Western Railroad Discussion > UP Mobile Laboratory & Chatsworth, CA

Last Wednesday, at roughly Noon, a one car train passed across the Winnetka Ave. road crossing in Chatsworth, CA (In the San Fernando Valley as far west as you can go in LA county and not cross the border into Ventura county). IT had four engines, two in front and two in the rear. The car was the UP Mobile Laboratory. But when I went to Train Orders (TO) to view some possible photos of the setup, I was disappointed. Has anyone on TO seen these train and taken photos? Inquiring minds want to know.

William Jeffers, P.E.
San Dimas, CA

Try this thread...
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3039929
Found it through Google.

engrbill47 Wrote:
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> Last Wednesday, at roughly Noon, a one car train
> passed across the Winnetka Ave. road crossing in
> Chatsworth, CA (In the San Fernando Valley as far
> west as you can go in LA county and not cross the
> border into Ventura county). IT had four engines,
> two in front and two in the rear. The car was the
> UP Mobile Laboratory. But when I went to Train
> Orders (TO) to view some possible photos of the
> setup, I was disappointed. Has anyone on TO seen
> these train and taken photos? Inquiring minds want
> to know.

I guess the keyword "UP Mobile Laboratory" might have to be added in for future posts.

The TO nickname is "PTC test train" so if you search that, you should see a photo of the train (along with a barrage of Cool Pool Power) in a thread posted by DRGW. If you extend your search 90 days, you should see more photos, and a video posted by yours truly (in a thread started by erielackawanna).

The PTC Mobile Lab car was on the head end of MWCRV train right behind the power yesterday afternoon on Cajon, so it should be in Roseville by now. That test train has been running for at least the last 3-6 months out of the Oxnard area during the week. The PTC car itself would sit out in front of the West Colton admin building on the weekend.

CS

FrensicPic, cchan006, & CaliforniaSteam:
What I was so poorly referring to was the dearth of photos of two locomotives facing forward in front of the Mobile Lab car and two locomotives facing aft behind it. I thought that surely a TO member would have had the opportunity to take some pictures. I, too, was able to find past photos of said mobile laboratory car, but nothing recent.

William Jeffers, P.E.
San Dimas, CA

Metrolink is doing PTC testing after the last train from Lancaster CA late at night.
Dennis

engrbill47 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> FrensicPic, cchan006, & CaliforniaSteam:
> What I was so poorly referring to was the dearth
> of photos of two locomotives facing forward in
> front of the Mobile Lab car and two locomotives
> facing aft behind it. I thought that surely a TO
> member would have had the opportunity to take some
> pictures. I, too, was able to find past photos of
> said mobile laboratory car, but nothing recent.

Hope you followed my search suggestions, because I took photos and videos of the whole train, including the SD59MXs (3 on the north end, 1 on the south end). Unfortunately, it's smaller than the 4x2 lashup you saw recently.