Western Railroad Discussion > WP Heritage in Perfect Evening Light

This past Saturday, I received a timely heads up from a friend (thank you) about the Western Pacific heritage unit leading an empty grain (symbol GSGHWA) train north out of Goshen, CA, that afternoon. With this information in hand, I packed up the car and started on the long drive from the Bay Area to Fresno in the Central Valley.

I headed south on California Highway 99 paralleling UP’s Fresno Sub to ensure that the heritage unit would not sneak by me as it headed north. However, there was no sight of the train or chatter on the scanner as I drove south, and soon I was in Fresno. After hanging around Fresno for an hour, I finally heard some chatter about UP 1983 departing Goshen with a crew very short of hours of service. The crew only made it seven miles on the mainline before dying on the law at Traver, CA. A new crew out of Fresno was still an hour away, so I killed the time taking roster shots in good late afternoon light of this sharp-looking unit. The patch crew arrived at 6:30pm and then had to wait for one southbound to roll by before continuing north.

1. Typical Central Valley scene: small town, grain elevator, and an added bonus of UP 1983. The elevator belongs to Foster Farms.
2. Roster shot-- UP 1983 still looks very good.
3. Crew change time!

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At 7:05pm, UP 1983 finally departed Traver, putting on a good show as it accelerated quickly. After getting shots of the train rolling out of the small town of just 712 people (images 4 and 5), I jumped back in the car to give chase into the fading sun. I nabbed the train once more near Kingsburg (image 6) in the brilliant evening sunlight.

Although I was only rewarded for my 400 mile day of driving with a few shots of the WP heritage unit, I was quite satisfied with the results.

Thanks for looking,
John

4.  UP 1983 smokes it up as the crew eagerly departs Traver.
5. Wider angle of 1983 as she passes some almond orchards.
6. 1983 catches the late evening sunshine as she rolls alongside some bountiful vineyards.

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/15 16:12 by jmf1910.

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Beautiful lighting.
JB

Nice, those are cool.

Ted S-P

Nice catches.That is really some good lighting and probably the most impressive Heritage Unit.
Brian Stevens

Great photos.

Ronda Thomas

Nice chase and shots, John. Why is it I seem to be a couple thousand miles away when they run that sort of train!?

Jim B

"UP1983 still looks very good"

Didn't 1983 get repainted recently due to some fire damage?

I REALLY like Pic 1!!

LarryB Wrote:
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> "UP1983 still looks very good"
>
> Didn't 1983 get repainted recently due to some
> fire damage?

Yes it did.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3583389

8 months can make a pretty GEVO look grimy in his part of the world (and mine), so I can understand his comment. Love the vineyard shot.

Very nice shots, John. Sweet light for sure.

Thanks for sharing,
~Ryan

Thanks everyone for the kind remarks.

John

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