Western Railroad Discussion > Turkey day Suprise down Cajon

I took off early this morning to catch a late running Amtrak #3 at Frost. After getting Amtrak just before 8am I decided to stick around and wait for a few westbounds that I had heard on the radio waiting near Oro Grande due to single tracking because of a broken rail. Much to my surprise the second westbound freight was a BNSF vehicle train heading to San Bernardino with CSX AC6000 606 leading and CP 9512! How this power made it past Barstow is beyond me. A chase through Hesperia and down Cajon was in order. A little bit of a scare occurred when the train approached Hesperia when the CP unit went belly up, and CSXT 606 West notified the Cajon Sub DS that they were maxed out and were almost stalled on the grade. A helper call was put in, but the crew was able to get the CP unit back online and the train made the Summit without further delay.

1-3. Frost

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4. Just west of Frost near Thorn.

5-6. Along Santa Fe Ave in Hesperia.

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Great catch

7. Roster of CSXT 606

8-9. Now along Summit Valley Road in Hesperia.

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10. Approaching Summit near Martinez.

11-12. Mormon Rocks.

Happy Thanksgiving!

-DRGW

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Awesome shots, Matt.

Good stuff Matt! It's nice to see some friendly faces at Frost when I went by.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/14 20:14 by slug96.

Excellent! Pool-is-cool-Matt doesn't even take a holiday off!
FCP901

Your photos are very impressive. Quite the variety of locomotive power you have been able to catch over the last week. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Great catch, Matt; thanks for getting out there and posting. Sure do like seeing those "pure" pool consists.

CSXT 606 does manage to get around: St. Denis, Maryland, January 5, 2013, leading an eastbound loaded coal train to the CSXT coal facility at Curtis Bay, MD.

Gary

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GREAT stuff...!!! Thanks for sharing.

DRGW Wrote:
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> 10. Approaching Summit near Martinez.
>
> 11-12. Mormon Rocks.
>
> Happy Thanksgiving!
>
> -DRGW

Happy Thanksgiving to you, too.

Wow, Matt, you keep hitting one out of the park, another pool power homerun! I don't care if CSX AC6000s have been derated by computer to 4400 hp, those dual exhausts are nice to see out here in CA.

Good catch. I saw it coming down Cajon Blvd behind another train. Around 11am or so I saw the power by itself near the refueling area in the yard.

Dave Toussaint
Riverside, CA
SoCalRailFan.com

No Turkeys in that consist Matt. Enjoy your Thanksgiving now that you've bagged your prey!

Valleyman

Not surprising at all that the two "foreign" units made it past Barstow. They're both fairly new GE's and thus meet the "standard".

PHall Wrote:
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> Not surprising at all that the two "foreign" units
> made it past Barstow. They're both fairly new GE's
> and thus meet the "standard".


Actually it is! 99% of any foreign units are always pulled at Barstow if the train is heading into the LA Basin. This is only the 3rd or 4th BNSF train over the last 5 or so years to make it in with a pool unit leading.

Surprised no one mentioned the revised linkages on the truck. Didn't realize that anyone was modifying the GE steerable trucks.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Great story along with the images.

Up until my on duty call, I thought I was going to catch this train out of Winslow. When I heard Z-9 instead, I was honestly disappointed.

Ted S-P

Posted from iPhone

TheNavigator Wrote:
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>
> CSXT 606 does manage to get around: St. Denis,
> Maryland, January 5, 2013, leading an eastbound
> loaded coal train to the CSXT coal facility at
> Curtis Bay, MD.
>
> Gary

The last time I saw it was in Louisville, Ky. I don't remember when but it's been over a year.

John