Joshua Trees and Big GEs - Wanderings around California

Makes sense, very different to sleeper/long distance trains in the UK and Europe unless at the terminus!

I'd love to do a proper train in the US, it is on my bucket list!

Day 6 - Part 5, Truckee by night



While Truckee was an established community long before the railroad arrived, the main street through the old town area runs parallel to and very close to the tracks, so almost certainly the trains turned it into what it is today.

The general view below was taken from two floors up in my hotel, two mornings later, looking westwards towards Donner Summit, with an eastbound mixed freight train rolling downhill through town over the crossing on the left. The tail end of it is visible curving away to the left at the far end of town:



I manage to see one more train before it gets dark - an eastbound UP 'baretables' train (empty intermodal flatcars) with an all-EMD 3 x SD70M loco consist heads over the crossing:



I wander up the street in search of somewhere for dinner, and quickly realise that old town Truckee is the 'foodie' end of town (with prices to match) - still, it's time for some decent food, so I choose the 'Truckee Tavern & Grill' at least partly because it's got a balcony overlooking the railroad . The food (and beer) is good, and stories of hair-raising winter sports adventures drifting across from the next table provide the entertainment...(It's a major winter sports area - the 1960 Winter Olympics were held in Squaw Valley just south of here)

I've just finished eating (and it feels like the temperature has dropped about 10C since I sat down - it dropped to about freezing overnight) when I hear train horns - a westbound UP double-stack slowly goes past the passenger station across the road (the train is just to the left of the building):



It then stops, another UP train scoots past in the opposite direction, and a little while later the double-stack reverses back (eastwards) until it clears the level crossing. Mmm...wonder what's going on? I pay the bill and cross the road to take a closer look. There is an old caboose just off the right of the picture above which is a small railroad museum, complete with outdoor loudspeaker relaying the local railroad radio channel - perfect! I take up station on the walkway between it and the railroad to watch the action

After a short time, the double-stack pulls forward slowly past me, then stops just after the tail has gone past. Again it reverses back until it's clear of the crossing, but I think it's now on a different track to before:



Combined with the info from the radio messages, I work out what's going on - there is a problem with part of the train, so they are cutting out a set of double-stack wagons (which usually come in sets of three or five articulated 'well' cars) and leaving them on a side track at Truckee, then putting the train back together (during the last reverse move).

By this time, it looks like a few trains have been held up on either side of Truckee, so in fairly quick succession, a westbound UP 'autorack' train roars through behind an SD70ACe and ES44AC:



...with an ES44AC DPU on the rear (the bright lights in the distance are the headlights of the UP double-stack):



...followed by a westbound BNSF mixed freight, with one of the C44-9Ws doing a bit of a steam loco impression, and two DPU locos on the tail:



The re-assembled double-stack finally gets the road and starts the climb out of town. The tail (including a DPU loco) is illuminated by the headlights of an EMD SD70ACe on yet another eastbound train (with three locos on the front and two DPUs on the tail). The hard surfaced area is the station 'platform':



So that's five trains and 19 locos since dinner (and some interesting out-of-course shunting) - that'll do nicely for desserts

A nice post-dinner treat that! It must have been wonderful for sounds!

Techniquest said:

It must have been wonderful for sounds!

Click to expand...

It was

Day 7 will be a bit different as I'm visiting a railroad museum - and an interesting junction or two...

Sounds flippin' brilliant. Out of curiosity, what video camera do you use?

Kristofferson said:

Sounds flippin' brilliant. Out of curiosity, what video camera do you use?

Click to expand...

It's a Panasonic Lumix G6 stills camera, which also does very good video capture up to 1920x1080p (FullHD) at 50fps. I use a Tascam TM-2X microphone with it to improve the sound - plugs straight in and mounts on the hotshoe (diesels need good bass response ).

I used various tape-based camcorders for years (last one was a Sony HC3), but when things went to memory cards I felt that consumer camcorders had got almost too small and light to hold still (for me). So I tried using a 'hybrid' still camera that also does decent video and decided that I liked the idea.

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Day 7 - Part 1, Portola

Since the weather was so nice, I booked in for another night at the Truckee Hotel (not a hard decision!). Train-wise it seemed to be quiet this morning, so I went for a short drive east of Truckee to have a look at the landscape (and drinking the last of the breakfast coffee whilst looking hopefully down the tracks - no luck though ).

OK - let's go for 'Plan B' - heading 50 miles north to Portola, home of the Western Pacific Railroad Museum and a significant town on the 'Feather River Route'. An interesting drive though a mixture of heavily forested and then open prairie landscape gets me there in about an hour - wonder where the railway is ? I spot some rolling stock across the river, so over the bridge and turn left onto a road alongside the line to find a loco idling on the rear of what looks like a crude oil train (a full set of shiny black tank cars) - possibly in transit from the Bakken oilfield in North Dakota to a refinery on the west coast. So a chance that I might see something moving west today...

