Western Railroad Discussion > C&NW, CSX, Fireworks, and Orange Juice

I headed to SoCal in early December before the Christmas rush began, for some random foaming. The trip became less random when I heard on Yahoo! Group headsupnorcal about the SPGNO-03, the Port Chicago to New Orleans ammunitions train with C&NW (Chicago & North Western) Heritage Unit UP 1995 as part of the consist, and it was heading my way. Here's an earlier report and photos by cabcar:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2934873

I picked up my rental car on Tuesday, reserved a night at the Best Western Cajon Pass, calculated the earliest possible arrival of the SPGNO at Silverwood around 6-7 am, then went to sleep for the night.

I got awaken by a BNSF K5HLL Wednesday morning around 5 am, so I checked where the SPGNO was, and it was making slow progress, still on the west end of Tehachapi Pass around Sand Cut. To kill time, I watched the morning parade at Cajon Pass, and had a leisurely hot breakfast (with orange juice) at the motel. After checking out, I headed west on Hwy 138 to look for a new location to meet the SPGNO-03 and UP 1995. As I passed through Phelan, I saw a southbound manifest in the distance, so I turned right off Hwy 138 and headed straight for the tracks, and ended up meeting the QRVWC at Oasis Rd. near Hwy 18. From there, I spotted the Hwy 18 overpass above UP Mojave Sub near MP 441, where I ended up getting the first clip of the SPGNO. The entire train is shown there.

The morning light was still remaining, so I headed to the north end of Canyon siding to see if I can put the Mormon Rocks in the background. I caught up to the QRVWC there, so I knew I had plenty of time before the SPGNO showed up, which it eventually did. This is where I recorded the second clip.

I had a choice to catch the SPGNO at Blue Cut, or Devore, but I skipped all of them to see if the Cargill Tunnel Motor was running near Verdemont, which unfortunately it wasn't. So I headed south to Lytle Creek Bridge where the third clip was recorded. While waiting for it to show up, I overheard the crew telling other trains and MOW about the "fireworks" they were carrying.

I overheard the dispatcher telling the SPGNO (UP 8691) for a crew change at Rancho, so I headed in that general direction, but went to check out the construction at the Colton Diamonds first and also meet the BNSF San Jac Local which was just leaving Rana (video will be posted later). I told myself maybe I'll chase the San Jac Local after the SPGNO highballs Rancho.

I headed to Rancho and while waiting for the SPGNO to depart, I overheard bells & whistles in the distance, no doubt another train about to cross the Colton Diamonds and warning MOW of its presence. The crisp K5LA fooled me into thinking it was a passenger train... Metrolink? Late Amtrak? Nope! It was CSXT 121 and 7887 leading a westbound Z train with Tropicana Orange Juice reefers up front! That's the fourth clip.

- SPGNO-03 at MP 441, Mojave Sub.
- In front of Mormon Rocks near Canyon.
- Video of the CNW, CSX, Fireworks, and Orange Juice as described.

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After watching the SPGNO and UP 1995 highball Rancho, I decided to ditch the San Jac Local, and unfortunately skip the friends at Pepper Ave. (where I saw several cars parked), to chase the Z train.

I have run into the stacker with Tropicana reefers on several occasions but for several reasons, I did not chase it because it was dark, because it had a dirty UP leader, because I was chasing something better (Heritage Unit), and so on. I only had one photo of such a train, but no video. However, I was not going to be denied this time, especially with good lighting. I rushed to Cedar and when I overheard Dispatcher 250 inquire the outbound crew if they were on the move yet, I knew I didn't have time to get the overpass shot, so I went to my back up location at track level to record the fifth clip.

The short Z train wasted no time getting to track speed along I-10, so I went straight to Pomona to record the sixth and final clip, where I only had a couple minutes to spare. The entire train is shown for the intermodal foamers out there.

There was much activity after I finished my chase at Pomona: a light engine movement at Reservoir (east of Pomona), UP's Rail Inspection Vehicle DC-32 at Devore, Mojave Flyer stuck at Dike due to ground relay tripping on one of the locomotives, a second "fireworks" train (UP 3952), a locomotive fire in San Timoteo Canyon, and so forth which kept me busy with random foaming until dinner time, when my railfanning day ended and I had to head back to NorCal.

- SPGNO-03 waiting at Rancho.
- First time I've seen this container. Was on a BNSF westbound at Devore.
- Pepper Ave. dusk arrival of a westbound LA&SL stacker.

That's all for now, more later in another thread.

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I'm sure this has been explained many times before, but what is the purpose of the balloon track? Is it used by westbounds coming down Cajon and heading for LA?

Tom

tomkat Wrote:
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> I'm sure this has been explained many times
> before, but what is the purpose of the balloon
> track? Is it used by westbounds coming down Cajon
> and heading for LA?
>
> Tom

The yard at West Colton is a "one way" yard. The Receiving Yard is on the West end and the Departure Yard is on the East end.
The Balloon track is needed to point the westbounds in the correct direction after they depart the Departure yard.

Seems too easy for folks to know that a "ammunition" train is wandering around in these post 9/11 days...

Does anyone have any info on those Universal containers?

trainupaboy Wrote:
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> Does anyone have any info on those Universal
> containers?


Glad I'm not the only one who shoots trailers and containers. They sure are cleaner than most motive power.

Adam

lodich Wrote:
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> Seems too easy for folks to know that a
> "ammunition" train is wandering around in these
> post 9/11 days...


Yeah, why would you want to display a hazmat placard on something like that. What could go wrong?

Pump

You created a loaded post!!!

I've been searching for a John Christner Trucking pic for years!

You kept your promise for the Tropicana stack train video... thank you! But damn... now instead of three, I need to buy five reefers. ; )

The red Universal containers have been showing up for about a year now. Here's another view.

http://www.matts-place.com/intermodal/part3/images/utlu120187.jpg

Fizzboy7 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You created a loaded post!!!
>
> I've been searching for a John Christner Trucking
> pic for years!
>
> You kept your promise for the Tropicana stack
> train video... thank you! But damn... now
> instead of three, I need to buy five reefers. ;
> )
>
> The red Universal containers have been showing up
> for about a year now. Here's another view.
>
> http://www.matts-place.com/intermodal/part3/images
> /utlu120187.jpg

Heh, I didn't realize how rare the John Christner Trucking trailer was. Had I known, I would have made an easy chase down to San Bernardino along old Route 66 for better pics.

I've seen the Tropicana Z with only one reefer in the front before, which is the only pic I took before this video. I floated the idea to my model railroad club for using such a reefer for a track cleaning car, since it's more difficult to put cleaning pads on a well car. That train was led by a boring non-flared SD70M, if I recall.

GREAT pics!!!! Thanks for sharing.