Moving further west downhill to Alray Tunnel, I found the "standard" UP lashup of the time leading an eastbound out of the tunnel. We were pretty sick of these things back then, since like GEVO's they were on every train. But give it 30 or so years, and what a thrill it would be to have solid lashups of SD40-2's roaming around again. I have not been back here since this was taken, but I am pretty sure the old Santa Fe north track here is now double tracked with the tunnel completely removed. Track above on the right is the Southern Pacific.

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Located just a bit further west (about where you see the rear of the train in the previous post), my buddy caught another eastbound UP train. In this view from the collection, we have an eastbound hopper train that is just about to the top of the 2.2% eastbound grade on the north main. Running the "wrong main" for eastbounds has been the preferred choice for Santa Fe dispatchers here, because the south main (normal "right" track for eastbounds) has a 3.2% grade on it. Which brings to mind one thing I always liked about the Santa Fe is they used north and south tracks, instead of numbers, for designation. To us railfans, and probably railroaders, that seems to be less confusing than numbers that sometimes change back and forth.

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California is another state in which my UP collection is severely lacking, so we dig into the collection for a little help. This help comes in the form of a super shot taken by my a lifelong railfan friend, Mr. Dennis Nehrenz. In this scene, Denny nailed down an eastbound van train cresting the top of Cajon Pass, nicely taking in the whole view at the Santa Fe railroad location of Summit.

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Heading further west toward the coast with our UP themed photostream, we find an eastbound auto rack train making for a fine shot at 5:30 pm, thanks to the winding track taking the UP over Cajon Pass. I'm sure (unfortunately) that I probably passed this off as just another UP train with the usual power at the time, but I'd be happier than a pig in mud to be shooting this type of UP train now. We didn't realize that we were living in the good times back then.

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A westbound hotshot meets the previously posted eastbound empties train, right about where the top of Cima Hill appeared to be. This was one of the coolest UP trains I've ever shot, because I just loved those hog cars on the head end. Yes, in 1991 the UP was still handling livestock traffic, and for all I know, probably was the last railroad in the country doing that. I believe it was for Farmer John Meatpacking in Los Angeles, but I'm sure someone can correct me on that if I'm wrong. I look at this and can only wonder how livestock traffic would turn into deadstock traffic under the current PSR infested UP.

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