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March 1943. Santa Fe trip from Chicago to California. Trains on the Santa Fe tracks through Cajon Pass in the San Bernardino Mountains. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information.
Both main tracks in the photo are now owned by the BNSF. At the time of the photo the tracks were owned by the Santa Fe with trackage rights given to the Union Pacific. As of this writing, there are now three main tracks on this side of Cajon Pass.
My father was a UP hoghead who worked the LA Division in those yeras. The locomotive is a UP Mt series 7000 4-8-2 and it is on the downhill track in Cajon. UP and ATSF shared the rails. One (UP) went up grade and the other (ATSF) descended the grade. I sent this on to a friend and he tells me this is a war emergency troop train identified by the Military Police Security car on the head end.
I am pretty sure that the tracks in the background belong to Union Pacific and those in the foreground, with the steam loco featured, are Santa Fe's.
There are 2 sets of tracks in this picture...way in the back is another set. Both of these tracks are still in use today. A third line is being added. I remember having to watching the trains pass by on Highway 138 before an overpass was built for car traffic. I was down there taking a photo from the same vantage point recently.
Those are the "Mormon Rocks". I-15 passes through here now.
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