Late 1970s?
'74 or maybe '75. Don seems to indicate '75, so it would've had to be early in the year. At that time I was regularly trackside when the SuperVAN came flying through the double S-curve where UP's Pomona station used to be. We would be standing on the platform on the SP side. Right around 9:30pm one of us would catch the westbound signal flash red then green as the DS coded it up, and we'd know to brace ourselves. The superelevation, the speed, and the wailing original Leslie 5-chimes on the Centennials were absolutely breathtaking. This was definitely not the wimpy hyper-corporate FRA-homogenized railroading of today.
In truth, I was railfanning at that spot starting in late '72. I eventually got used to the 8000-series sandwiches, and certainly appreciate them today. But before then, the VAN and SuperVANs ran at first with
four DDA40Xs like that (OMFG!), then three as Santa Fe was cutting into their TOFC business with the Super C. Santa Fe's expediter ran on the 3rd District through Fullerton, and I didn't hang there until 1979, long after it was gone (1976).
