Western Railroad Discussion > Strange Times in the Sacramento Area

With so much rain and the well documented service interruptions to UP trackage in Northern California, the railroading landscape within the past week has been extraordinary as of late.  Most impacting to UP operations in the metro Sacramento area was the derailment of the Tracy Turn into the Consumnes River on the Fresno Sub on Friday Feb 10th just south of CPSP055 (Southern boundary of Elk Grove). The Fresno Sub (former SP) is far and away the primary corridor for UP between Stockton and Roseville, whereas the adjacent UP Sacramento Sub (former WP trackage) is generally light on UP traffic owing to lack of good connection for NB/EB trains to reach Roseville and Donner Pass. 

With the Fresno Sub closed indefinitely, the only way for UP trains to connect between Roseville and Stockton was to 1) use the Sacramento Sub or 2) from Stockton, take the Oakland Sub west via Altamont Pass and reroute via the Bay Area, swinging back to Roseville via the Martinez Sub.  Intuitively, the much more direct routing via the Sacramento Sub would be the way to go, except one big problem... lack of connection for NB trains on the Sac Sub to run east on the Martinez Sub.  The only way this could be done was for trains to clear where the Sac and Martinez Subs cross over at Haggin, then SHOVE BACK across the connector track and wye to get positioned in a way where they could continue. So right as these maneuvers began, on Saturday the 11th Sac Sub was placed out of service due to its own flooding issues along the Consumnes River when a levee was breached.  

Photo 1) Sunday Feb 12th, a late running Coast Starlight crosses over the Vic Fazio Causeway on the Martinez Sub located between West Sacramento and Davis.  The causeway acts as a relief valve for the Sacramento River and is not normally filled with water except for when the river reaches a certain level at the I St. Bridge in Sacramento.  Once that level is reached, the weir gates at the north end are opened and water is allowed to flow onto the land.  On this morning, the water had a tremendous flow as it moved below the tracks at this location.

Photo 2) Later in the morning, a Sacramento to San Jose Capital rushes over the water on the elevated right of way at track speed.

Photo 3) Sunday Feb 12th saw the first of many bizarre moves that have since taken place over the past week.  This BNSF freight detoured via the Martinez Sub due the closure of the Sacramento Sub as normally BNSF trains utilize the Sacramento Sub then the Canyon Sub to reach Keddie and the Inside Gateway for furtherance towards the Pacific Northwest.  However, because of severe damage to the Canyon Sub, BNSF trains were already being rerouted via Dunsmuir when the Sacramento Sub was lost.  Thus, a handful of trains ran via Richmond, then connected to the Martinez Sub in order to reach the Sacramento Sub at Haggin which was past the point where the tracks were closed. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/17 15:43 by TedS-P.

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Photo 4) A makeshift barrier constructed where the water was highest on the Sacramento Sub at MP118.

Photo 5) The shove move at Haggin requires SB trains to pull west on the Martinez Sub, then for someone to ride the shove backwards over the wye and onto the Sacramento Sub.  Once the head end clears the top of the switch, the dispatcher lines the switch and route the train south on the Sacramento Sub.  Here we see the brakeman on UP's Tracy Turn start the move back while a late arriving pilot finally shows up to do the move for him.

Photo 6) Now on the point, the pilot initiates movement of a 7,500ft Tracy turn over the wye at Haggin.

Ted S-P

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Nice post. Thanks for the great photos and the explanations!

Posted from iPhone

Thanks for the great photos and the ecellent explanation of 
what has been going on and what is closed and why.  Others
may not know many details about this, and even us locals
can't know everything.
 

Nice photos and explanation(s)! Thanks for getting out there and documenting some of these strange moves.

Really glad you could get out and see some of the chaos.   I especially like the shots of the causeway.  I remember going over that on the California Zephyr during summer vacations when I was a kid.

-Tom

Great photos and text!

Good stuff, Ted. Thanks for sharing,

Ryan

One technicality, the water way is the Yolo Bypass, while the causeway would be the bridge. The description of the purpose of the Yolo Bypass is correct.

Cliff

The first two photos inspired me to post a photo taken of this scene modeled in HO Scale at http://www.gsmrm.org/

This link will take you there, 

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?3,4232134,4232134#msg-4232134

Thanks for looking.

Larry