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An interesting bit of history here captured by the lens of the late great western rail photographer, Steve Schmollinger.

 

Maybe an SP expert can chime in on this, but some of you out there probably had SPRINT cellular service at one time. It was once the fourth largest cell service company with over 50 million customers.

 

Here's the interesting part: Few know that SPRINT actually had railroad origins:

 

Southern

Pacific

Railroad

Internal

Networking

Telephony

 

SPRINT came about in the early 70s - right around the time of this photo according to Steve's caption. It seems that it was a venture to offer long distance to customers as opposed to strictly internal railroad communication.

 

I'm not sure if we are looking at an example of SPRINT here, or if this is just a land-line used by rail employees. I suspect the later, but it reminded me of the interesting history of the SPRINT cell carrier.

 

Steve's caption reads:

"SP SD7 No. 2704 waits for a signal from the Valley-Mountain dispatcher in Bakersfield to proceed back down the mountain. Tehachapi, CA, 6/23/73."

Done