Western Railroad Discussion > Sierra Railroad hits trespasser

Man "laying on tracks" was struck by Sierra Railroad GP-20 #50 at 12:30 p.m. today at Sonora, Calif. Westbound freight train was traveling 11 mph and was unable to stop while rounding a curve on 2.5% grade. Trespassers condition unknown.

Freight in Sonora?? I thought the Sierra Railroad was just a tourist operation with a dinner train. Or am I thinking of something else?

DAMN!! Thats a really tough curve to see around. It happens to be in the Sonora Hospital parking lot too. Yes, freight does run all the way to MP 49.5 at Fassler to service the Sierra Pacific Lumber Mill.

There was a covered hopper in the consist today. The last time I saw one of those on the Sierra it was spotted at the lime plant south of Sonora many years ago. Do they have a new customer?

smitty195 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Freight in Sonora?? I thought the Sierra Railroad
> was just a tourist operation with a dinner train.
> Or am I thinking of something else?

Sierra has several operations including freight, though they lost their McClellan Business Park contract to Patriot. Patriot was strongly rumored to be buying the rest of Sierra's freight ops but that seems to be dead or on the back burner.

Meanwhile Sierra has just created the Sierra Nevada Railroad Corporation. Not sure why, but they did.

It's becoming a more and more common form of suicide these days, though little talked about, for fear it will become an epidemic during these desperate times. It happens with an even greater frequency in Japan. Folks seem to know a train can do them in quite reliably. Laying out on the railroad tracks, even for a drunk, is not a cushion of comfort, by any means. The train will take a long distance to stop and it will not swerve from its course. And it always seems the railroad gets the negative publicity for it.

Fred Harrison
Central Point, OR
CORPpower/JSS/EORS