Western Railroad Discussion > A Warbonnet and a B trumps CP ACs

Yesterday the big homie Evan Werkema and I had a chance to go down to Tehachapi for a long day of train shooting; Evan's excellent video (which I'll bet earns him a one month extension to his TO subscription when he wins video of the day) can be found via the following link:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3232138

Evan had come across information suggesting the ZFRSCHI might depart Fresno with a solid set of CP units as sole head end power. It was agreed we'd do the early "get on the road by 03:00" in order to be in Bakersfield by sunup in hopes of catching this oddity, I'll cut to the chase and say it was spoiled by the presence of a BNSF unit third out but that's OK, three out of four isn't bad. We first shot the CP Z-train in the earliest of light at Angiola and we chased him south from there. He took the hole for AMTK and a following BNSF WB stacker at Wasco before continuing railroad east towards Bakersfield. On approach to Bakersfield we heard the trainmaster come over the radio and say "come down track 204 and cut in 7 carrot cars behind the Chicago stacks. The carrot cars have not been air tested." Oh man, screw this guy, so we high balled any waiting around in Bakersfield for CP-Z and headed up the hillside to see what else we might find.

What we found was a ridiculous BARVAW with a Warbonnet SD75M on the point, trailed by a shiny CSX unit, then a B unit...yeah, haven't seen a B unit in years. Two more garbage looking warbonnets trailed in the rear of the consist, but to say a train featuring three CP units on the head end including the leading two motors would NOT be the consist of the day was a shocker. We chased this guy a little bit where we met the CP-Z at Woodford, we got one more shot of the CP-Z at Burton's curve before bailing and shooting the BARVAW down at Caliente. The mid part of the afternoon went by with a slowdown of traffic, then things started picking up again with a couple SB manifests, the highlight of the afternoon was a STOBAR with two nice looking CSX units cut in among a multiple of units.

Photo 1) The Z FRSCHI which we hoped would have a solid set of CP units reveals itself at first light on the BNSF Bakersfield Sub. Would have helped if I would have adjusted my camera settings to compensate for the low light huh?
Photo 2) Pulling out of the siding at Wasco after meeting two
Photo 3) Funny how you lay eyes on something prettier than a bunch of CP units on one train and plans change. BARVAW descending the grade at Cable Crossovers



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/13 21:42 by TedS-P.

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Photo 4) After meeting our precious BARVAW at Woodford, we get one last shot of the CP-Z at Burton's Curve
Photo 5) Wrapping around Caliente
Photo 6) UP occasionally ran some trains too, like this QRVWC with three big units cut in 2/3 of the way back

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Photo 7) I was bored, went to climb some rocks, took a picture of a BAKBAR with more foreign power, went back to the car and sat in it for a while
Photo 8) A nice looking STOBAR approaches tunnel 3 as the sun starts to dip into the haze of the Central Valley
Photo 9) UP's Z train at Bena, cloaked in rich Central Valley haze

Ted S-P

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Great bunch! How rare is it to see a B+B B unit now days on Tehachapi, and of course the dirtiest CP was leading but what a great catch.
JB

Great stuff Ted, really makes me miss Tehachapi.

A nice set of images, Ted. You caught some interesting consists. Thanks for sharing.

JCL

Excellent shots of some Very nice consists! Good to see some variety out there.

Amazing consists! B's trump CP's any day. Nice work!

Great shots! Anyone have a current location for that "CP" train?

Thanks,
Jeff Carlson

VERY NICE...!!! Thanks for sharing.