While going through some of my photos this evening a happened upon a folder that contained some images of one of my favorite locomotives, ex Santa Fe (ATSF) FP45 #95 which is part of small collection of railroad equipment at the Western American Railroad Museum in Barstow, California. The FP45 has always been one of my favorite diesel locomotive designs and being able climb all over and photograph #95 was always a guilty pleasure.
Unlike the unit I discovered in Louisiana, FP45 #95 is spending the rest of it's days right next to the tracks it once ran on and in front of the depot in Barstow that it once served. This locomotive began it's life as a passenger locomotive pulling one of the Santa Fe Railroads premiere trains the Super Chief which was later renamed The Southwest Chief. The Chief was known as the Train of the Stars because it transported passengers from Chicago in the Midwest to Los Angeles and Hollywood. One of it's stops just before it reached Los Angeles was Barstow which also had one of the railroad's famed Harvey House restaurants where passengers were treated like royalty while they dined.
Like it's Louisiana counterpart #95 operated pulling both passenger and, then later in it's life, freight trains over the steep grades of the infamous Cajon Pass.
The Western American Railroad Museum is a great place to visit if you love railroad history and if you happen to stop by give old #95 some love.
Here is where to find it:
Here are my photos:
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