New power in the San Joaquin Valley
It was 1966. I had been given a Yashica-D 2 1/4 twin-lens reflex as a high school graduation gift and was out capturing SP trains in the middle of the summer around Modesto in the midst of the San Joaquin Valley. SP had a really diverse locomotive fleet and I was looking for just about anything except the brand new SD40s and SD45s that were flooding the railroad at the time, but I took the picture anyway. Mated with an F7B and F7A unit, this SD40 was easily powering this high priority train of iced-reefers that was dispatched from Fresno Yard. SD40s by themselves were rated at 10,000 tons on the Stockton subdivision. In West Modesto it is passing GP9 3602 working industries as a local out of Tracy. SD40 8468 was one of 23 units shipped by EMD to the SP in April of 1966 and one of six units that SP put in service on May 6th. It is two months and four days into its long career on the SP as of the date of this photograph. It worked on the SP for 15 years before being put through the SD40 upgrading program where it emerged as SD40R 7566 in April of 1981. It continued working for the SP into the UP take over and was retired at the end of September in 1999, culminating a 33-year period of powering trains.
New power in the San Joaquin Valley
It was 1966. I had been given a Yashica-D 2 1/4 twin-lens reflex as a high school graduation gift and was out capturing SP trains in the middle of the summer around Modesto in the midst of the San Joaquin Valley. SP had a really diverse locomotive fleet and I was looking for just about anything except the brand new SD40s and SD45s that were flooding the railroad at the time, but I took the picture anyway. Mated with an F7B and F7A unit, this SD40 was easily powering this high priority train of iced-reefers that was dispatched from Fresno Yard. SD40s by themselves were rated at 10,000 tons on the Stockton subdivision. In West Modesto it is passing GP9 3602 working industries as a local out of Tracy. SD40 8468 was one of 23 units shipped by EMD to the SP in April of 1966 and one of six units that SP put in service on May 6th. It is two months and four days into its long career on the SP as of the date of this photograph. It worked on the SP for 15 years before being put through the SD40 upgrading program where it emerged as SD40R 7566 in April of 1981. It continued working for the SP into the UP take over and was retired at the end of September in 1999, culminating a 33-year period of powering trains.