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July 1986, the ICC denied the union of the SP and Santa Fe, but not before some 400 locomotives and a handful of cabooses from both roads had been re- painted in red and yellow SPSF paint. Thirty-plus years ago, how many of us bothered to turn around and photo- graph the receding rear end of a train after capturing the head end on film? I shot only 20 or so cabooses in black & white during 1984, and not quite half as many in color. The railfan maga- zines of the day hardly saw it coming. But by the second half of 1984, the news began showing up at our mailbox- es and local hobby shops: caboose-less trains are on their way. On SP, the ca- boose phase-out was set to begin in Au- gust of 1984 on certain through trains on the Sunset Route east from L.A., while Santa Fe implemented caboose- less operations on several SoCal locals and road switchers in September, fol-


32 FEBRUARY 2014 • RAILFAN.COM


lowed quickly by a number of trains on the L.A.-Chicago corridor. The end of the caboose gained nowhere near the level of rail press coverage that the end of steam had, although SoCal-based Rail Classics magazine did run a “Ca- boose Watch” section for a couple of years, and dedicated its entire March 1986 issue to a “Caboose Special.”


Meanwhile, Down on the Surf Line… In 1984, the extensive interurban network of the Pacific Electric was a distant memory, and Metrolink and Coaster were still a decade or so into the future. The closest thing to com- muter railroading in southern Califor- nia was Amtrak’s San Diegan. Consid- ered more of an “inter-city” service linking L.A. and San Diego (127 miles), plus half a dozen points in between, San Diegans were good for up to 90 m.p.h. on certain stretches of Santa


ABOVE: After climbing inland 11 miles from the Pacific shoreline, Amtrak San Diegan train 575 approached the summit at MP 189, one mile south of El Toro, Calif., on the morning of January 23, 1984. OPPOSITE TOP: The au- thor spent most of his California years living close to Santa Fe’s Surf Line in El Toro, where Amtrak’s short-lived San Diegan Metroliner is seen flying by at 90 m.p.h. on the morning of August 2, 1984. Two weeks later, Kelly and his parents left California for a new life in north Idaho. OPPOSITE: In the hazy sunrise of March 25, 1984, Amtrak’s Southwest Limited was climbing off the Mojave Desert between Lugo and Summit, soon to begin the long de- scent down Cajon Pass. Six months later, Santa Fe Railway permitted Amtrak to rename the train Southwest Chief.


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