Western Railroad Discussion > California Northern's West Side Sub

I visited Stockton on a Tuesday earlier in November, motivated by the presence of UP 1982, MoPac Heritage Unit in Lathrop and the pair of Spirit of Washington F units in Stockton, destined for Iowa Pacific's Santa Cruz & Monterey Bay Railway. UP 1982 had just been set out on the ZLCBRB, and the F units had just been interchanged from the BNSF.

I followed a parade of manifest trains through Altamont Pass to get there, the MMIRV and MNWRV, then watched a confluence of trains at Lathrop: ZLCBR, MMIRV, MNWRV, MRVSJ, LRS54 in that order. I was so focused on the Z train due to all the DS 56 nervousness and chatter that I missed my opportunity to catch the LRS54 crossing the Mossdale Bridge just a few miles away. Darn #1.

I then went to Lathrop to spot the UP 1982, and it was visible, but too far away for any decent shot. Darn #2.

I drove around Stockton Yard to see if I could spot the Spirit of Washington F units, but couldn't see them. I found out later that my view of them were blocked by locals switching at the south end of the yard. I did see them later at dusk, but still a Darn #3.

I had not railfanned the California Northern's West Side Sub before, and seeing on the map that the ROW followed Highway 33 and headed southeast across I-5 toward Los Banos, I went for a quick and easy scouting trip, gambling on cheering myself up by running into the train heading back to Tracy somewhere along the way. After driving almost 20 miles, I finally saw ditchlights in the distance, so I pulled a U-turn and headed back to Westley to set up for my first clip.

People on TO have commented on how "boring" California's Central Valley is (humorously or not so humorously) and CFNR's West Side Sub is no exception: ROW straight as an arrow, terrain flat as a pancake, and montains and hills far away, too small to make them meaningful backgrounds. So when I saw the windmill and the historic and rusty watertank at the south end of Westley, I was thrilled and incorporated them in the first clip.

To prevent myself from yawning, I paced the train for a little more than a minute and a half after finding a safe gap in traffic, and enjoyed the exciting sounds of the clickety-clack from jointed rails. That's the second clip, which shows the entire train.

Highway 33 makes a crossing and switches from SW to NE side of the ROW at McCracken Rd., so I waited for the Genset #505 and Baby Tunnel Motor #109 there, which is the third clip. The "vacuum cleaner" sound of the Genset is audible against the clanging of the crossing bells along with more jointed rail clickety clacks.

I was very far from a coast line, river, creek, or any significant body of water, so imagine my excitement when I found irrigation water! (Near Koster Rd.?) That's the fourth clip, and sorry, no reflection shots.

The Cal Northern crew has to tone up Union Pacific Dispatcher 58 to get a signal to cross the Oakland Sub (ex-WP) at Lyoth, and the fifth clip records part of that conversation. Voice of DS 58 might be familiar to some TO members, JKB.

At Lyoth, a dog came out to block my shot with a wagging tail and "ruined" my audio with the barking. :-) He couldn't block the sound of the vacuum cleaner, though. The CFNR train is proceeding toward the UP crossing on this sixth and last clip.

- Somewhere along the West Side Sub.
- Coming into Tracy to interchange with UP.
- Video of the chase.

That's all folks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/12 08:13 by cchan006.

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Love that color shot! This video is great! You have a gift with pacing, filming and recording all at once. Great chase. Oh and thanks for panning all the way at least once :)

Really nice videography. Thank you for posting, I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Jan Austin
Chico, CA
J.G. Austin Photography

And to think that early on we had talked about giving this line back to SP account lack of actual business and costs. Malcolm has hung in there all these years and now has two engines to play with. They will however need a new paint job. It does prove that patience in this business is a virtue. And that tomato paste will mvoe in almost any type of car!

^ An orange and black GWI paint job, right? Great photos and video Charles, good to see business is doing good down there.

Thanks for the video. I've tried a couple of times to catch Cal Northern with a mixed genset-GP15 consist, but only ever got solid 3GS21B-DE's or solid GP15-1's.

I'd call the valley "subtle" rather than "boring." You have to work harder for satisfying compositions, but they can be had. The tank at Westley is a gimme, but most of the little towns down the line have good old lineside industry buildings to work into shots, or farm buildings, or lonely trees, etc. I'd definitely have shot that dog. On video, I mean. That is to say, shoot the dog with the video camera, not record video of shooting the...oh, you know what I mean. ;^)

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> Thanks for the video. I've tried a couple of times
> to catch Cal Northern with a mixed genset-GP15
> consist, but only ever got solid 3GS21B-DE's or
> solid GP15-1's.

Few weeks ago, when I ended up chasing the SD59MX 9915 leading the MRVSJ, Maxwell and I noticed the Genset coupled to the GP15-1 at the Tracy Yard wye. I got lucky CFNR didn't shuffle their power around this time.

As for the dog, I wish I hit the record button just a few second earlier, then he (or she) would have been completely in the video. He kind of startled me because I was looking north (toward the UP junction) and he snuck up on me when I faced south to compose my camera toward the CFNR Genset.