Western Railroad Discussion > In and out of Watsonville they go

Today I caught a couple of local jobs returning to Watsonville.

First up is the UP 620 on the point of the Gilroy-Hollister local in Aromas with a string of boxcars.

Next up is the UP 1386 with a couple of tank cars and a box car heading north into Watsonville Junction. I'm not sure where these guys were coming back from, but the dispatcher apologized to them for all the delays they encountered. When I arrived at Watsonville Junction, the 1386 was holding south of the signal waiting for the Gilroy-Holister job to clear. And they were having some signal problems at MP 97.20, which may have factored into the delays.

Once the Gilroy-Holister job cleared the main, the dispatcher brought the 1386 in and the two crews worked together to do some switching in the yard, which you see in the third shot.

Thanks for looking.

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Here's a few more......

#4 - The crew of the Gilroy-Holister local at Watsonville Junction.

#5 - Lining the switch in the Watsonville Junction yard.

#6 - I was impressed by this guy's balance. It takes some talent to stand on a crossing arm without falling....

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The "Hollister-Gilroy" local is known as the Hollister by the crews and locals.
It is an anachronism these days, as it handles almost all carload freight...very little lumber or bulk freight,
which is most of what's hauled by the RR's these days.

The other job is the soledad local. It was returning from the pallet company south of Spreckles.
The job works mostly Salinas and Spreckles

Any Idea when these jobs go to work and on what day they go where?

This approximate:

Soledad local....M-F on duty about 8am. Works to Salinas/Spreckles spur, and return.

Hollister local..M-F on duty around 8am. Works 3 days a week to Gilroy (industrial park south of the station),
and 2 days a week to Hollister. Don't know which days are the hollister days.

Margarita Local...Wed on duty around 9am. Works to San Lucas and back.
Sat...on duty around 10am-11am. Works to San Lucas or Paso Robles, as needed.

SC&MB RR....Works the Santa Cruz line. No idea which days they are working, or when they drop off/pick up at Watsonville Jct.
Uses Mt Hood GP-9. (has it been repainted yet?)

Road Jobs...all nocturnal
Rock train. Works M-F, on duty about 8pm. Runs to Bay area and back. Solid train of 2 bay Hoppers of trap rock
Salinas Hauler....I think also M-F, but I could be wrong. They are usually out of the yard after the rock job,
but no idea when they sign on. Runs to Bay area and back. Mixed freight.

Thanks, appreciate the information