Thomas Bethune's Photographic Journal

I took this photograph in 1976 in the early morning hours from one of the sand towers at Bakersfield near the completion of a midnight hostler shift. Notice that the water tank is gone from its former location between the roundhouse office in the foreground, and the crew dispatcher/RFE building near the center of the image. Note the Yard Office and switchman’s shanty at about the three o’clock position. Behind that are the Santa Fe transfer tracks.
The two locomotives at the crew dispatcher’s office are yard engines while the locomotive adjacent to the roundhouse is for a local (all yard engines faced west at Bakersfield).