A far cry from the steep grades and many tunnels of the Moffat Tunnel route, UP 1989, Union Pacific's Denver & Rio Grade Western heritage unit, has managed to find itself working hard upgrade into a different "mountain" pass as it exists Tunnel 19 on Metrolink's Valley Subdivision and leads the ZLCLT-21 into Soledad Canyon just east of Lang, California.
Lang is notably the famous location that in 1876 Charles Crocker, President of the Southern Pacific Railroad, drove a golden spike to signify the completion of the first rail line into Los Angeles.
Besides being one of the only locations this train looked somewhat presentable in the late afternoon light, this spot still carries two appropriately labeled Southern Pacific wooden crossbucks at this private crossing.
