Western Railroad Discussion > Chasing a Train with a Train (MRVSJ, Capitol Corridor)

I don't know how many places in the country where enough freight and passenger trains run mixed, that a foamer can ride a train to chase a train. I imagine there aren't too many.

Amtrak California's Capitol Corridor trains run frequently and reliably enough, that I tried it today. My target was a Union Pacific freight train that I'm familiar with, the MRVSJ (Manifest, Roseville to San Jose). Here are the locations covered in the video:

- Suisun-Fairfield Station, located near Milepost 49, Martinez Subdivison (a.k.a. "Cal-P"). Entire train is shown.

- Emeryville Station, Milepost 4.5 on the Cal-P. Yup, that's a loaded ethanol train in the background.

- Alviso, Milepost 38.5 on the Coast Subdivision. Entire train after the Newark setout is shown. My original plan was to nab it at Santa Clara Great America Station, but the MRVSJ ran later than I estimated, so there were too many shadows. I cheated and drove about 2 miles to Alviso. I can't brag this time that I didn't use my car. Oh well.

Tools used for the chase: Paper Capitol Corridor timetable, and a cheap Uniden scanner with Diamond RH77CA antenna.

Back up tools: Windows NetBook, and an Altamont Press Timetable. NetBook was used to post on headsupnorcal and post rants on TO during the chase. The AP Timetable stayed in the backpack.

Tools not allowed: Amtrak's WiFi does not allow streaming, so I couldn't listen to the Internet radio feeds. I'm not smart, so no Smartphone either. :-)

FYI, the unreserved seating on the Capitol Corridor helped the chase tremendously. I could hop on a different train than what I ticketed for, so there was no worry about the "no show" rules. 

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There were other trains I caught during the chase especially while I waited about 2 hours for the MRVSJ to show up at Suisun-Fairfield.

- Amtrak #6 at Suisun-Fairfield.

- KOASCX (Oakland to Salt Lake City, Extra), an eastbound 3x2x0 stacker. Entire train is shown (almost all marine boxes).

- Capitol Corridor #733. I was supposed to hop on this, but MRVSJ ran later than usual.

- Amtrak #5 arriving in Emeryville. Phase III Heritage AMTK 145 as leader.

- Amtrak #5 departing Emeryville.

In the last photo, condolences to the bird that got struck by Amtrak #5.

That's all for now.

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Very nice Charles. A lot of work I'm sure, but your results speak for themselves. Fine job!

Rumors of the decline of 'loose-car railroading' seem premature, if the MRVSJ is any indication.

And we rode that No. 5 from Reno - on time or ahead-of-time all the way, and a great crew. The scenery speaks for itself!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/16 23:38 by JGFuller.