Crew change
With the power switching out on three trains multiple times over the course of a day it makes for a lot of crew changes. That's what's happening in this scene. The road engineer has offloaded his grip after the last trip with C&NW 6847 and turned it over to the hostling crew to be set aside. Now the SP 1518 will power the coach train. The hostler's attention is focused out the door back to the train as the connection is made to the coaches. Meanwhile, a trainman on the front steps compares notes with road engineer as he stands by for them to turn over the right-hand seat.
As I mentioned earlier, 1518 is the first of 17,000+ SD series EMD locomotives, built as the SD7 demonstrator. It was sold to the SP and had a long life of revenue service, over 50 years, extending into the UP era. It's been in preservation for over 20 years now. 1518 is in pretty rough shape cosmetically but I don't entirely mind the fading and rust. To me the weathering attests to the harsh climates the SP served and some of the lean years on the SP towards the end of their run. An air of believability is added, you can almost imagine the conversation starting off with something like "What do you make of the news? Sounds like they're selling the whole ball of wax to Union Pacific." August 10, 2024.
Crew change
With the power switching out on three trains multiple times over the course of a day it makes for a lot of crew changes. That's what's happening in this scene. The road engineer has offloaded his grip after the last trip with C&NW 6847 and turned it over to the hostling crew to be set aside. Now the SP 1518 will power the coach train. The hostler's attention is focused out the door back to the train as the connection is made to the coaches. Meanwhile, a trainman on the front steps compares notes with road engineer as he stands by for them to turn over the right-hand seat.
As I mentioned earlier, 1518 is the first of 17,000+ SD series EMD locomotives, built as the SD7 demonstrator. It was sold to the SP and had a long life of revenue service, over 50 years, extending into the UP era. It's been in preservation for over 20 years now. 1518 is in pretty rough shape cosmetically but I don't entirely mind the fading and rust. To me the weathering attests to the harsh climates the SP served and some of the lean years on the SP towards the end of their run. An air of believability is added, you can almost imagine the conversation starting off with something like "What do you make of the news? Sounds like they're selling the whole ball of wax to Union Pacific." August 10, 2024.