Amtrak wasn't there 39 years ago. And Amtrak never did take over commuter runs - only intercity. The Peninsula runs went from SP to Caltrans (interim owner, and purchaser of the first batch of Nippon Sharyo cars and F40s) to Caltrain (after the JPB was set up).

I rode the commutes a couple of times when the FMs were in charge. Unlike the GP9s, "notching out" the throttle didn't seem to be needed - when leaving a station my impression was that the throttle was pulled open to somewhere near full and left there until it was necessary to brake for the next station. Takeoff was quite rapid (hold on to something!).

Where did you ever find a CLEAN loco to shoot??!!