Western Railroad Discussion > Chasing SJVR's Buttonwillow Local

Due to the heavy rain yesterday in and around Bakersfield, CA, I had the day off.  And I could not have asked for a more beautiful day to chase trains.  Started the day on San Joaquin Valley's Buttonwillow Branch.  It ended up being a relatively short chase.  We started at Interstate 5 and finished at Stockdale Highway, just west of Bakersfield.  

1)  Just east of I-5.  SJVR 2122 and 1826 with a single refrigerated boxcar.  

2)  Passing the Buttonwillow Land and Cattle Company cow just west of Frito Lay.

3)  Next stop Frito Lay.  They would pick up 3 empty covered hoppers before continuing west towards Bakersfield.

Three more photos to follow.

Jared

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4)  The local east of Frito Lay.

5)  My wife took this shot of me and my youngest son waiting for the train.  The crew was extremely nice and my son had a great time chasing the train.  

6)  The chase would end here, just north of Stockdale Highway.  The crew would park the train and get a taxi ride back to Bakersfield.  

Thanks for looking.

Jared
 

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Cool shots, and the low snow too!

Ted S-P

Nice shots.

~Ryan

Sad to see the mess on the 2120

Really cool! That line always intrigued me.

Posted from iPhone

Nice images. I think there is only one time I caught action on this branch.

Nice pics!!

The mountains in the background in photos 1, 2, 4 and 5 are the Coast Range.

You're getting your boy interested at the perfect time.

-John

masterphots Wrote:
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> Sad to see the mess on the 2120

That stuff happens when you park units out in the open like that.

Kind of reminds me of when I lived in Bakersburg, I mean Bakerspatch
​or Bakers-acres. Bakersfield has lots of names

I used to chase the SP out to Buttonwillow or Bowerbank

Thanks for posting....but what was 2120 looks like a GP9 fuel tank
​and a combo GP60/38 long hood and cab...former MRL GP19 ?


​Jay

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SJVR 2120 is a BL20-2. It was rebuilt from a GP9. It along with SJVR 2121 and 2122 were the only 3 built.

Nice photos. Where did the reefer come from?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/16 19:03 by EricSP.

Not sure where the reefer came from.  I was wondering the same thing.  I can't recall ever seeing a reefer on this train.  Anyone else out there have an idea?

It took a LOT of zig-zags to get a reefer that big.....

Posted from iPhone

The only place I could find where it could have come from is US Cold Storage. It seems odd that they would haul it out to Buttonwillow and back when they tie the train down at Rogas. I wonder if it was a transload somewhere.

The reefer was loaded at US Cold at Gosford. There is no other reefer traffic on the Buttonwillow Branch. The train pictured is the 917, it runs Monday through Friday on duty at 0400. The quickest way to get the reefer back to the UP interchange is to keep it on the train out and back. US Cold is a west facing switch so the 917 (M-F 1500) can't pick it up on the way back into town from Rogas.

Heck, here is a breakdown of trains on the southend of the SJVR:

904: Su-Th 1900: Travels from the BNSF or UP Yard, depending on day of week. Services customers at Straeder, Wible and Gosford, ties down at Rogas.

905: 7 day 0500: Switches BNSF Yard runs to/from UP Yard.

907: M-F 0400: On Duty at Rogas westbound. Services Bowerbank, Buttonwillow (Tue/Thu), Rio Bravo, ties down at Rogas Eastbound.

908: M-F 0900: On duty at BNSF Yard, Services Landco Customers M-F, Airport customers Tue/Thu. Ties down on Oil City Sub.

916: M-F 2000: "Carrot Job". Starts/Ends BNSF Yard. Services Arvin Sub.

917: M-F 1500: Starts at Rogas Eastbound. Basically a hauler bringing traffic from Buttonwillow/Sunset Branches to UP and BNSF Yard. Ties up at UP or BN depending on time. Will be patched around 0200 if not back in the BNSF Yard.

918: M-F 1400: Works Sunset Branch M/W/F. Gosford, Wible Customers Tu/Th.

919: M-F 1900: Starts at Oil Junction services Oil City Sub M/W/F. Services Famoso, Lerdo Tu/Th.

920/921: Extras called as needed to patch 917/916. Catch all extra designation for oil trains, etc.

The SJVR has trackage rights on both UP and BNSF throughout the Bakersfield area and all jobs except 907 and 918 use this trackage at some point in their shifts.

The Buttonwillow Sub is Track Warrant Control (TWC) from MP 315 to MP 330 and the Sunset Sub is TWC from MP 0 (Gosford) to MP 16 (near Levee). All other SJVR trackage is yard limits. 

The SJVR has an ecclectic mix of motive power: GP28, BL20-2, GP38-2, GP15 but finding untagged engines in scenic locations can be very difficult. With that said, it is still an interesting operation....

Jared Wrote:
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> Not sure where the reefer came from.  I was
> wondering the same thing.  I can't recall ever
> seeing a reefer on this train.  Anyone else out
> there have an idea?