In honor of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 1869, I present this photo I made of a westward SP freight ascending Donner Pass in May 1994.

The train is near the Nevada-California state line rolling approaching a narrow cleft of the Truckee River Canyon that is shared with Interstate-80.

I made the photo using Kodachrome 25 slide film with my Nikon F3T. The train was led by an unusual combination of locomotives, an SP SD45, followed by Conrail SD40-2 6354, another SP SD45, and Cotton Belt DASH8-40B 8047.

Having made dozens of trips over Donner Pass, I’d long eyed this vantage point from the eastward lanes of I-80.

On this day, once I knew the train was on its way up ‘The Hill’ from Reno, I drove west on I-80 from Verdi, then reversed direction at Floriston, California, and carefully timing my arrival at this location, so I could set up from the eastward breakdown lane and catch the train running along the river. (I seem to have neglected this level detail in my notes!)

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