Western Railroad Discussion > UP's mobile lab visits Oxnard ca

Driving by Oxnard Ca today I was able to catch UP's Lab rolling back and forth in the yard The power must be a regular vistor to oxnard yard with the tagging on the sides.

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Nice catch and shots, Tim.

~Ryan

I will bite....what does the Mobile Lab do?

From Answers.Com:
The Union Pacific "Mobile Lab" or "Mobile Laboratory" was a railroad passenger car converted in the 1960's for testing purposes (mostly of motive power). It was numbered 210 and it served UP into the 1990s before retirement and rescue by the steam program. Other RR's had similar cars either converted as UP's or purpose built called "Dynamometer Cars."

UP 210 was instrumented to monitor Motive Power performance such as drawbar pull etc. The car had living quarters for the crew as well as many instruments with which to perform their jobs. It was converted from a Pullman "Balsam Fir."

You might find this car accompanying new motive power or demonstrators on the road to get true performance data for the the mechanoal and operating departments.

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

I've always thought it was a super-elongated-caboose.

Over the last year or more, the car and power has been testing PTC installations between Moorpark and Goleta, mainly in the Oxnard to Camarillo area. Assume it is doing so again. Do a search and you can find other links on this site for the PTC testing in the Oxnard area.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/14 06:33 by Josiah.

Thank you Bill for the answer.