It seems that I do not make November trips out of Washington state that often.  Perhaps to Montana but that is pretty much it.  Bad weather and shorter daylight probably has a lot to do with that.

However in November 1981 I did make a trip to Southern California with my buddy Robert to visit his family and see Cajon Pass for the first time.  The first two days were spent in Redlands at his parents place and Friday 11-27-81 we headed out to Cajon.  I always thought of Southern California as sunny and warm but this day started out cloudy with rain and cool.

Driving there we caught up to an eastbound UP coal empty with D&RGW SD40T-2′s 5368/5348/5411/5367 and UP cabooses 25668 and 25852 on the rear.  It was a morning photo taken at 08:30AM.

Finally on Cajon Pass I found it was overcast.with a few sun breaks.  We photographed an eastbound Santa Fe freight with units 5160/5648/5904/5311  (SD40-2/SD45-2/F45/SD45) at 09:00AM.

We must have seen more blue sky out towards Victorville as my next photo was of Santa Fe caboose 999955 with a yellow cupola and there was blue sky in the background.

There were also two sets of UP helper units at Victorville, SD40-2′s 3720/3721 and 3722/3723.but no photos of them.  Thinking the sun angle may have been poor plus you see a lot of UP SD40-2′s pretty much anywhere you go on the UP so I passed on these four.  The next train.photographed at Victorville was a UP westbound piggyback train at 10:45AM with, you guessed it, four UP SD40-2′s.

At least they were Fast Forties 8055/8089/8088/8054 with UP caboose 25850 on the rear  Still DDA40X’s would have been a LOT more fun!  After the UP had passed we made our way to Barstow and caught several westbounds leaving.

First was a Santa Fe general freight with 3353/3226/3231/340/3331 and caboose999030 on the rear at 11:20AM.

Nice the front and rear GP35′s were still in Santa Fe pinstripes.

Then a roster shot of GP30 3231.

Next train after that was another westbound UP general merchandise at12:01 PM with four UP SD40-2′s, 3520/3628/3421/3527 and UP caboose 25277 on the rear

Soon after the clouds started moving in and by the time Amtrak #35 Desert Wind with units 523/250 (SDP40F/F40PH) showed up at 1:08 PM it was cloudy again.

We must have lost interest with the overcast skies as that was the last train noted for Friday 11-27-81.  My notes say we also went out the next day 11/28 but it was raining the entire day, no sun at all.  Looks like I picked a bad weekend to visit the LA area but there would be other trips there in later years, with much better results.