Following the tracks in the other direction leads me to the UP yard office area, with a nice-looking rebuilt EMD SD40-2 parked outside (the black tank cars behind it are part of the train mentioned above):



All looks quiet, so let's find the museum (which in theory isn't open today, but I thought I might be able to peer through the fence at least). A bit of educated guesswork gets me to the entrance driveway - the gates are open! I drive in and park next to what seems to be the way in - nice view from the parking lot:



(It's a rare 800hp V8-567B engined EMD TR6A switcher dating from about 1950, orginally half of a 'cow and calf' twin set - only 12 sets were ever built).

I follow the signs into the main shed and say 'Hi' - it turns out that the place is only open because one of the volunteers wanted to work on something, and the lady (volunteer) behind the counter just popped in for a few hours, so my luck is definitely in this morning. As I'm paying the entrance fee (and buying a T-shirt), they say "Just be careful when you climb onto the equipment" - It's OK to climb on the locos then? - "Yes, sure - there's nothing moving today, so if it's not locked or cordoned off then go wherever you like". Yum, I've got a whole museum full of historic diesels to myself - time for a good wander

As you might expect, I took a lot of photos that morning, so I'm just going to pick a few for this thread (there are a lot more here on Flikr - https://flic.kr/s/aHskrELqge).

First, a bit of history of the railroad around here. In the early years of the 20th century, a financier called Jay Gould was trying to realise the dream of his father to create a coast-to-coast transcontinental railway system across the US. He managed to assemble most of it by 1903 (by gaining control of a string of mostly second-tier railroads), but west of Salt Lake City the only existing route was the ex-Central Pacific Donner Pass line, and that certainly wasn't available to him. So he got some other investors interested and built the Western Pacific line from Salt Lake City west to Oakland, via Winnemucca, Portola, the Feather River Canyon, Sacramento and Stockton. Well engineered with a maximum 1% gradient (but longer and slower than Donner Pass), it opened in 1909 and broke the near-monopoly of the Southern Pacific railroad for traffic in and out of northern California. It was eventually bought by Union Pacific in 1983, after leading a fairly precarious life as an independent railroad (including bankruptcy in 1935). Being a relative minnow versus the mighty Southern Pacific, it was forced to be lean-and-mean, so was an early user of CTC signalling and became fully dieselised by 1953. Poverty led to it operating a fleet of 'classic traction' into the early 1980s - not surprisingly that attracted a considerable enthusiast following, which resulted in the establishment of the museum in 1984 (in an old WP diesel workshop building).

We'll work our way from oldest loco to newest, starting with a 1939-vintage 600hp EMC SW1 Bo-Bo switcher (EMC = Electro-Motive Corporation). You could say this is the US equivalent of the English Electric/LMS diesel shunters from the 1930s, which evolved into the 08's:



A little while later, EMC was renamed 'Electro-Motive Division' - of the General Motors Corporation - and introduced it's first 'road' freight loco design, the seminal four-axle 'FT', followed by the similar F2, F3, F7 and F9. This is a 1500hp F7 'A' unit dating from 1950 - the matching 'B' units are cab-less 'booster' locos, so a common formation on a train was A-B-B-A, with the A's facing in opposite directions:



At about the same time, EMD responded to new 'road switcher' loco designs from competitors by introducing one of it's own, the 1500hp GP7 (furthest, from 1952) and later the 1750hp GP9 (nearest, from 1956). Most had the cab controls set up to be driven 'short hood forward' but some railroads opted for 'long hood forward' for better collision protection:



Those early four-axle (Bo-Bo) 'Geeps' were wildly successful - EMD sold around 2700 GP7's and 4300 GP9's.

Bit of a jump in time, and what was ultimately a dead-end in loco development, below is a rear view of a dual-engined, 6600hp EMD DDA40X 'Centennial' built specifically for UP in 1969. It's 30m long, 237 tonnes and rides on 4-axle bogies i.e. a 'Do-Do' wheel arrangment - sort of appropriate for the last-of-the-line



...and a view of the Engineer's (driver) side of the cab interior:



I think it's brake valve (minus handle) on the left, power and dynamic (rheostatic) brake controls in the middle.

Then it's one of the last of the 'normal' cab design 6-axle locos built, a GE C40-8 from 1988 (with the front of the 'Centennial' behind it, and a 'caboose' on the left):



After that, US locos went 'wide cab', as typified by the GE C41-8W from 1993 at the entrance to the museum (this is the immediate predecessor model to all those C44-9W's we've seen running around):



Some more pictures to follow...

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Techniquest said:

A nice post-dinner treat that! It must have been wonderful for sounds!

Click to expand...

For Techniquest and any other 'play it loud' diesel aficionados...

...here are the edited sound highlights from the evening at Truckee. It's 2.5 hours of elapsed time distilled (Essence of Truckee? ) into 13 minutes of mp3 file - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/52149306/Truckee - diesels in the night.mp3

I reckon the star of the show is the EMD SD70ACe (plus chuggy GE behind it) on the front of the double-stack that goes back and forth twice, and all the train horns echoing around the mountains which make it a bit more of a 'soundscape'...

Loving the photos, I'll try and check out that link in a bit.

Good fortune on the mueseum there!

Techniquest said:

Loving the photos, I'll try and check out that link in a bit.

Good fortune on the museum there!

Click to expand...

Thanks

Day 7 - Part 2, 'Malfunction Junction'

Having done a brief 'genealogy' of the US diesel loco, now for a few bits'n'pieces.

