Western Railroad Discussion > Boxcars over Donner

It was a refreshing sight tonight as I watched a long and heavy UP train struggle uphill at ALTA, CA over the Donner Pass line. Of 108 cars, 89 of them were boxcars, all heavily loaded. Given all the canned food that originates in CA from the old West Vally line, the old West Side line, as well as from many canneries along the old SP line south of Sacramento, it was great to see an almost pure boxcar train heading over Donner.

Not a single reefer--just all kinds of old, new and beat up boxcars with fully compressed springs on their truck axles.

Had to share.

Coach

I saw this one (always thanks to Roger) on the Alta Web Cam. Amazed---or am I?---this one wasn't 3 X 3 X 0 instead of 3 X 2.

++++====> J|/\/\

Probably the Roper. Was it eastbound in later afternoon?

Regards, Jim Evans, Alta sometimes.

Train was the MRVNPX; MRVOG ran earlier in the day.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/15 07:54 by modoc_line.

Returning Saturday afternoon to the Bay Area from Winterail in Stockton, I saw two UP units hauling a long string of mostly box cars out of Tracy. I estimate the train at 80-90 cars. I was on Freeway 205 and was not able to get a picture, but this was an impressive train of cars originating on the old SP west line that ran from Tracy through Los Banos to Fresno. There is still much traffic generated from the plants along that line which now terminates just north of Los Banos. Maybe some of these fed into the train climbing Donner on Sunday?

Gerry

SPB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Returning Saturday afternoon to the Bay Area from
> Winterail in Stockton, I saw two UP units hauling
> a long string of mostly box cars out of Tracy. I
> estimate the train at 80-90 cars. I was on
> Freeway 205 and was not able to get a picture, but
> this was an impressive train of cars originating
> on the old SP west line that ran from Tracy
> through Los Banos to Fresno. There is still much
> traffic generated from the plants along that line
> which now terminates just north of Los Banos.
> Maybe some of these fed into the train climbing
> Donner on Sunday?
>
> Gerry

Quite possibly!

Most of those boxcars on the Tracy Hauler (LRS54/LRS55) were brought to the UP at Tracy Yard by the California Northern. Lots of tomato products in there. I know some folks chased the Cal Northern the Friday before Winterail, and I've chased this job several times in recent years. Shed47 has posted many fun reports for this job, use the keywords "shed47 tomato morning star" if you want to find those.

So maybe those boxcars are going to Omaha via North Platte? Maybe Warren Buffett is having a Heinz katsup fix? (kidding)

I would imagine the MRVNPX extra was driven by the exception on the CFNR that occurred Thursday last week. They did not make it back to Tracy on Thursday. So Friday morning's UP LRS54 out of Tracy only consisted of 5 reefers of Leprino cheese and one empty hopper. CFNR came into Tracy on Friday after 630pm with almost 150 cars, including two days worth of pulls from the two tomato canneries.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/15 14:21 by midwest.

midwest Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I would imagine the MRVNPX extra was driven by the
> exception on the CFNR that occurred Thursday last
> week. They did not make it back to Tracy on
> Thursday. So Friday morning's UP LRS54 out of
> Tracy only consisted of 5 reefers of Leprino
> cheese and one empty hopper. CFNR came into Tracy
> on Friday after 630pm with almost 150 cars,
> including two days worth of pulls from the two
> tomato canneries.

Thursday's train into Roseville was 28 box cars, nothing else. In at 1348, out at ~1500 with 23 box, 4 covered hoppers, 2 reefers for more cheese and a tank.

mapboy

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