April 12, 1952.  Temescal, California.

In typical SN fashion, two motors take the head-end of a train through the Oakland Hills while a third pushes on the tail.  At this moment, however, only SN 670 is under power and pulling just part of a train after the engines stalled on the brutal 4.6% grade.  The second motor, one of SN's original GE steeplecabs, has her pantograph down while 670 pulls on the two head-end cars.  The third motor can been seen at the tail, just behind the caboose.  This is a fairly long train for this steep line, whose rough operating characteristics were just one more reason why the WP and SN wanted off the hills.

W. C. Whittaker photo, Garth G. Groff collection

General Electric Steeplecab Electric 106 - SN Service

Tidewater Southern Railway