For those in the mood for a brief story and some grainy Tri-X Pan from my Dad's Argus Cosina --

On August 1, 1978, after convincing my parents to include San Jose in our California vacation (man I had understanding parents), I spent an entire day trackside waiting for the four reamining WP F units. They never came. As my parents took me back to the hotel, I thought I heard a horn, and I begged my dad to take me back to the tracks. It was an SJT (with no Fs) which my dad snapped in the very last glimmer of light.

[knox.rrpicturearchives.net]

[knox.rrpicturearchives.net]

The next morning, my dad and I got up before dawn and headed back out to the tracks, determined not to leave Milpitas without seeing those Fs. As the sun just began to rise, we saw a light down the track. It was the APF. No F in front, but rather a Sacramento Northern GEEP. I ran ahead and got in my dad's picture.

[knox.rrpicturearchives.net]

As the train passed us, we finally saw our F... in the middle of the conist. Not exactly what we wanted, but better than nothing.

[knox.rrpicturearchives.net]

[knox.rrpicturearchives.net]

Still, the Sacramento Northern GEEP was a great find and my dad caught this neat shot of it side on.

[knox.rrpicturearchives.net]

The train backed its load up before dropping it off.

[knox.rrpicturearchives.net]

Then pulled over to make a pick up, with its U23B in front, becoming the SJM, "San Jose Manifest."

[knox.rrpicturearchives.net]

After that, my dad and I headed over to the Kozy Kitchen for a greasy breakfast, realizing we had done all we could do with the WP in the very short window of time we had (we were driving to Santa Cruz that day) and said goodbye to Milpitas.

Thanks for looking - and corrections are welcome.

Charles Freericks