Western Railroad Discussion > Winter Around the SF Bay Area (North)

It is about that time again to post some shots of interest from the SF Bay Area (North & East). It has been harder to finds stuff of interest, but here is what I have come up with that includes the BNSF, UP, Amtrak, NWP and NVRR.

  #1) 09/29/16 0900 hours, It is a Race and who will win?  The UP LRJ46 Local is closer on the Mococo line, but the BNSF RICALT is moving at least 3x the speed, as they approach the over & under at Nichols (Bay point, CA). The BNSF train wins handily. Unfortunately, the UP showed up unexpectedly and at this point there is no time to get where you might be able to get an over and under shot. The UP went under about the last car of the BNSF train.

  #2) 01/20/17 0825 hours.  Another view of the new UP Tier 4 leading the Southbound Coast Starlight at Rodeo, CA.  It was a terrible weather day, but worth the effort. BARSTOOL posted his reverse angle shot from heer at Rodeo. In fact that is his truck that is visible over the top of the baggage car. If you look real close, you can see the top of his head behind the truck and above the air vent of the baggage car.  It is hard to belive that park parking lot was once the site of the SP Rodeo station.

  #3) 01/20/17 1700 hours – The westbound BNSF HBARRIC is stopped at Glen Frazier in Franklin Canyon. I was not sure why, so I parked and waited for awhile. It was still a miserable dark day and with a steady rain in the fading grey light. All of a sudden the sun dropped out below the heaviest clouds and shone through about 50%, lighting up the units very briefly. I hopped out of the car in the rain to catch this shot at about ISO 4000.  The train was tying down here and was waiting for a van.

Continued......

Gary 

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#4) 01/26/17 1030 hours – The NS 5076 is tied down on an eastbound NWP train at Black Point. The track was open at the time through this area, but the tank cars were stored high and dry out on the main south of Schellville, requiring this train to get parked. At the time, the NWP 2009 and 1501 were busy slipping the tank cars back into the Schellville yard between floods. Reportedly this NS unit is now leased to the Napa Valley Railroad. It is owned by Summit Signal and the NWP was allowed to use it pending a lease to another entity.

  #5) and #6)  02/02/17 1011 hours at Nichols (Bay Point, CA). The CDTX 2052 had been reactivated and had been running on the cab car end of this train set for a couple days and was set to be on 710 this morning. It was a cloudy day, but the clouds were much thinner out in Bay point. I headed out there and waited and waited, checking the trains progress on the Amtrak website. It was not doing well and was being held up along the way due to radio problems with the unit.  By the time the radio got fixed at Martinez, the train had lost an hour and 40 minutes. Of course, by now, the cloudiness had caught up a bit more, but at least the train could still see its shadow. BARTSTOOL had been waiting for this train at Rodeo, but when it showed up, the view got blocked by a Capitol Corridor train.  The next day, the sun was out and bright, but the 2052 was nowhere to be found.


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#7) & #8)  02/09/17 1030 hours near St. Helena.  Another rainy day, but I was bored and went poking around the NWP, but finding nothing of interest headed to Napa. I was going to shoot the Quattro Vino train, but is was so dark and rainy when I caught up to it that I gave up,  as the dark red RS11 would look just like a dark blob in the photo. Not worth getting camera wet.  But, about that time, the crew was warned of a big rig involved in an accident blocking the tracks further north. The scene was north of the first Vino stop at Mondavi, so there was over an hour before it might be necessary for bustitution. I didn’t recognize the location given, but I just headed north until I got to the scene at the Cerruti Winery. A refrigerated big rig was using an access road other than a main rail crossing to exit the Cerruti winery and high centered on the crossing with the trailer landing gear.  The landing gear on the left side was torn loose, bent back and punctured the fuel tank of the trailer. The front of the truck was also blocking the northbound lane of highway 29.  It didn’t look good for the train, as in the “UNO ViNO” train, but within about 15 minutes of this photo, they were able to clear the truck from the crossing. They were going to be there for awhile cleaning up the diesel fuel, but the trains would make it through.  There was no Advantage today!

  #9) 02/11/17 0920 hours McAvoy Rd (Bay Point). I don’t get out many Saturdays, but the sun was finally out after several days of rain. For once the BNSF sent an eastbound at an opportune time. The neighborhood really has a different vibe on the weekends, not very comforting. I had to settle for the muddy reflection shot which is in a safer spot. Can you spot the new Tier-4 credit unit (4206) in the consist of the HRICBAR?  It was too windy to have a clear reflection in the rain water.


continued one more time....