First up, a old Railroad Motorcar or 'speeder'. These were used for track inspection and light maintenance in the days before 'Hy-Rail' vehicles (road/rail pick-up trucks) were developed. Some enthusiasts own these and organise group outings on shortline railroads - see http://www.narcoa.org/newsite/faq.htm. The picture is a rear view of a two-seater, but larger four-seat versions were also used.



At the west end of the yard, someone has a nice sense of humour




The Western Pacific was the original route of the California Zephyr, which might have looked a bit like this back then (at least the front part ):



...and the shell of a 'dome' car which would have been part of the train:



A better view of an ex-SP rotary snowplough:



The heart of many old EMD locos, a supercharged (Roots-blown) V16 diesel - I think it's a 567C series engine. The supercharger is missing - it would sit on the ribbed grey platform sticking out of the left hand end of the engine.



The vehicle that used to be on the rear of every freight train - a Caboose. Today, the Conductor rides up front with the Engineer - the days of five person crews and cabooses are long gone...



And finally, just the thing for some heavy lifting:



(More museum photos here on Flickr if you are interested - https://flic.kr/s/aHskrELqge )

I wander back to the main shed and let the volunteer know I'm leaving - "I'll follow you out and close the gate behind you" he says, so time to find some lunch in town and decide where to go next...

Love Malfunction Junction!

Day 7 - Part 3, 'The Feather River Route'

'Sharon's Cafe' on Commercial Street looks like the right place for lunch, so I sit down by the counter at the far end. Watching the goings-on in the kitchen and listening to the repartee between the staff and the locals is part of the experience of dining in this sort of small-town restaurant . Refreshed after a hearty lunch (and more coffee), I drive back over the river, fill the fuel tank and head west towards Quincy and Keddie. As I leave town, I look across the river towards the railroad yard and notice a long line of older standard-cab GE locos parked up - presumably stored pending either an upturn in traffic or being put up for sale (it's not unusual for older locos to be sold to a dealer or leasing comapany and then turn up on another railroad still in their orginal colours).

Since I was expecting the museum to be closed, I had planned to be heading west rather earlier in the day, but as it was such a nice day weather-wise I decided to just drive (following the railroad) until I felt it was time to turn back for Truckee - exploring the 'Feather River Route' had been on my 'bucket list' for years if I was ever in the area. At present it normally only carries a few trains per day - as UP owns both this and the Donner Pass line, most traffic now goes via Donner since it's a shorter and faster route despite the gradients, leaving only the really heavy, not-so-time-sensitive trains to take advantage of the easier gradients on this line (like the oil train I was hoping might head west in daylight...)

As far as Quincy, it's mostly a drive through a wooded valley - lovely scenery, just missing some 'heavy metal' to add icing to cake (photos taken from a side road just off the main highway - another 'million miles from LA' spot):





There is a very tenuous connection between the signal in the last photo and the UK - it's monitored from UP's 'Harriman Dispatch Center' 1500 miles east in Omaha, Nebraska - the facility that seemed to so 'wow' certain Railtrack people that they thought the technology behind it could be used to control the WCML. A four-track mainline with 100mph+ trains every few minutes is a very different proposition from arranging crossing points for slow freights on a strung-out largely single-track railway system... That UP dispatching centre controls most of its 32,000 route-mile system - BNSF has a similar facility in Fort Worth, Texas for its 24,000 route-miles of railway. This is 'Centralised Traffic Control' on a truly grand scale!

Arriving in Quincy, I decide to try and locate the Quincy Railroad (a 3.27 mile 'shortline' linking a forest products mill with the UP mainline) - a bit of driving around and I spot this 1963-vintage EMD SW1200 switcher:



Onward along the Feather River gorge to Keddie - along the way the railroad does a complete loop over itself (like at Tehachapi) but it's mostly hidden in the trees. The sides of the valley are getting higher and steeper, until eventually the junction at Keddie comes into view:



The bridges across the gorge form two sides of a triangular junction (normally called a 'wye' in the US), with the third side in a tunnel on the far side. The track bottom left continues west towards Sacramento, the one middle left heads north towards Bieber, CA and onward to Oregon, and the right fork heads east towards Portola. So I've finally seen the well-known (and photographed) 'Keddie Wye' in the flesh

After taking some photos - what next?

I have a play with the Sat-Nav to find out how long it might take me to get to almost the far (west) end of the gorge at Pulga - mmm, there should still be enough light for a few photos when I get there... The weather is great - Let's go for it! (You have probably worked out by now that I'm a bit of a 'wonder what's round the next corner' person).

Off we go - half a mile along the road and I glance across to the the other side of the gorge - is that a train I see? I stop for a better look - yes it is, and heading east towards the 'wye'! But it looks very short, wonder what it is? A quick backtrack to the vantage point overlooking the bridges and it looks like it's some sort of non-freight train - one BNSF loco pulling just two vehicles:



It stops for a while on the far side, then moves slowly over the bridge towards me (with the inevitable GE C44-9W on the front, of course):



I'm fairly certain it's a Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) inspection train - the FRA is the government rail industry regulator. So not only have I managed to get to Keddie just before a train arrives, the train itself is very unusual - bonus points!

