Western Railroad Discussion > Recent UP 1989 Encounters

Couple of weeks ago while visiting SoCal, I ran into FCP901 at Pepper Ave. (West Colton), who alerted me that UP 1989, the Rio Grande Heritage Unit, was a DPU on the day's ZLCBRC out of Los Angeles. We were hoping it was rear-facing, nose-uncoupled, but it wasn't to be. I snapped some shots anyway.

I didn't follow the progress of UP 1989 closely, but the unit was setout at Lathrop, led the ZLTG2 east, then came back on the ZG2OA about a week after I saw it in SoCal, but not leading.

Couple of days later, last Sunday, I was informed that it was going to lead the KOASCX-27 out of Oakland. I was listening to radio feeds on the Internet at the time, looking for a westbound train heading to the Bay Area to catch. I had two targets in mind, UP 9910 (which I knew was the MRVWS) and UP 9050, which I found out later to be the ZNPOA.

I had some late morning errands to run, so I was not prepared to chase the KOASCX-27 & UP 1989, as the train would have had about a 50 mile head start. That was no deterrent, as jmf1910, Maxwell, and I were able to nab UP 1988 (Miss Katy) several years ago even if she had a 150 mile head start out of Roseville.

I planned my drive to Roseville with the highest probability of "stumbling onto" the UP 1989, making a straight shot to Martinez, then loosely following UP's Martinez Sub ("Cal-P") east. I briefly looked to the west while crossing the Benicia-Martinez Bridge... lo and behold, there was a set of doublestack marine boxes moving near Ozol! At the moment "UP 1989" was mentioned loud and clear on my scanner. While the train departed Oakland late enough for me to get lucky, it did not depart late enough - I didn't have enough time to go to the east end of the bridge to get my shot there.

First clip is a consolation prize against the light, where I get the KOASCX take the trestle on Track 1 in Benicia.

From there, it was a typical chase, at Yolo Causeway, and Citrus Heights. Sometimes, DS 74 sends eastbound stack trains on Track 1 through Bloomer Cut, so after the crew change at Roseville, I gambled on that... and lost. But, I already had a Plan B in mind, Track 2 at Bowman, where I had enough time to recover from the gamble and nabbed the UP 1989 one more time before darkness fell.

Entire train (3x2x0, 402 axles) is shown at Yolo Causeway. That ends the quick Heritage Unit report. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

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phthithu Wrote:
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> Great chase cchan! One place I'd like to catch a
> freight is on the east side of the trestle on the
> north road undercrossing, looking south toward the
> bridge. One day...

My old stomping grounds. That's an early morning shot for sure to get the best light - hope you get it.

Posted from iPhone

Nice video cchan006, that is one big stack train for the Cal-P. Didn't. see anything like that growing up. And you put in one long chase, I'm surprised you were able to beat the train from Benicia to the Yolo Causeway.

Nathan

Posted from iPhone

Great stuff Charles. Sounds like it's K5LL horn is crapping out!

Regards, Jim Evans