Western Railroad Discussion > Cajon Pass: helper engines in middle and rear

About eighteen months ago I was going west down the Cajon Pass on Amtrak. Looking out the left hand window, I saw a train ascending on the south track. The train had lead locomotives and then a long string of stack cars and then locomotives in the middle and then another long string of stack cars and more engines pushing at the rear. Unfortunately I wasn't counting, but the train seemed much longer than usual, perhaps even double in length.

I spend yesterday (27 October) at the Cajon Pass. Stack trains typically had just four lead locomotives pulling some 100 or so cars (200 containers). Some other trains also had locomotives at the rear. One descending train had ten locomotives at the front and one ascending train had nine locomotives at the front (neither had locomotives at the rear). I did not see any trains with locomotives in the middle.

Was the long train I saw from Amtrak an experiment (presumable to try to squeeze more track capacity)? Or are long trains sometimes run with middle and rear locomotives? Does anyone have more information about the length and locomotive configuration of trains on the Cajon Pass? Thanks.

Can't give a for sure reason for what you saw but a few years I witnessed something similar. There was a UP going up the hill. Started to stall at Cajon Station. The power stalled somewhere around Sullivan's because the tail end was west of Cajon. A train on it's tail was given the go ahead to proceed and push. Anyone who caught this train east of here would have just thought it was a really long train with mid helpers.

gp

UP Roseville Sub is experimenting with Cut-In helpers from Sparks Yard on the Westbound CMO Grain drags over the Hill.

KevO

I have witnessed a train, this year, stall and the following train couple on and help shove it over the summit. I have heard other railfans also mention seeing this, so I suspect this happens more than one would suspect. All of the times I and others have seen it, it has always been between the tunnels and the summit on the up track. I suspect the usual cause is one of the units failing after working at full power since San Bernardino and they just bring up the following train, and there usually is one not to far behind, and help the stalled train over the hill. I have not chased them to see if they leave the underpowered train at the summit and send up more power or the train continues down the hill to Barstow or Yermo. I have not seen midtrain helpers since they stopped the Kaiser coal trains on Cajon Pass.

I would also suspect that when you see over 5 or 6 power units on a train, they are deadheading power. The last couple of times I was in Cajon, I saw UP send 12 engine light power moves down the hill. Only 4 units were running each time. There is one other operation that is impressive to see and I have seen it several times. It is when an uphill train stops at summit and then they bring up the next train to just a car length separating them and then another train until it appears you have one continuous train from Summit to the Tunnels.

Some of my observations.
Charlie

Yup, could have been a train shoving another train over the hill. You ever see a 14,000 foot coal train in other locations?

And any engineer would be stupid to put all their power on-line with a monster consist approaching 12 units.