Western Railroad Discussion > Fallen Flags Bait and Switch (Southern California)

I guess I better post this 2+ years old report while the memories of SP and CNW colored C44ACs are still fresh, before all of them get repainted Armour Yellow... 

I made a typical railfan visit to SoCal back in March of 2014, and spotted West Colton Yard building the second section of MWCRV (West Colton to Roseville) in the afternoon. What's exciting was that the leader was going to be ex-CNW UP 6729, and behind it was ex-SP UP 6327. I left Pepper Ave. briefly to alert my friends on Yahoo! group headsupnorcal of the cool consist. I even joked that ex-SP was "foamer insurance" in case the 6729 crapped out. 

When I returned to Pepper, the crew was in the process of swapping the leader, so now the ex-SP was going to be on the point! 

I then remembered one of the foaming rules on the UP, that many ex-CNW units don't have alerters, so they can't lead. It seems that's what happened here. (Other UP foaming rules: SD70Ms are not DPU capable by itself; ex-SP units in scarlet and grey have no cab signals so they can't lead in certain territories...) 

I was using my SD (Standard Definition) camcorder back then, and you can tell by the video quality. I did an aggressive chase, where I caught the train at Pepper Ave., south end of Sloan Slover, near the north end of Sloan Slover, and at Devore (at dusk), where I stood on the overpass still under construction. 

Not bad that I ended up with something of equivalent value, even if it was bait-and-switch! 

- Ex-CNW bait. 
- Video of the train, bait-and-switched to ex-SP. 

That's all folks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/16 00:00 by cchan006.

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Slover not Sloan ;-)

Very entertaining.  Thanks for taking the time to document this special move.   Seeing the red and gray on the point gives a good feeling.

Excellent! That dusk shot from the bridge in Devore is also now historic.

ble692 Wrote:
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> Slover not Sloan ;-)

Ooops... (edited with errors crossed out)

Great video, Charles! That was a lot of fun to watch, especially after hearing about your fallen flag adventure a while ago. I love the shot at the north end of Slover--you killed the short chase!

John

Posted from iPhone