Passenger Trains > I Went Fishing For Surfliners And Caught This Instead

With torrential rains falling today, I stuck close to home and hoped to catch a couple of unique Surfliners at my local crossing in Carpinteria.

Instead, all I caught was this UP track inspector rolling through between stops to clear trees, mud and other debris from the tracks.

At one point, the plan was to run 784 with the 761 consist, making for a 12-car Surfliner. Behind that was another Surfliner with a UP leader.

But plans changed as the afternoon wore on. The set with the UP leader was turned around and sent back to San Luis Obispo. Then, 784 and 761 were sent back to Goleta to tie down.

After that, I gave up and went out for Mexican food.

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Thanks for sharing. Would the truck normally get that dirty or is this reflective of the weather?

Victor A. Baird
​http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

Weather. It's a little dirtier than usual.

Posted from iPhone

I passed that guy out around El Capitan this afternoon. (4:45ish). Pretty wet 'n wild day driving down the Coast today! Well over 4" of rain in Santa Barbara.
SR

Did you opt for fish tacos or a carne asada burrito?  And where did you dine?

-John

I went to Taco Grande here in Carpinteria. It's a great, family-owned place.

I got a couple of hard-shelled pork tacos tacos. No rice or beans, but it comes with chips.

They have two kinds of pork, and I couldn't decide which to get, so they nudged me toward one of each. It worked out quite well.

Nice!  I love to make carnitas here at home.  It takes most of an afternoon but there's nothing like the aroma of pork shoulder simmering with chili powder, cumin, citrus, jalapeno and chili powder.   mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

-John 

walstib Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I went to Taco Grande here in Carpinteria. It's a
> great, family-owned place.
>
> I got a couple of hard-shelled pork tacos tacos.
> No rice or beans, but it comes with chips.
>
> They have two kinds of pork, and I couldn't decide
> which to get, so they nudged me toward one of
> each. It worked out quite well.

Back in the mid-1980s we were living in SoCal. We had a favorite restaurant that featured, among a number of excellent menu selections, Carne Asada.

The cute young servers of that era were just as clueless about what was on the menu as they are today -- the more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?  They could order the different menu items, but had no idea what they were.

I used to tease them when they'd ask,:" And what would you like, sir?"

I'd say: "I'm thinking of having the Carne Asada, but before I order, I need to know if the asadas are fresh ... frozen asadas just aren't the same ..."  

Their reactions were priceless. A favorite was: "I'll have to ask the chef, sir"  I liked that one. Whatever their response was, though, I'd say: "Oh, don't bother -- I'm sure it'll be good -- Carne Asada, for me, please."

Fritz in HSV, AL

P.S. That track inspector's truck definitely was representative of the deluge California is experiencing. Good luck. 

Railroaders' humor is always there, even in the direst situations.  Notice that someone has written in the dirt below the Union Pacific herald, "Mr. Clean."

wondering how the vehicle could be in the middle of an intersection but the crossing guards were up and no flashers going?  Thanks!

A HiRail truck like this would have the ability to insulate itself from the track circuit.  This would be needed for working on signals etc so the the signalman could check those circuits without fouling them himself. 
Now, as to why he's doing it here...   dunno.  He's testing something I guess?
SR

BoilingMan Wrote:
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> A HiRail truck like this would have the ability to
> insulate itself from the track circuit.  This
> would be needed for working on signals etc so the
> the signalman could check those circuits without
> fouling them himself. 
> Now, as to why he's doing it here...   dunno. 
> He's testing something I guess?
> SR

and to further expound on what Steve stated ... if the gates aren't activated, FRA rules stipulate that on track equipment approaching an at grade highway crossing and there's no automatic protection activation the MW track vehicle must approach the crossing prepared to stop and a member of the crew must flag the crossing ... MW on track vehicles must yield to hwy traffic as the hwy vehicular traffic has the Right of Way ... the hi-rails have a shunt toggle which they'll disengage the shunt if they're working around the crossing so as not to have the crossing protection activate ...

I usually don't see a hyrail truck activate the crossing signals.  They usually just stop short of the crossing, wait for traffic to clear, then proceed across.  It appears that is what the track patrolman was doing in the photo.

BoilingMan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I passed that guy out around El Capitan this
> afternoon. (4:45ish). Pretty wet 'n wild day
> driving down the Coast today! Well over 4" of
> rain in Santa Barbara.
> SR

You picked a heck of a time to make it back to SB, SR. Should have stayed up North, or not! Enjoy your time at the marina, hope the weather improves a bit.

Ha! Yeah, it was a mini-adventurous drive.. lost 2hrs behind downed eucalyptus trees blocking all lanes of 101 north of Salinas.
I'm only down for the weekend- my sister wanted to come down to visit Mom, and was too scared to drive it herself- so she tapped big brother (and former Leave-The-Driving-To-Us Greyhound driver) to act as pilot.
She was terrified, I thought it was "fun".
SR

I live in Ventura but work in SBA, so I'll have to stop by that place one of these days

walstib Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I went to Taco Grande here in Carpinteria. It's a
> great, family-owned place.
>
> I got a couple of hard-shelled pork tacos tacos.
> No rice or beans, but it comes with chips.
>
> They have two kinds of pork, and I couldn't decide
> which to get, so they nudged me toward one of
> each. It worked out quite well.

If you want a trackside brew, there's Island Brewing just off to the right in the picture-  https://goo.gl/maps/oJWzcBW9hus  My brothers and I had a brew while my sisters watched the great-nephews at the playground, part of Carpinteria State Beach where we were camping. Bad timing- no trains!

mapboy