{"id":34016,"date":"2022-08-09T07:51:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-09T11:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=34016"},"modified":"2022-08-08T22:04:31","modified_gmt":"2022-08-09T02:04:31","slug":"southern-pacific-on-the-west-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/southern-pacific-on-the-west-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Southern Pacific on the West Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In 1991, Southern Pacific was still routing through freight over its West Valley route between Tehama and Davis, California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Photographer Brian Jennison and I were on our way to photograph streamlined steam locomotive  4449 at Redding on August 31, 1991 (featured yesterday on TTL), when we intercepted a westward SP freight working its way along the West Valley route. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although we were a little tight on time for the steam locomotive, we decided to make the most of this fortuitous find, and photographed the freight twice, once just south (timetable west) of Willows, California and again 15 minutes later near Delavan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This was one of just a few SP trains that I photographed on the West Valley route that was sold off a couple of years later to a short line start-up called California Northern. I revisited this territory in 2003 and again in 2005, to photograph and travel on California Northern&#8217;s local freight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Photos were exposed on black &amp; white film with a Leica M2 fitted with 50mm Summicron, and cropped slightly for effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"474\" height=\"176\" data-attachment-id=\"34018\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/southern-pacific-on-the-west-valley\/sp_freight_on_west_valley_line_brian_solomon_767342\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_767342.jpg?fit=1700%2C632\" data-orig-size=\"1700,632\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_767342\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_767342.jpg?fit=709%2C264\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_767342.jpg?fit=474%2C176\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_767342.jpg?resize=474%2C176\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-34018\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_767342.jpg?resize=1022%2C380 1022w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_767342.jpg?resize=709%2C264 709w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_767342.jpg?resize=205%2C76 205w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_767342.jpg?resize=1536%2C571 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_767342.jpg?w=1700 1700w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_767342.jpg?w=948 948w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_767342.jpg?w=1422 1422w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Although 31 years after I made this image, the subject matter resonates with me more than ever, in my opinion, I released the shutter just a moment too soon. I wish I&#8217;d centered the locomotive between the signals. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"474\" height=\"212\" data-attachment-id=\"34019\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/southern-pacific-on-the-west-valley\/sp_freight_on_west_valley_line_brian_solomon_brian_solomon_767343\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_Brian_Solomon_767343.jpg?fit=1700%2C760\" data-orig-size=\"1700,760\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_Brian_Solomon_767343\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_Brian_Solomon_767343.jpg?fit=709%2C317\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_Brian_Solomon_767343.jpg?fit=474%2C212\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_Brian_Solomon_767343.jpg?resize=474%2C212\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-34019\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_Brian_Solomon_767343.jpg?resize=1022%2C457 1022w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_Brian_Solomon_767343.jpg?resize=709%2C317 709w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_Brian_Solomon_767343.jpg?resize=205%2C92 205w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_Brian_Solomon_767343.jpg?resize=1536%2C687 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_Brian_Solomon_767343.jpg?w=1700 1700w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_Brian_Solomon_767343.jpg?w=948 948w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_Brian_Solomon_767343.jpg?w=1422 1422w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption>Looking timetable East at Delavan, California. I also made a color slide at this location when the freight got closer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Tracking the Light Posts Every Day!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1991, Southern Pacific was still routing through freight over its West Valley route between Tehama and Davis, California.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34019,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[10],"tags":[6285,5361,7283,7535],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SP_freight_on_West_Valley_line_Brian_Solomon_Brian_Solomon_767343.jpg?fit=1700%2C760","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-8QE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34016"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34016"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34023,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34016\/revisions\/34023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}