So I set off again westwards along the gorge, admiring the scenery, fingers crossed for another train... The gorge is apparently 1000ft deep in places - the road is mostly in the bottom of it, the railway sometimes well up the side of it on a ledge carved out of the rock. I stop in few places to try and get a look at the signals, which are normally approach-lit - all dark, so nothing around at the moment

I eventually reach Pulga, where the road crosses the gorge and the railway on a high bridge - the track is in the bottom of the gorge at this point:



Looking back eastwards from the same spot, the sun is catching the mountains, but down in the gorge it's now deep shadow - at river level is a passing loop with signals showing red - maybe that westbound oil train isn't too far away?



So - which way 'home' to Truckee? I could either carry on west then loop back via I-80 over Donner Pass, or retrace my route back east through the gorge and maybe meet up with a westbound train - before it gets too dark to take photos and video. I choose the latter, so turn around and keep an eye out for train headlights...

Just after passing Rock Creek Reservoir - yes, headlights on the opposite bank of the river!

I backtrack a bit to the reservoir and manage to get some video (in quite poor light) of the train winding slowly along the rivers edge:




Only two (moving) trains all day, but, happy that I've 'done' the Feather River Route, I continue the long drive back to Truckee (and another McDonalds 'Artisan Chicken Breast' meal when I get there - it's too late for food at most of the other eating places). After that I discover my room card-key won't open the front door of the hotel - it didn't get updated when I booked in for another night this morning... a phone call later and all is sorted out. Time for bed - it's been a long but very interesting day

Woah, that's a brilliantly gorgeous bit of countryside! hock:

It just makes me want to get over there and see that for myself!

I have followed you on Flickr. Hopefully lots more to come!

Techniquest said:

Woah, that's a brilliantly gorgeous bit of countryside! hock:

It just makes me want to get over there and see that for myself!

Click to expand...

Yes it is lovely, but remember that I was lucky with the weather - up in the mountains I could just as easily have been sitting in the car sheltering from the rain or wondering if the fog was going to lift...

As an example, in June 2012 I was on holiday in Western Canada with my wife - stunning, snow-capped mountain scenery when you could see it through the low clouds and rain . My long-planned day of train watching on Kicking Horse Pass (just west of Lake Louise) was completely washed out - the previous night, thunderstorms and torrential rain had dislodged rocks onto the track and closed the line for 24 hours (and the schedule we were on meant that I couldn't try again the next day when it had re-opened). You just have to try and pick a 'good weather' time of year and keep your fingers and toes crossed...

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Minilad said:

I have followed you on Flickr. Hopefully lots more to come!

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Yes - there is a bit more of Truckee and Donner Pass, then Cajon Pass and the Orange Empire museum to come - and a Joshua Tree of course

(My time at Cajon was more limited than I'd planned, due to Mother Natures weather department disrupting many peoples travel plans for a day or so, but more on that later)

Thers some absolutely staggering scenery on them pics, some brilliant photos. Still love reading this.
You and minilad seem to be the US Rail Road officinado's, in your humble opinions, whats the best looking and sounding locos from that scene lads, past or present?

I've just posted a thread - http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?p=2415164#post2415164 - for the 'After Dinner Trains' at Truckee video I've added to YouTube (i.e. a 'highlights' video to go with the 'Truckee by Night' post above)

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47403 said:

Thers some absolutely staggering scenery on them pics, some brilliant photos. Still love reading this.
You and minilad seem to be the US Rail Road officinado's, in your humble opinions, whats the best looking and sounding locos from that scene lads, past or present?

Click to expand...

I'll kick off with my 'present day' favourite - the GE 'Evolution Series' ES44.

Unfortunately the noise it makes doesn't really come over very well on recordings - it produces a lovely very deep, bassy, V12-engine chuggy rumbling noise that you feel through your chest as much as hear it (and thankfully it's not spoiled by excessive turbo noise - it sounds like a big diesel engine, not a jet engine). That noise combined with the imposing visual 'presence' leaves you in no doubt it's serious 'heavy metal'. It's a great pity the 'EVO' engine was too large and heavy to fit in a class 70...

Over to you, Minilad

I don't have anywhere near the experience and knowledge that ac6000cw has.
All I will say is I'm a sucker for a big engine with a bonnet!!

Minilad said:

All I will say is I'm a sucker for a big engine with a bonnet!!

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Now that is a give-away which side of the Atlantic you're from (the same side as me...) - Y'all know it's a hood, don't ya?

(and it's got trucks, ditch lights, a pilot, porches and an exhaust stack - without a muffler )

Haha. Rumbled!!

My nominations in the 'Classic Traction' category:

For the '1st Generation' diesels it can only be the 1950's EMD E and F series 'cab-units' (like the ones at the Portola museum). That smooth streamlined nose and the porthole windows down the sides have become an American icon (they sound pretty good too).

