Southern Pacific Daylight

I photographed SP train 99, the northbound Coast Daylight, at Burbank, California in 1968. A cousin had bought a bargain Pentax SLR for me at the Navy ship's store in Guam, and I was out early on a Saturday morning trying it out.

Trains have fascinated me since early childhood. I grew up in El Paso, Texas and Mexico City, Mexico. I attended prep school in Mount Hermon, Massachusetts where I could see the Central of Vermont across the Connecticut River, and where I traveled by Boston & Maine and New Haven railroads. I went to college in San Luis Obispo, California where the Southern Pacific coast route makes a horseshoe curve around the Cal Poly campus at the foot of Cuesta Hill. Meets of the Coast Daylights could be seen around noon every day. In the mid-50's steam helpers were still at work on the Cuesta grade. Why all this blah, blah, blah? These 2 photos are part of about 20 or so that have survived from my early life. Oh well, you can't go back, can you?