19 Years ago Today.

On April 9, 1994, I made this image of a freshly painted California Northern GP15-1 in front of the former Northwestern Pacific station at Petaluma, California. In the foreground are some poppies—California’s state flower.

California Northern had only recently assumed operation of several former Southern Pacific lines, including the lower portion of the NWP route via Petaluma. As it turned out, California Northern only operated the NWP segment for a few years, making this a relatively rare image. It was published in Pacific RailNews in the mid-1990s.