Western Railroad Discussion > Dunsmuir RailCAM at 15:19

Dunsmuir RailCAM at 15:19 captured a string of gray containers. Can you tell me more about these containers?

Thank you in advance.

Hiroshi from Tokyo

---

Appear to be garbage or sludge containers. Not pleasant on the sense of smell at all!

Mike Derrick
Atlanta,GA

It is actually cars of what they call Dirty Dirt. This is dirt that has been contaminated and must be put into a landfill that is designated to except it. They come through here about every week.

Looks like container loads of dirty dirt from the former McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento. There's a big, big clean-up going on there and I believe most of the dirty dirt leaves by rail. They had a whole bunch of these "spine" type cars that carry these containers "stacked" up over there at the first of the summer. They load them up and Yolo Shortline puts in the little yard (visible from I80) for interchange. I have no idea which UP job picks these up. Probably something equivalent to the old "Folsom Turn."

Of course, I can never remember which way that camera looks...North or South...but I'd bet that train was heading North to some out-of-California dirty dirt dump.

Except for once, I have only seen these containers on the QEDRV or returning north on the MRVHK. In the last few days, I saw a few car loads of them on a QPTRV (Lakeyard to Roseville) train. A little bird tells me that they are coming from the extreme northwest or possibly even Canada.

Gregg->

Thank you everyone for the information on the container.

Best Regards,

Hiroshi from Tokyo