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And finally……

  #10) 02/16/17  0940 hours – went out poking around again looking for the NWP in the sun. Found that they had shoved the tank cars back out on the mainline south of Schellvile to keep them out of the yard. This view is close to the Sonoma Raceway.   The NS unit and the MP15 were missing from the yard, so I continued on to Ignacio to see if anything was parked at the wye. A train was there the day before, but not this morning. The trip to Novato/Ignacio required the detour around the flooded highway 37.  While I was almost to Ignacio, BARSTOOL called me with a heads up that a BNSF vehicle train was coming west with an unidentified red unit in the second spot, so I headed back as soon as I could, but I was a long way off.

  #11) 02/16/17  1237 hours – At the Muir/Alhambra Trestle in Martinez. BARSTOOL updated me with the fact that the second unit was a KCS unit. On my way back from Ignacio, near Black Point, I could hear the dispatcher calling the BNSF 4664 West at Pittsburg. There was no way I was going to get back in time as I was way too far away. However, the dispatcher had bad news for the train from the Warm Bearing Desk. They would have to set a car out in Pittsburg. This gave me plenty of time to get back, eat lunch and be waiting for the train.  As soon as the train got its track warrant, I headed over to the Muir – Mt. wanda Trail to get into position.  I was surprised to see that it had two KCS units in two different color schemes. Unfortunately, PTC is in use in this area, so only PTC equipped units can lead, pretty much guaranteeing an orange unit every time in the lead.

  #12) 02/16/17 1257 hours – eight miles further west at Collier we find the same train coasting down the hill. Out of sight behind the train is an eastbound repo train in the sidning. Fortunately, it was very short not to block the view of this train. A train of about 5000+ feet will stick out from behind the hill in the distance.

  Thanks for looking.
   Gary

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Great photo essay Conductor Add-An-Hour! Hope all is well Gary.

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Thanks for the very iteresting story of your train chasing and 
the great photos.  And a big "Thank you!" to Barstool for the
info about teh KCS units.  SO glad you got photos on the 
BNSF Alhambra Trestle.

I used to railfan all over the East Bay more than 25 years
ago, and really enjoyed it.  Man, have thigns ever changed
a lot since then.  Many of my favorite places to park are gone,
with either curbs along the road, or the road has been turned
from a not-too-busy two-lane highway to a busy four-lane
freeway, and houses and condos have been built in areas
thatg used to be open space.  I cherish my memories of those
times, but am glad to see that some of that beauty still remains.
Franklin Canyon is still really pretty, especially when it is ncie
and green during our rainy nseason.

Loved teh photos of the BNSF train on the trestle, and the great
reflection photo.

Very nice work!!

That ADVANTAGE TRUCKING accident is what happens when you hire anyone for low wages--you get morons driving.  As a commercial driver myself for an established company, I can attest to this.  What a dummy.

 We could start a whole new discussion group on how BAD truckers have become (as a group), but I'm sure one already exists.  Used to be you looked a trucks and truckers and said: "there goes a pro"!  Not anymore.  I worry about being anywhere near a big rig on the highway.

Ed

The NWP outright bought the NS unit...

Regards,

-Frank C.

Frank Christ
Cloverdale, CA
FranksRails Photography, LLC.

kg6nlw Wrote:
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> The NWP outright bought the NS unit...
>
> Regards,
>
> -Frank C.


That is what I thought, but information on other sites suggests that the unit was bought by Summit Signal and stored/used by the NWP.  I guess we will have to see who has the reciept for payment for the unit. There is a photo on Facebook showing the unit parked in Napa, on the sidng in front of the Napa Valley Wine Train Station. It is attched to the NVWT spare passenger cars.  The information on this came out too late for me to take a run up to Napa to see for myself.

Gary

Great shots and narrative Gary! (as always)  :-)

kg6nlw Wrote:
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> The NWP outright bought the NS unit...
>

The others are right Frank, I know Danny from Summit Sig. They own the unit, and the NWP was allowed to use it.

And the GP38 went to the Napa Valley (Wine Train)...

Thanks all for the further info on the newest NVRR unit.

Gary

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