It’s locomotive déjà vu again in Southern California.

Couldn’t you understand how old fans watch new diesels tow failed steam engines to the scrapyard?

Locomotive deja vu

It’s locomotive déjà vu again in Southern California. — BNSF Railway High Priority Truck H-VRNBAR1-15A departing Vernon, California bound for Barstow. It’s a little late that just behind the electric locomotive are eight ex-Metrolink F59PHI locomotives. Retired locomotives that have fallen out of service and are shipped south to shops in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, to be rebuilt for use in new passenger service are considered “cargo” on this otherwise empty 42-car train. The next day a fresh crew was called in, and this time the train started moving. Six BNSF locomotives power this train, towing dead ex-Metrolink (SCAX) F59PHI (now reporting SLPX markings) 878, 879, 881, 886, 887, 880, 884 and 876. Fullerton, California – October 16, 2024 . Two photographs, Craig Walker.

On October 15th of this year, older Southern California train fans experienced locomotive déjà vu. It was exciting and sad at the same time.

Similar to the photos you can see in Trains Magazines from the 1950s and 1960s: a set of modern locomotives carried yesterday’s energy away from the site in one motion.

In the days when diesel engines first destroyed steam locomotive trains, we watched as internal combustion engines gradually took over work both in the yards and on the roads. Most often this happened when the ship carrying out the work came for repairs.

One day we saw the normally assigned 4-6-0 or 2-8-0 go on holiday with a dozen or so cars to change local industry, the next day it was a changeover to diesel. Freight coming from the north usually had a 4-8-2 Mountain, now powered by two or three EMD F7s, and the 0-6-0, which drilled freight cars in the yard, was now a side-cab switcher. As diesels slowly took over the world, in many cases the steam engines they replaced were spotted on their way back on an impromptu deadline, with caps stacked and windows boarded up.

Then the time came Metrolink aging fleet. Commuter service in Southern California began in the early 1990s with a fleet of EMD F59 square jets. Nothing fancy, just a modified EMD GP38 cruising confidently between downtown Los Angeles and the suburbs.

These were in turn supplanted by subsequent orders of the F59PHI, a more streamlined version of the original design. Both models were reliable cars. Amtrak liked them too.

But even the best locomotives wear out or become unusable when stricter air quality standards are introduced. Tired because the engines could not be upgraded to new aviation standards, they were sidelined and eventually sold.

So photographer Craig Walker, among other Southern California fans, got a chance to feel like the old guys from the past did. Yesterday’s diesels arrived dead on a BNSF freight train and are reportedly headed to Mexico for further service. The stalwarts we knew would be there too.

While they were not there.

I watch the train leave the tracks