BRLAT - Ravenna - Soledad Canyon, California - 1987

A rebuilt SP SD45T-2 leads the BRLAT (Brooklyn Los Angeles Trailers) around the reverse curves of Ravenna, California. The Portland trains, and the BAKDOL,  oil cans, were about the only dependable trains on this line, and even then the oil cans just might take the Palmdale cutoff. The mountains in the background are the San Gabriels, a notable barrier to commerce in and out of the L.A. Basin.  John Muir  thought the range the most difficult he had ever traversed due to steep slopes, very thick chaparral, and unstable boulder strewn slopes.