In the early 80's SP tonnage was actually heavier westbound - particularly into Los Angeles. The carrier hired McKinsey & Company to develop a strategy to balance power - westward trains were to be powered by priority - say 3.5 horsepower/ton for intermodal/autoparts and as little as 1 HPT for empty lumber trains. Eastward trains were powered heavier at the discretion of the power bureau to keep things fluid. The mantra in those days was, "Don't let Pine Bluff run out of power!" One time after a main line interruption we ran three 10-unit sets of lite engines "long east" out of Los Angeles

The GP40-2's were the newest power and for a time were chained together by consecutive numbers. Generally kept on the priority trains they were equipped with select-a-power to allow the engineer to isolate unneeded trailing units on the fly. In addition, some of the SD40T-2's with "locotrol" (what we today call "distributed power") were used for the same purpose. The MU cable would not be attached throughout the head end consist and the enginer would control the trailing unit(s) using the locotrol system.

The McKinsey study didn't seem to pan out - the discipline it would have required did not reflect the real world with dispatchers "hiding" a unit or two for a helper or a unit failing en route. One night in early summer it seemed that every train coming into El Paso had some sort of problem ranging from low water to an expired blue card inspection date. We tossed the "plan" out the window and kept things moving as best we could.