Re: Pooch - According to Webster
Author: Jim
Date: 10-19-2011 - 12:54
"Railfan slang for the General Electric P30CH Amtrak locomotive, presumably named because of their slow "dog like," acceleration."
Yeah, except they were faster than heck in SP commute service. I was on board a local when a serious railfan clocked it at 82mph between mile posts on the short 2.7 mile segment between Mountain View and Sunnyvale.
Naturally when a bright eyed 14 year old (myself) went up to the engineer afterward and said, "How fast were you going back there". He looked at me seriously and say, "70". (the limit). The conductor laughed and told him that we had the clock on him.