Western Railroad Discussion > Ghosts on the Owl Route

On the morning of Friday May 7 I went to Tracy, CA and went down the Westside Line a bit. In 1996 the SP and UP merged and the California Northern now operates part of the line where the Owl once tread.

But, some ghosts remain along the line.

~Steve Sloan

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What a sad sight to see that former SP GP-40. Number, class lights and original headlights all patched over. Why didn't the UP just shoot it and give it a proper burial?

To bad the Westside Line could not be extends down south to Taft, then over to Bakersfield..

Taft is sorta up on a hill, be easier to miss it and just head for Bakersfield.

Steve

I'm surprised the Cal Northern didn't have a Genset at this location. That's the case in Woodland. Did you see or hear anything about Gensets in Tracy?

Even with the patchwork, it's still great to see the name spelled out on a locomotive. AWESOME!

rattenne Wrote:

> I'm surprised the Cal Northern didn't have a
> Genset at this location. That's the case in
> Woodland. Did you see or hear anything about
> Gensets in Tracy?

Genset 503 was in Tracy when Steve was there:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2186696

The job in the photos above is UP's Tracy switcher coming off the spur that used to serve Holly Sugar (the spur still has a few customers south of 205). UP's switcher serves most of the remaining rail-served industries in the Tracy area, including customers on the remaining stub of the SP main line toward Altamont Pass and on spurs off the ex-WP main at Carbona and behind the Tracy ACE station. So far as I know, the first customer Cal Northern serves is south of Lyoth.