Western Railroad Discussion > Today in Guadalupe

I went up to Guadalupe today and ended up catching four trains in about an hour.

1> First up was train no. 14, the northbound Starlight, with heritage unit 184 on the point.

2> Close on the heels of 14 was UP 570, bringing a lone car back to the yard from points south.

3> Once the UP 570 was out of the way, a crew member on the UP 2331 lines a switch to thread the southbound out of the yard.

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4> UP 2331 heads south from Guadalupe.

5> Just south of town, UP 2331 cruises by a group of farmworkers. Looks 2331 could use a fresh coat of paint.

6> And finally, no. 11, the pumpkin-tipped Coast Starlight, heads south into Guadalupe.

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Wow, a great photo essay on Central Coast railroading.

Rich

What No Santa Maria Valley Action ?

They must have been on their lunch hour when everything else was happening :-)

Guadalupe ca be a pretty busy place between noon and 4pm on tuesdays and fridays....4 scheduled amtks, the guadalupe switcher, and the hauler leaving between 3 and 4pm.

Unfortunately, the Oil cans and most of the detour trains that are running, go thru the SBA sub TWC territory between 6pm and 6am, when there isn't a lot of other traffic.

The SMV can come into Guad morning or afternoon, depending on the traffic flow, afaik. If there is a lot of outbound traffic, they will pick up on line 1st, and then go to Guadalupe. If mostly inbound, then they'll go to Guad in the AM. It might be that on tues and fri, they have to get into Guad early,. in order to get their outbounds on to the hauler that afternoon. Any outbound loads that don't make it on to the friday hauler, sit till tuesday to get picked up. Losing 3 or 4 days in transit for fresh veggies, just sitting in Guad yard, is really bad business.

For those of you who don't remember all the way back in 2004, there used to be 2 pick ups a day at guadalupe yard (one NB and one SB, 5 or 6 days a week)
Now there are 2 pick ups a week total, SB only. The SMV is building business like crazy....and meanwhile, the UP, which claims to be helping build traffic, hasn't done squat.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/13 03:23 by pdt.

HOLEY MOLEY, the outbound (South) UP2331 is the Gaudalupe Hauler LOF66-21! I work with those guys!!!
The Brakeman has a great form for lining a switch! LOL!!!

We brought the power to Gemco from West Colton on Sundays LOQ35-19.

What type of locomotive is the UP 2331? Is that an SD90?

SD60M I believe.

pdt Wrote:
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> The SMV is building business like crazy....and
> meanwhile, the UP, which claims to be helping
> build traffic, hasn't done squat.

During the winter there was some big trains out of Gemco, 100 cars to Guad, not all for SMVRR, and UP still said that there was not enough traffic to warrant more service. Between SMVRR, Phillips 66 coke plant, and Imerys, this may be a very big summer on the southern part of the coast line.

Maybe the BNSF should look at the Coast Line, seems like they are using it more than the UP lately.

Imerys, is this the current name for Celite/John Mansville on the Lompoc Branch?

Thanks,

Josiahg

Josiah Wrote:
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> Imerys, is this the current name for Celite/John
> Mansville on the Lompoc Branch?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Josiahg


Yes.

V

SLOCONDR