Western Railroad Discussion > Morning Oil

A train loaded with Monterey County crude rolls south approaching Emma Wood State Beach in Ventura on Monday morning.

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IOTD!!!!!

Great shot!

Nice pic!!

Are the cars used in this service still the 'tanktrain' interconnected 30000 gallon tankcars? Nice shot, by the way.

SantaFeRuss

Posted from Android

They are TankTrain but only about 23,600-23,700 gallons.

Now that is a cool photo.
John

Great picture! It is interesting with all the environmentalists trying to stop unit crude oil trains in California, these cars have been running in California since the 1980's. SP's mechanical department developed the tank car train....very innovative It was 13 car sets that are interconnected so that that the customer could load and unload thirteen cars from one spot. It ran from Oil Junction, California just north of Bakersfield, over the Tehachapi Mountains to the refineries in Wilmington, California. (Google it and you can see many videos that show how bad SP power was at the time) In 1998 (?) the cars shifted to the oil field near San Ardo, California. A loading facility was built next to the siding at Wunpost and this unit oil train has been running ever since. Wunpost to wilmington and back. It is interesting....unit oil trains are not new to California. And what an irony now. Running down the California Coast Line....right by the the major offshore oil spill that occured in the 1960's, that many believe was the beginning of the modern environmental movement. UP employees: thank you for keeping that train on top the rails!!!  I appreciate any corrections.....

The loading facility was actually at Saco (near Oil Junction). In 1996 or 1997 they built a terminal at Fleta (south of Mojave) and loaded the train there instead. In 1999 (if I remember correctly) they built a new pipeline from the Bakersfield area to the LA area and that ended the Saco/Fleta train. The Wunpost train started about the same time as the Mojave terminal opened.