The old Southern Pacific station of Surf is aptly named, as it lies right on the beach in Santa Barbara County, within Vandenberg Air Force Base. There is also an unstaffed Amtrak Station. Being right next to the Pacific Ocean, this part of the Southern Pacific’s Coast Line is often cool and overcast due to the cold water temperatures (thanks to ocean currents bringing cold water south from Alaska) cooling the warmer air along the coast. Such was the case on a February 1996 afternoon as a Southern Pacific intermodal train headed south (railroad “east”) along the California Coast behind Cotton Belt GP60 9689. By the end of this year, the SP would become part of the Union Pacific.
