Western Railroad Discussion > Surprise encounter on the coast

Didn't catch this as much as he caught me. Overcast late afternoon in San Clemente where freights are not usually seen in the daytime.

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I trust the train led by BNSF 7724 (second photo) was stopped, and the surf-boarder was in no danger of being run down....?

Appears to be a trailing DPU...

KC

It would appear it is stopped...the ditch lights are off.....I hold my breath every time I ride the Amtrak through there..coming up from San Diego, we fly through Camp Pendleton around 90 mph..it doesn't seem like we drop speed very much until we are well into the area where the surfers are crossing the line.

That's the dpu, look right and you will see the rest of the train

Same train. Prob. run (more) freights on Sunday as no Coasters, limited metrolink.- Stevie

LX15840 Wrote:
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> It would appear it is stopped...the ditch lights
> are off.....I hold my breath every time I ride the
> Amtrak through there..coming up from San Diego, we
> fly through Camp Pendleton around 90 mph..it
> doesn't seem like we drop speed very much until we
> are well into the area where the surfers are
> crossing the line.

In my one and only cab ride in the Coast Starlite from Santa Barbara to SLO, somewhere in that area a surfer appeared right in front of the train, gave us the finger and crossed over. To me it was terrifying but to the crew, it was business as usual.
C.

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

With all of the trespasser accidents that we continuously hear about in Caleeforneea, I'm really surprised that there aren't more incidents along the Surf line. There are THOUSANDS of people there, and the rail line goes right through the middle of it all. I guess maybe they're used to it or something.

rbx551985 Wrote:
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> I trust the train led by BNSF 7724 (second photo)
> was stopped, and the surf-boarder was in no danger
> of being run down....?


Same train in both pictures, 7724 was the Trailing DP unit. San Diego freights have been running heavy as of late, not sure how long the one in these pictures are however I know a few have been coming off Cajon with in excess of 100 cars, at the bottom of the economy they were generally running with 30-40 cars.

I was a little surprised to get a clear at Oso, went by Avery and there he was sitting on the number 1 main, dunno if it's frequent or if he was just running early yesterday though. Nice pictures, glad someone was there to catch it.

The Surfline is still regarded as one of the deadliest stretches of railroad in the country, although I'm surprised that with the whole down economy it actually seems to have slackened off quite a bit this past year, I was expecting things to increase.

He looks really small compared to the pumpkin--he's probably looking for a microwave

Ah yes the one and only M-BARSDG train.I just hope that it doesn't crack up on Miramar Hill again.That derail a half a dozen cars and took out 300 feet of line last Monday a week ago.I hope it has better luck this week.Keep those fingers crossed.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/10 15:28 by msdgbar.

> Jaanfo Wrote:
> San Diego freights have been running heavy as of late...

Heavier because? Fewer days per week? How often does the regular carload freight run?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/10 18:28 by Griggs.

Griggs Wrote:
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> > Jaanfo Wrote:
> > San Diego freights have been running heavy as of
> late...
>
> Heavier because? Fewer days per week? How often
> does the regular carload freight run?


No idea, seems to be a rather sharp and sudden uptick in traffic. The pictures above were taken on Sunday, if I'm not mistaken (which I could be) BNSF curtailed weekend San Diego freights when the economy went south, so not only are they running heavier this would indicate they're running more days per week. I'm only giving my observations from when I've seen them passing by at work, perhaps a member who works at BNSF can shed some light on this....

This train was an extra M BARSDG run on Sunday, on duty at noon in San Berdoo. Currently, there is no southbound Dago scheduled on Sundays and no northbound on Sunday and Monday (kinda funky schedule). Anyway, there must have been enough cars gathering at Barstow to warrant running an extra during daylight on Sunday.