running and making money. So keeping the power clean purely for the benefit of aesthetics was the last of SP's concerns at that point in time. Further compounding the problem, more mountainous districts are usually plagued with tunnels which only increase the exhaust related filth that ends up all over the motive power. Hence why for example MRL's new power looks like crap after spending a few months up in the mountains. Plain and simple mountain railroading isn't a clean way of operating nor is it cheap. So when your already cash strapped the last thing you want to do is throw money at aesthetics when your just trying to stay financially afloat to survive onto better times.