For the '2nd generation' (late 1960's - 1980's) I'd go for the EMD SD40-2 - a classic 'got it right' in engineering design terms and EMDs best-ever selling loco. Style-wise, it's strictly 'form follows function' but they make a nice loud whistling/humming/roaring noise when working hard - and there are still plenty of them around to enjoy. Head for 'Horseshoe Curve' west of Altoona, PA to get your fix - all the 'helper' engines pushing trains over the mountains are rebuilt SD40s in pairs or quads...see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48z0doMvM2E

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Day 8 - Part 1, Truckee Morning

I need to move south (back towards LA) a reasonable distance by the end of the day. My plan is to train watch/explore Donner Pass from east to west, then call in at Roseville (for a break) before driving south down CA-99 until I feel like it's time to stop for the night somewhere north of Bakersfield.

But first, dawn has just broken, and there are train horns sounding in the distance - I grab some coffee and the camera and go for a walk...

An eastbound UP 'Autorack' train rolls downhill through town in the early morning light, with two ES44AC on the front and an SD70ACe on the tail:




Back to the hotel for more breakfast, and then I wander over to the other side of the tracks to get on the 'light' side of the trains. A westbound UP double-stack pulled by two SD70M and an ES44AC climbs towards me on the near track, catching the sunlight:



I realise I'm hearing train horns from both directions - an eastbound BNSF train with four GE's passes on the far track, its white tank cars glowing in the sun:




I still need to re-pack - back to the hotel. Train horns sound again as another eastbound UP train glides over the crossing - I just manage to see the tail end of it (with two ES44AC DPUs):



After loading the car and checking out, I work out that the westbound California Zephyr is due fairly soon. OK, a plan forms - I'll video it at Truckee, head west to catch it again at Soda Springs, then move on to Casa Loma and hopefully catch it again.

So over to the other (south) side of the tracks again, but first up is another westbound UP intermodal train on the near mainline track (the closest track is the spur track that the defective double-stack cars were pushed into two nights ago):




Then hot on its heels, the CZ arrives on the far track and stops at the passenger station (the light brown building on the right in the second photo is the Truckee Hotel, where I was staying):




Back to the car - it's train-chasing time again, with two westbound trains 'in play'

That was a good morning! Sure makes me jealous of how my mornings aren't even remotely that good!

Yes, pretty good for a 15-20 trains per day route (counting both directions), although it was 2.5 hours from first to last train - not quite Clapham Junction frequency (but neither is the scenery like there, and I know which version I prefer... )

What is an 'Autorack' train?

ooo said:

What is an 'Autorack' train?

Click to expand...

'Autoracks' are enclosed multi-level freight cars (wagons) used to move new road vehicles (automobiles - hence the Autorack name) around. They most often move in dedicated unit (block) trains - hence me calling it an 'Autorack' train - but also in other general freight or intermodal trains sometimes.

Triple-deck ones are used for normal height vehicles, double-deck ones for taller vehicles like SUVs, pick-up trucks and small vans. The decks are internal, so they all tend to look the same from the outside. They are some of the tallest freight cars in use (only double-stacked containers are taller, as far as I know).

Most of them are owned by a large leasing company called TTX, which is in turn jointly owned by most of the large railroads in the US, Canada and Mexico, so they operate as a shared nationwide fleet for maximum efficiency. TTX also owns a large proportion of the intermodal flatcars and double-stack cars used on the system - look for the TTX 'reporting marks' on the sides, the 'X' on the end means it's a non-railroad owned freight car.

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Day 8 - Part 2, Casa Loma, Dutch Flat and beyond

I take I-80 west from Truckee to the Soda Springs exit - it's faster than following the old road over the summit (nice though that might have been).

Not long after I set up the camera, the westbound CZ behind two P42DC locos came into view (I expected that it would overtake the freight on the way up, so it could go through the single-track tunnel first):



Given that I had a fair way to go to get to Casa Loma (my next 'photo stop'), I reckoned that I could afford to wait a short while for the following freight - my hunch was correct, 15 minutes later it whined downhill (the noise of dynamic braking hard at work) behind an SD70ACe-ES44AC-SD70M line-up:



Back to the interstate - a fast 30 mile roll down the hill (through great scenery) to the junction for Casa Loma Rd gets me to the level crossing where I just missed photographing the eastbound CZ two days ago. I was in good time to set up and get the photos this time:



I wasn't quite quick enough to get the both locos in the sunshine for this shot, but it's not too bad:



(You could get lovely head-on photos of eastbound trains here, but my luck didn't oblige on this trip).

I carry on further up the road to an overlook above the tracks, passing two cyclists admiring the view along the way - it's another of those 'top of the world' spots:



Looking the other way, about 15 minutes later the freight makes its way down the hill:



...it's even got dark green containers to match the scenery :



As I'm now at least 30 minutes behind the westbound CZ I'll let that one go, so choices are to try and catch up with the freight again further down the hill, or have an explore around the nearby Gold Run and Dutch Flat areas. I've also been listening to the Dispatcher radio traffic, and it sounds like a maintenance crew is being given a track possession soon, so traffic might be quiet for a while... Back near the interstate there is some mobile phone reception, so I check on the progress of the eastbound CZ - it's on-time so should be passing Dutch Flat in about an hour. I decide it's time for an uphill train - I cross I-80 and head towards a level crossing near Dutch Flat on the backroads.

