Western Railroad Discussion > Extreme Makeover for Graniterock's Hopper Fleet

It looks like Graniterock's battered, bruised and graffiti covered fleet of hoppers is getting a much needed renewal. Based on the car numbers spotted this appears to be a rebuilding/rehabilitation, and not a new build(still stencilled as 263,000 lb. cars). Is this the start of a large scale rehab of their fleet or are these just a couple of prototypes to prove the quality of work? Any info on how many cars are involved and which shop is performing the work? The billboard proudly claims four trucks taken off the road for every rail load.

The fleet is based at Graniterock's quarry in Logan, CA on the Coast Sub with rock delivered to several Graniterock facilities in the Bay Area. The cars a common sight in San Jose, Redwood City and South San Francisco. The pool is supplemented by cars in the SP46XXXX series and a fleet rebuilt some years back for Golden West Service. GRCX1061 and 1831 are seen in the consist of UP's MRVNW-07 at Altamont and Wyche on the Oakland Sub.

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Less than a mile from the great metropolis of Aromas, CA is Graniterock's Logan Quarry. A conservative guess is that this facility ships 50+ revenue loads five or six days a week(on UP's nightly Rock Job to San Jose).
http://www.graniterock.com/aromas.html

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Sharp looking hoppers. They should hire someone to guard them and shoot the inevitable future tagger scum.

I like the color.

Carloadings will fluctuate with contruction projects in Northern California. They can haul as much as 9000 tons on a single train.

Does Graniterock still have an EMD switcher at the Logan facility? I seem to recall one there while passing by on the Coast Starlight a few years ago.

Thanks for posting these,

Rich

The build date should be on the lube plate, can't quite make it out here though.
Big operation, if you fly into San Hosay you can see out the left side windows.


TCS - the outlaw jose whales

Yup, they have a small SW7 or SW1000 there. They run it at night for the most part.

TopcoatSmith Wrote:
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> The build date should be on the lube plate, can't
> quite make it out here though.
> Big operation, if you fly into San Hosay you can
> see out the left side windows.
>
>
> TCS - the outlaw jose whales


That might be the quarry related to the 'Permanante' local which opens towards San Jose. The Aromas quarry is a large opeartion along the SP main to Watsonville, both are very big shows and will one day make fine bedroom communities.
Always amazed at how many golf courses can be scene from the air but not from the road.

Nope, this is the one near Watsonville Jct. I saw the long lines of orange cars and the "ville" in the far distance. Closer in we were too low to see up towards Permanante'.


TCS - conveyor view

TopcoatSmith Wrote:
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> Nope, this is the one near Watsonville Jct. I saw
> the long lines of orange cars and the "ville" in
> the far distance. Closer in we were too low to see
> up towards Permanante'.
>
>
> TCS - conveyor view


Yep, you got it. Sounds like the flight path was directly over the San Andreas Fault.

I saw six Graniterock hoppers on the Cal Northern in the Woodland yard next to the old depot downtown. Are these hoppers on loan to the Cal-Northern for Maintenence of Way service ??????

TCnR Wrote:
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> TopcoatSmith Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Nope, this is the one near Watsonville Jct. I
> >
> Yep, you got it. Sounds like the flight path was
> directly over the San Andreas Fault.

Matter of fact, the San Andreas runs very very close to the Aromas quarry and you can see it as you pass thru Chittenden canyon on the Starlate. As to golf courses in the future at Permanente, nope---the land will be open space and the quarry itself probably won't be developable (that a word???) due to environmental and hazardous concerns.
C.
PS---when you ride the train thru the quarry at Aromas it is like a moonscape. No golf courses there either!!

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

The new pit at Aromas is some distance southeast-ish(?)from the moonscape you can see from the train. On Google Earth you can see their switcher at the north end of the yard tracks, the conveyor in place but the new pit is much, much bigger than the older satelite pic shows.


TCS - rockin' & quakin'

The rock job's car fleet has changed some since I first saw it in the mid 90s. Then, many of the cars had rags sticking out of holes to keep the gravel from falling out. As Shed noted, the GECX hoppers were rehabed and repainted a few years ago. Granite Rock's cars were the red color before, but these are clearly newly painted. Like the idea of the billboard, although it won't look so nice in a few years. Overall, the rock train is a very colorful consist.