Western Railroad Discussion > LRV in transit

In the early evening of 7/6/2008 I spotted this articulated LRV on US Hwy 6 at the north end of Bishop, California, pointed north. I could discern no markings through the cocoon wrap

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It's probably headed to Portland, OR. See:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,1702968

Was it completely unattended sitting on the side of the highway? That seems like a pretty valuable cargo to leave sitting around.

Edit: OK, sorry, I was wrong on all counts. I'm not smart enough to distinguish the different models/floor heights or to know which highway would better serve Portland vs. Denver. I didn't say anything about stealing it; given the vandalism to the already-delivered Seattle vehicles recently, it seemed that it wouldn't be too hard for someone to cut through the shrink wrap and vandalize these, too. I guess that's not possible.

meh Wrote:
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> That seems like a pretty valuable
> cargo to leave sitting around.

It would be kind of hard to make a fast getaway. Even harder to sell down at the pawn shop.

meh Wrote:
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> It's probably headed to Portland, OR.


Couldn't be, that's a high-floor car.... Does anyone know of any high-floor LRVs on order?

F40PHR231 Wrote:
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> meh Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > It's probably headed to Portland, OR.
>
>
> Couldn't be, that's a high-floor car.... Does
> anyone know of any high-floor LRVs on order?


Edmonton and Denver both have SD160s on order. Edmonton's cars have curved lines, so this would probably be a Denver car (More).

Yes, it was unattended, and the tractor was gone. I'm guessing that the tractor was at the driver's lodging in Bishop. Probably rather safe there, since the traction motors would take a few minutes to steal.

567Chant Wrote:
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> Yes, it was unattended, and the tractor was gone.
> I'm guessing that the tractor was at the driver's
> lodging in Bishop. Probably rather safe there,
> since the traction motors would take a few minutes
> to steal.


Who said anything about stealing something?!?!

You are correct, this is a Denver vehicle. The Portland vehicles run North up the Sacramento Valley to K-Falls, and then up the inside gateway.

larail Wrote:
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> Looks like an expensive way to move something I
> suspect does not have the time sensitivity of
> other rail loads. Is this way really cheaper?

It's a dimensional load if moved by rail. So rail may be more expensive.

Truck is much more expensive to ship than rail. But on the other hand, a lot less damage to the vehicles are incurred on the trucks, and the loads reach their destination mostly on schedule. A certain railroad likes to hump the loads and deliver them to the wrong destinations, which make delivery schedules and payment for the vehicle a big crap shoot.

US highway 6 begins at Bishop, CA and runs through to the tip of Cape Cod in Mass. The " Grand Army of the Republic" highway.

And there's an least one website devoted to US 6. It's not as famous as 66, but it has its followers. I've been on the first few miles eastbound (going to the Laws RR Museum), and while visiting "Back East" with my wife, drove the other end to Provincetown at the end of Cape Cod. We timed it so we would see the sun set over the Atlantic Ocean, at least the Cape Cod Bay part of it. We also drove some of US 6 in the middle, going from Ohio into Indiana, and photographing a Baldwin switcher at a feed mill in 1990. Much as I like visiting England and Australia, there's enough in the USA to keep me busy for many years.