Western Railroad Discussion > Altamont Afternoons

Between the morning and afternoon rush of Altamont Commuter Express, or ACE, trains between Stockton and San Jose, the scenic pass can usually be counted on to host a couple of daylight freights. Usually regional things with freight going in and out of Roseville.

One day the other week I saw two eastbound -- one from Milpitas and one from Newark -- and then a westbound heading for San Jose.

Yesterday, I caught an east-west meet in the pass.

The first shot shows the westbound on the downhill side of the pass, just after yesterday's meet.

Here's the meet in shot two. That field could use a good mowing.

Number 3 is the MMIRV heading toward Roseville with an auto rack up front.

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Say, you didn't happen to get a shot of the boxcar in the first photo? Looks like a interesting old car, but can't quite tell what the paint scheme is or was.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Here's the other side of it.

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Formerly GTW 348509. Almost looks like it could have been a DT&I car before renumbering into GTW

Cool, Thanks!!! Now I can see it's a old GTW car. These old cars are going away fast!

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Try backing away a bit on your shots. These are very nice engine portraits, but no view or feel for how the canyon/valley looks.
Everyone has seen UP GE's before, but not everyone has seen what altamont pass looks like.

pdt Wrote:
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> Try backing away a bit on your shots. These are
> very nice engine portraits, but no view or feel
> for how the canyon/valley looks.
> Everyone has seen UP GE's before, but not everyone
> has seen what altamont pass looks like.


Agree..Altamont looks great from a wide angle because of how bizarre the rolling hills and windmills are. I do like that meet shot however.

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Thanks for the critiques, I appreciate it.

Here are slightly less-tight crops of the first and third shots.

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I really like the shot of UP5399

The backed-off shot of 5399, etc in the canyon looks much nicer. The green hills folding over each other
is unique, and you can tell you are in a canyon.

I drive through the pass on the 580 about 8 or 10 times a year, and I've calculated that I am unlikely to see a train while I'm driving through in my lifetime. I'm 74 years old.

I'm so old that I have shots of the Altamont without windmills or vandalism on freight cars! I'm so old that I'm listening to Doc Watson while I am typing this ! As bad as it is keep shooting, because we'll never get back what we see today. One day we'll look back at this as the good old days!!! God help us on that one!