Back in the day, Southern Pacific’s famed Daylight was often pictured crossing Santa Susana Pass—a scenic cleft in the rocks between Simi Valley and Chatsworth, California.
Once a remote area, this is now hemmed in by suburban development, freeways and public parks.
Riding Metrolink, I’d noted several potentially interesting locations on the west side of the pass (SP timetable west, today Union Pacific timetable north).
Reviewing Google Maps, I found that views of the line should be accessible from Corriganville Park, located a little ways to the east of Simi Valley. So one afternoon last week, David Hegarty and I made an exploration of the area.
There’s a flurry of Metrolink and Amtrak trains in the evening. We found some locations near CP Davis (location of a passing siding) with an aim to make images of BNSF GE-built AC4400CWs that have been working many Metrolink trains.
I exposed these images with my FujiFilm X-T1 digital camera, but I also made a few color slides that will be processed at a later date.
Tracking the Light posts every day.
The BNSF AC4400CWs have an interesting story. BN and BNSF were early users of EMD AC locos. A small fleet of GE AC4400s were the first BNSF purchase of GE AC locos. Unlike the large fleet of Dash 9s and later Evolutions maintained by GE for BNSF, this small fleet was maintained by BNSF with other men and parts. They pulled coal trains from Wyoming for more than 15 years. I expect the details of the ownership and lack of a service agreement has something to do with the use of these AC4400s by Metrolink after the downturn in domestic coal. Pulling coal trains from Wyoming and pushing commuters in LA couldn’t be any more different. Interesting. TSH