I think it was the right decision - I'm a bit of a sucker for telephoto 'head-on drama' shots . I couldn't decide which photo I preferred so here's all three:





Bit of trivia - that should be milepost 155.25 in the photos. The mileage on this route is measured from the junction of 3rd and Townsend Streets in San Francisco, where Southern Pacific had a passenger station. SP also defined for operational purposes that all trains heading away from there were travelling 'east', towards it 'west', so a train to Portland, Oregon (northward) and one to Los Angeles (southward) were both heading railroad 'east'. US railroads don't use 'up' and 'down' for train/track directions - it's north/south/east/west, and they normally just number the tracks in multiple-track areas - so it's, for example, 'Track 1' or 'Main 2'.

After that I meander down past the crossovers at Gold Run, then back onto I-80 to Colfax where Subway provides a healthier alternative to McDonalds for lunch - eaten sitting on the station, of course . No trains around - I think the freight must be ahead of me by now - and conscious that I need to make progress, after a while I rejoin the interstate heading west, dropping in on a few places I didn't take a look at on the way up. Signals all dark - at least at Roseville the comings and goings at the engine terminal will provide something to watch, so I head for there and while away some time as an alternative to sitting in the 'going home' traffic jams:



The sky is looking rather cloudy and threatening by this time:



As the sun gets lower, it's time to make tracks southwards - Fresno seems like a sensible place for an overnight pit-stop, so I head for the freeway again. Along the way, it starts to rain and the overhead information signs on CA-99 say first "I-5 closed south of Bakersfield" then a while later "All normal routes south closed - detour via US-101" - I wonder what that is all about?

Tomorrow morning will reveal all...

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Day 9 - Fresno to Palmdale, 'GWR' style

(That's 'Great Way Round', not 'God's Wonderful Railway', btw )

I wake up early, put on the coffee machine, turn on the TV and find a local news channel. It wasn't long before the story behind the "All normal routes south closed - detour via US-101" signs last night came on...

South of Bakersfield there had been what the newsreader was calling a 'tropical storm' in the early evening, which dumped a huge amount of rain on the mountains. This had caused a big mudslide which engulfed Interstate 5 south of Bakersfield, stranding hundreds of vehicles (fortunately without any serious injuries) in a sea of mud and completely closing the road. Shortly afterwards the same thing happened on CA-58 (the main road south-eastwards from Bakersfield that goes up Tehachapi Pass and on to Mojave) closing it as well - and as I found out much later, the adjacent railway line.

My original plan for today had been to continue south to Bakersfield, up Tehachapi Pass on CA-58 (with a lineside coffee break, of course) to Mojave, then via Palmdale to Hesperia (just east of Cajon Pass summit). As this was obviously impossible with CA-58 closed, and with no idea when it (or I-5) might re-open, I had to re-plan at least today's part of the trip

After a checking the Caltrans traffic information website, it looked like all the possible 'back road' routes going in the right direction were also weather-affected (no big surprise). The hotel breakfast possibilities were not up to much, so I decided to head south for bit, stop for breakfast and then make a final decision on the 'way to go'.

As I strongly suspected the railway over Tehachapi might be closed, I couldn't see much point in carrying on to (doubtless chaotic) Bakersfield without certain knowledge of when one of the routes south from there would reopen. So the only vaguely sensible option was to follow the advice of the signs and head west to US-101 near the Pacific coast, then down to north of LA, and finally back east to Palmdale - a huge 170 mile detour compared to my planned route, and I was certain that US-101 would be a moving traffic jam too. It looked like it was going to be a very long day behind the wheel...

(The complete route I covered that day is here - https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/...0x80e9146fdf64ad57:0xfdd8144538e9466c!1m0!3e0 - all 370 miles of it...)

On the other hand, I was going to cross over or drive alongside two mainlines for some of the way, so it might not be a completely train-less day if I was lucky ("always look on the bright side of life"). As I was going to pass by Hanford, on the BNSF mainline north from Bakersfield and a stop for the 'San Joaquin' corridor passenger trains, I stopped for a quick coffee break at the station. The next northbound passenger train was running late, so I'm out of luck. As I walked through the booking hall I overheard two people ask for tickets to Las Vegas, only to be told "Sorry, not today" - Why not, they ask? - "All the highways are closed south of Bakersfield, so all Amtrak buses are cancelled". They obviously hadn't been following the news recently - I suspect their planned weekend in Las Vegas didn't happen (there is a railway through Las Vegas, but no passenger trains, so Amtrak runs 'Thruway' connecting buses instead).

Looking at the map, the sensible place to meet up with the UP (ex-SP) 'Coast Line' railroad is Paso Roubles - then I could follow it down to San Luis Obispo (a stop for the Amtrak 'Coast Starlight' trains and the far northern limit of LA Metrolink commuter train services). So I put the destination in the Sat-Nav and off we go...

