Nostalgia & History > Mixed train East of Davis, June 1972

SP SD9 #4311 is in the siding switching beet gons, while the caboose and a Seaboard Coast Line passenger rest out on the mainline East of Davis. June 1972

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Were they just hauling the passenger car or was it used in passenger service? If it wasn't used in passenger service, I wouldn't call it a mixed train.

Ex-B&O dome sleeper.
Uncle Joe
Just east of Tampa

One possiblity is that the dome sleeper was either en route to or returning from the Sacramento Shops for a stationary "lean test". The car would probably have originated from the West Oakland coach yard. Evidently these lean tests were done on certain non-SP dome cars early in the Amtrak era at the insistance of the SP to determine if they would clear snowsheds over Donner Pass. At the time, SP would not allow any non-SP domes to operate over the Overland Route without undergoing these lean tests.

drew1946 Wrote:
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> SP SD9 #4311 is in the siding switching beet gons,
> while the caboose and a Seaboard Coast Line
> passenger rest out on the mainline East of Davis.
> June 1972

Exact location would be at the beet dump at Swingle, between the Yolo Bypass and Davis. The train is westward.

topper Wrote:
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> Exact location would be at the beet dump at
> Swingle, between the Yolo Bypass and Davis. The
> train is westward.

Yes, topper is correct, the location is Swingle.

Pulling beets for the Swingle Turn out of Oakland?

I believe that car "Moonlight dome" is still around and in Private car service.

Ryan

Dome seating available on a beet train... that excursion would have some takers today!

WAF Wrote:
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> Pulling beets for the Swingle Turn out of Oakland?

I wonder if this IS the Swingle Turn.

It was typically on duty at Oakland in the late afternoon, and judging by the shadows it's getting close to sundown. It's June, so 8-ish would be about right.

The Swingle Turn typicially wyed it's train at Davis and shoved east against the current to Swingle, swapped the empties it brought for the loads, then headed back west.

The presense of the dome car is a puzzler. Maybe it had been set out by another train at Davis and the Swingle had picked it up to take it to Oakland.

Awfully UNDERPOWERED Swingle Turn, Rich. Being June, these are probably the end of the run at the dumps ( typical run was sometime in April to early June.. beets went to Spreckles at Spreckles). Perhaps the Woodland Turn brought the dome down from the Shops and left it in the pass for the Swingle Turn? Perhaps set out by the SF Zephyr.. hotbox or some other b/o condition? Anyway, a nice catch, Drew.

Nictd1000 Wrote:
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> I believe that car "Moonlight dome" is still
> around and in Private car service.
>
> Ryan

It's one of three dome sleepers in the "-Dome" series. Built in 1948 for the Chessie, sold to B&O, and eventually sold to SCL in the late sixties; then Amtrak.

My guess is that the car was set out from Amtrak, repaired and now is being hauled back to Oakland for return to Amtrak. I also buy the "lean test" theory stated above because these cars were later used on 5/6 and 11/14 during the peak of SP's paranoia about dome clearances.

Bob

Thanks for the comments guys. For what it is worth in terms of the unknown details, I would guess at about va 95% chance this was taken late on a Sunday afternoon/evening. Back in those days, that would have been the only time I would have been around there.

Your probably right Drew, about the Sunday. A single unit on the Swingle Turn on Sundays would seem about right towards the end of the season. Just shows you how could SD-9s were, even on the flats.

WAF Wrote:
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> Awfully UNDERPOWERED Swingle Turn, Rich.

I understand what you're saying. I, personally, never had it with less than two units. But I also never had it when it had a short train like this and also only worked Swingle. Every time I caught it, we also worked Elmira and Dixon.

In the photo, it looks like they're hanging onto the empties to pick up the loads, will double back to their train, then spot the empties.

At the end of the campaign, some dumps close out earlier than others, so the season is probably close to ending in the Sac valley

The Swingle Turn job out of Oakland was off on Sundays . So the Roseville dispatcher called a extra pool crew out of Roseville to spot up the beet spurs for Monday loadings.

The Turn "might" have had Sundays off, but it still ran every day during the campaign. Can't shut factories down once they start.

350 Wrote:
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> The Swingle Turn job out of Oakland was off on
> Sundays . So the Roseville dispatcher called a
> extra pool crew out of Roseville to spot up the
> beet spurs for Monday loadings.

As I recall it, on Sundays a "made up" crew would be called off the Oakland Extra Board to do the work of the regular job, but I suppose if it only involved working Swingle, a Pool 3 crew out of Roseville could be used. The short train and only one unit bears this out.

The reason the job worked as a turn out of Oakland was because the dumps at Elmira and Dixon could only be switched from the Eastbound main, while the one at Swingle could only be switched from the Westbound main. Thus, the concept of a turnaround job out of Oakland.

The Swingle Turn was a regularly-assigned local during the beet campaigns. It was typically on duty at West Oakland around 4 PM, usually with two units, sometimes three, and almost always left Oakland cab hop.

The first order of business was to pull the loads at Elmira and respot the dump from the empties that had been set out in the center siding by other trains. (Empty beet gon trains would set out empties at Elmira, Dixon and Davis on their eastbound trips, using Cal P pool crews which would then continue on to Roseville.) Then it was on to Dixon where the process would be repeated, except using the empties that had been set out in the center siding there.

Continuing east, the train would head up the West Valley line at Davis and back around the east leg of the wye. Empties for Swingle would be picked up on the head end from either the West Pass (i.e., siding) or West Storage at Davis, then the train would shove east against the current of traffic and do its work at Swingle. From there, it would be a straight shot back to Oakland.

This was a high seniority job, as it paid something like 160 miles plus FTD, and you were home every night. On a "good" night, you'd usually be back around midnight. Dying on the HOS was practically unheard. Of course, that was back in the days when the goal was to actually get trains over the road, which is a philosophy that seems to be a foreign concept nowadays.

Once the beets hit Oakland, it was either a change at 10th St if Spreckles wanted them ASAP, or tie the train down and power to the house. It was called around dawn or a bit later as the OAWJS. The empties came through in the early afternoon with a Bay St toe path change.

But the Sacramento beets weren't the only beets moving through Oakland. On and off from June to September and again in November, Spreckles beets would move off the San Joaquin Valley, either as a unit train BKWJS or as part of the Tracy Drag and forwarded on in the OAWJY to Watsonville Jct.

Many an order out of Oakland would read... " watch for beets dumped in the toe path between MP XX and MP XX. As the slack ran in or out, those beets were piled high to take adantage of the rate that was per car, not dollars per ton.

That and the perishables, classic SP railroading in California.