It's late afternoon when we reach Roseville, home to a huge Union Pacific yard.  The California Zephyr passes miles and miles of track with hundreds of locomotives and freight cars of every description.

Many of the locomotives and cars reflect the history of consolidation in the railroad industry.  Engines lettered for Rio Grande, which was purchased by Southern Pacific, sit next to engines letter "SP" which reflect a failed merger with Santa Fe.  The Southern Pacific engines wait with yellow Union Pacific locomotives - the eventual winner in the merger game.

I have a preference for scrappy little railroads - the Southern Pacific used to be one.  The mergers of the past two decades have removed all of these lines from the map, and you see them reflected now only on equipment that has yet to be repainted.