It's back to 'everything golden brown' territory - the miles roll by as I leave the flat valley and wind my way up through the hills in heavy but rolling traffic. Then the road I'm on joins the one from Bakersfield and everything slows to a crawl. Eventually I reach a village called Shandon, and decide to 'cut the corner off' by taking the road to Atascadero. This proves a good choice - quite twisty and undulating, not much traffic, and the local BMW driver in front is a good 'pacemaker' - I can always pretend I'm in that '62 Corvette, this is California after all

I notice it's wine country in these parts - the vineyard tours advertised along the road look quite tempting (maybe next time). Eventually I reach Atascadero and cross over the railroad, no trains in evidence though

Keeping close to the railroad on the backroads (and off US-101) for as long as possible, I pass through Santa Margarita, parallel to the tracks. It occurs to me that this was probably a 'helper station' (where steam engines were detached and turned) many years ago since it's at the top of 'Cuesta Grade', a twisting 17-mile, 700ft, 2.2% climb up from San Luis Obispo, passing through five tunnels. Nothing on the tracks today, so I join US-101 and roll very slowly (in a three-lane traffic jam) down the 7% highway gradient, looking wistfully at the railroad high up the mountainside...

I pull off US-101 into San Luis Obispo at the first opportunity and find the station. I think the person on the large footbridge spanning the tracks, camera in hand, might be a local railfan...he is, and tells me that the southbound 'Coast Starlight' is due in very soon - great! He also recommends the far side of the bridge for photos, so I wander over there:



It seems to be stopped for quite a long time (longer than the normal Amtrak 'smoking break'). There is a blast from the horn - sounds like a signal to the crew that it's time to go. Shortly afterwards it makes a rather smokey departure for LA (I think the track in the foreground is the 'Metrolink' platform):



Just after the last coach disappeared around the curve, a horn sounds from the south and the northbound 'Coast Starlight' rolls into town, complete with a 1956-vintage ex-Santa Fe Hi-Level 'Pacific Parlor Car' - an extra lounge for sleeping-car passengers only (the lower height car on the left of the photo):



The crowd on the platform is a mixture of arriving, departing and 'leg stretching' passengers. The two UP EMD SD60M locos parked on the right may be a 'helper' set, used as needed to push the infrequent freights up the steep climb ahead (the 'Coast Line' has always been as much a passenger route as a freight one). In the distance you can just see a horizontal mark across the top of the hill in the middle left - it's probably the railway route near the top of 'Cuesta Grade':




Up at the 'head end', it's the usual GE P42DC with not-so-common 3200hp GE P32-8WH behind it. Twenty of them were delivered in 1991 as a stop-gap to supplement the aging EMD F40PH fleet, before the P40DC/P42DC arrived in 1993/1996 (leading to the retirement of the F40PHs). Note that because it's based on a freight loco design, it's taller than the P42DC (which will fit anywhere on the system):



After enjoying the trains (and the sunshine) for a while, it was definitely time to get moving again - back into the US-101 mobile traffic jam . I thought I could probably make it to Palmdale before midnight (I was being a bit pessimistic, just in case). After a slightly hair-raising drive on a diversionary route and a very, very slow crawl through Santa Barbara on a Friday evening, the traffic thinned a bit and I turned east onto CA-126 at Ventura. Woa - no queues! Lets motor!

I eventually got to the 'Motel 6' hotel in Palmdale well after 10pm - over 14 hours after I left Fresno that morning. The room was fine, but I wan't too sure about some of the people hanging around outside the buildings - this view was reinforced later in the night by a loud security announcement outside telling people to "go to their rooms or get off the property, no loitering allowed". I won't be hurrying back to stay there...

Anyway, enough of today's slog - I've got breakfast in Hesperia to look forward to tomorrow, watching the trains go by on their way to and from Cajon Pass

I suspect you're glad you didn't get stuck in that jam!

Never had such an experience in a hotel as that security one, certainly unpleasant!

Techniquest said:

I suspect you're glad you didn't get stuck in that jam!

Click to expand...

I was...

This is a video of the aftermath of the mudslide which closed CA-58 a few miles east of Tehachapi - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgX482ShUCg

It took nearly a week to clean up the mess and re-open the road. The railroad alongside was closed for a while as well.

Techniquest said:

Never had such an experience in a hotel as that security one, certainly unpleasant!

Click to expand...

Me neither - Motel 6 is a well established budget chain (and there were other 'chain' hotels in the immediate vicinity) so I assume it was just a local problem with that one. Other than being woken up by the security announcement, I didn't have any actual problems as such, but I did choose my car parking space carefully...

Just caught up on these - fantastic read and photos keep em coming!

Fijgers crossed the next hotel stay isn't so bad, and a week to clean up such an epic mess is reasonable all things considered

Day 10 - Cajon Pass morning

Up bright and early (or, put another way, I can't wait to leave the Motel 6), I swing past the Metrolink station in Palmdale (which is also the long-distance bus station - co-siting train and bus facilities is becoming quite common in the US) for quick look around. No passenger trains due, but a set of four UP light engines rumbles through:



Breakfast calls, so I drive the 50 miles (past a lot of sand piled up in the road by the recent deluge - and some Joshua Trees) to 'Molly Brown's Country Cafe' in Hesperia, right alongside the BNSF mainline a few miles east of the summit of Cajon Pass - https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place...0!3m1!1s0x0000000000000000:0xb6fa03234b793914

Most of the seating is indoors, but there are two tables on a porch outside which are perfect for enjoying the trains - double-stacks with breakfast anyone? (Food was corned-beef hash, eggs 'sunny side', tomatoes and 'breakfast cake' on the side):




Before we explore further, a PDF map of the pass (courtesy of the US Trains magazine website) - http://trn.trains.com/~/media/files/pdf/map-of-the-month/trnm0811_acajonpass.pdf - and a quick potted history might be helpful.

