Sadly, in its last decade before acquisition by the Denver & Rio Grande Western in 1988, it was not unusual to find Southern Pacific locomotives in the state seen here in Elko, Nevada. Even the road number of 8814 on the lead here is almost unreadable. During the first years after the merger with the Rio Grande (in which the Southern Pacific name was retained because of its greater name recognition) a mixed lashup of locomotives could easily be mistaken for an all-Rio Grande consist. That quickly changed as new paint (and new locomotives) began to appear.
