SD59MX's in Feather River Canyon

During my annual journey up to the Western Pacific railroad museum this past August I took some time in the afternoon to chase a few of the trains that were running on the eastern portion of UP’s Canyon Sub. After spending the morning at the museum I chased UP’s AGBMI west out of Portola and down to Keddie where I waited to see what else was running. Soon UP’s “canyon crawler” local (which runs between Roseville and Portola, CA) came along heading east. On the point were a pair of spotless (Roseville based) SD59MX’s. I chased the crawler back to Portola catching them at Williams Loop and finally at Two Rivers. Below is a picture of the UP 9912 and 9920 at MP 305.0 on UP’s Canyon Subdivision (just west of Two Rivers). These rebuilt SD60Ms sure look sharp.

Thanks for looking,

~Ryan

Very nice scene and those SD59MX units do look good.

CZ

Those “spotless” SD59MX’s do look nice against the backdrop of that scenery… I can almost hear their horns echoing through the hills!

Looks like I took this at the same spot looking the other way.

Stellar image!

The 59’s are on Ex- SD60 frames right?

former SD60M’s, as stated in the original post.

Bryan Jones

Thanks for the comments all. Those SD59MX units look very sharp.

Chad, your image appears to have been taken near the old WP station of Cresta (b/t Pulga and Rock Creek). My shot of the SD59’s on the Canyon flyer was taken at Two Rivers (MP 305.0) which is roughly 15 miles west of Portola.

~Ryan