Ozol was a generic term around here for anything west of Martinez and east of C&H at Crockett.
SP 3199, 9289 and 7473SP 3199
Google machine says :
The EMD, Electro Motive Division, GP40P-2 is a type of four-axle, 3,000hp, diesel locomotive built specially for the Southern Pacific railroad in 1974.
It is a rare version of the GP40, with only three built (SP #3197–3199), but all remain on the Indiana Harbor Belt and Union Pacific railroads.
Although that was in 2013.
I do know that the single shot is very detailed and I quite like it.
We moved back home in April and I finally have time to post. We have been unpacking and remediating the mess left by the renters and making improvements and setting up the garage and offices and working from home and and and !
Strange how moving back to your childhood home can make you think.
For example, there are some taller trees here about and the road names are the same but they are not as ingrained as they were when they were on my paper route.
Occasionally I am struck by the same difference from 1974 to now. The bad memories are stifled and the good surface more often lately.
Interestingly, “my” office was my late brother’s bedroom and then mine in the early 2000s and Dad’s (Fred III)’s office after he retired.
In this same room these same slides were stored for years.
They were sorted and thinned – but not labeled ( Thanks Dad ! )
And now here I am sharing these same slides. Is it weird? Yeah, it is. But it’s sure nice to be home.
Many of the SP slides are in a foot locker – like an Army one – that I think was my Uncle’s from World War 2. Its stuffed with yellow boxes and therefore it’s a grab – bag to start posting from again.
MAY 1985 in Oakland, Ca. I suspect a “museum” move of some sort. SP 3765 lights ablaze at Jack London Square. My beautiful picture
Yes it’s a little blurry – I thought it was me but it is – still kinda neat and it “feels” fast.
Welp today would have been Fred’s 92nd birthday and I managed to grab this print of his.
Although undated it represents SP 4449 before restoring to make The American Freedom Train and then the Daylight thereafter.
Dad lived a few houses off the SP Peninsula line where 4449 and friends used to run by all day, shaking the house like a Three Stooges movie. He credited his interest in trains to this Amazon proximity to these giant, fire breathing beasts.
That was when San Mateo Drive was dirt … he told me about the sight of the elephant towing the steam calliope north up the slight hill with the man playing the circus “oomph path path oompah” music frantically, much to his amusement as a little boy.
That makes sense to me, the train connection…. Also the imagination of those traveling passengers and the places that he could only dream about.
Later in life we visited all 50 states, most several times, large part of Canada and Mexico too… all the while photographing the trains you see here.
Happy Birthday Dad, you would have been humbled by the appreciation shown by followers here.
But dude I wish you had marked the date and location on all these…
My Dad or brother Fred IV, had marked this slide “Briggsmore Ave Modesto”. I searched with the Google machine and didn’t locate any signs of rails currently on Briggsmore Ave in Modesto.
After looking over that and Google man walking around and comparing the features I decided that the slide was indeed marked wrong.
The strange coincidence comes in with my wife, Dana, who temped in this same building when it housed Macromedia, now owned by Adobe. Well, Adobe owns the building and Dana works for Adobe now.
These GP9s and GP9R are ( I think ) tied up for the Peninsula Commuter here at what is known as 7th & Townsend in San Francisco.
Fred's Slides 