The original track over the pass was built by the Santa Fe (ATSF) in 1885, involving a very steep 3% gradient for part of it - this is now 'Main 3', the southern-most track. As traffic and train weights increased, a second track on a different alignment (to reduce the gradient to a more manageable 2.2%) was added in 1913 - now 'Main 2'. In 1972 Santa Fe did a major project to straighten and lower (by 50 feet) the tracks in the summit area. Then in 2008 BNSF added a third track alongside Main 2 - 'Main 1' - extending from San Bernadino to 3 miles east of the summit. All are signalled for bi-directional working (3 main track CTC), but the steep Main 3 is mainly used for westbound (downhill) trains.

Union Pacific gained 'trackage rights' over the route from Barstow - Cajon Pass - San Bernardino - Riverside in 1905.

In 1967 Southern Pacific, as part of a new freight classification yard project at Colton (near San Bernardino), built a new line through the desert from Palmdale to Hesperia, then down the pass to the north/west of the Santa Fe line. It wasn't connected to the Santa Fe line at the time, but 30 years later after SP had been merged into UP, connecting tracks were added to allow UP trains to/from the Barstow direction to reach the ex-SP Colton Yard easily. Here endeth the history lesson

(Oh, and the reason Cajon Pass exists at all is because of the San Andreas Fault, which runs up the middle of it - you can apparently see big cracks in the ground in places...)

After enjoying some good food and a steady parade of trains, I cross over to the other side of tracks, join 'Santa Fe Avenue East' (what else ) and drive west towards the summit. Unfortunately one of the nice spots along the road that I visited seven years ago - an embankment alongside railway which you could park on - seems to have been obliterated when a new road was driven under the railway . Never mind - I carry on along what is now Summit Valley Road - plenty of trains about, like this eastbound BNSF intermodal:



Look west towards the summit, two Joshua Trees (a variety of Yucca, found in some of the desert areas of California):



Of course, we have to have a 'Joshua Tree and Big GEs' photo - just ignore the EMD in the middle of the two ES44AC (this is the same train as the previous photo, looking east instead):



After watching a few trains go by, I head west to the junction with CA-138, the 'Rim of the World Scenic Byway', and turn right to reach the summit overlook. Time for a relax after the very long day yesterday, in a 'picnic chair with a view' - the tracks are BNSF Mains 3/2/1 from left to right, the UP line is out-of-sight well to the right (and higher), and CA-138 twists and turns westwards down the hill on the left:


(Note the heavy-looking sky, the storm system was still hanging around).

As you can see, Cajon is a good place for 'trains in the landscape' views - as well as 100+ trains per day

First up, a westbound UP coal train rolls slowly through the crossover from Main 3 to Main 2 and begins it's descent (behind an SD70ACe-ES44AC-ES44AC combo, with a pair of DPU locos on the rear). It's hard to see, but the third loco is a 'foreign' GE in Norfolk Southern railroad black livery:



A while later, an eastbound BNSF intermodal climbs up Main 1. You can see the tail of the train still well down the pass in the distance (click on the picture to enlarge it):



20 minutes on, a somewhat shorter eastbound UP train rounds the curve on BNSF Main 2:



Quickly followed by a westbound BNSF mixed freight on Main 2 (it had waited at the summit crossovers for the UP train to clear):



A BNSF train of empty double-stack 'well' cars go west on Track 3 (the steep one), followed by a short lull in traffic - then things get more interesting...

A train arrives from Palmdale (and Tehachapi) on the UP line. It stops close to an access road at the summit and waits - I suspect it's awaiting a new crew (which does eventually turn up in a van):



Shortly afterwards a BNSF double-stack arrives on Main 3 from the east. It stops at the crossovers, probably for a brake test, before carrying on westwards round the curve. Climbing on Main 1 is another BNSF train, so that's three trains at the summit at the same time, with two of them moving:



After those two have moved on, yet another BNSF westbound arrives and stops. The now re-crewed UP train - over on the left - throttles up and proceeds westwards down the hill. An eastbound BNSF train blasts upgrade alongside me on Main 2, and then the westbound BNSF also starts to move on Track 3 (it's in the far distance/right track in the photo, headlights on). So there are now three trains all on the move in the summit area - definitely bonus points all round!:



After five trains (three down, two up and covering both UP and BNSF tracks) in the last hour to round off a very satisfying few hours at the summit, it's time for more food and drink so I head down the road to the Interstate highway service area half-way up the pass. 'Subway' here we come...

ac6000cw said:

20 minutes on, a somewhat shorter eastbound UP train rounds the curve on BNSF Main 2:

Click to expand...

Favorite pic of this whole thread right there

Good

It looks like that was a 'hot' train too - five locos (22,000hp) and almost entirely road-trailer-on-flatcar (TOFC), so not too heavy.

Photography/video was 'challenging' that day due to the heavy overcast sky with holes in it, so a lot of the time part of the scene was in bright sunshine and the rest in heavy shade (and it was constantly changing). I've had to do a lot of tweaking of some of the shots here to get them usable.