Climbing Cajon Pass on a beautiful spring morning is BNSF Railway train S-LBPALT2-14, with four locomotives up front (ES44AC 6134, brand new ES44C4 3264, ES44C4 8329 and Dash 9-44CW 5235), two Distributed Power Units in the middle (ES44DCs 7451 and 7723) and one more DPU on the rear (ES44C4 8146). This train is symbolled as a Long Beach CA to Alliance TX train, but in reality, it will split in two when it arrives in Clovis NM, with part continuing on to Alliance and the other section heading to Chicago IL. The seven General Electric locomotives’ combined 30,800 horsepower is needed to get this train’s 156 loads, weighing 13,064 tons and stretching for 14,222-feet, over the grades between southern California and New Mexico. (Blue Cut, Cajon Pass, California – May 15, 2020)
