Western Railroad Discussion > sd40 leader at Rock Creek

My friend Chip and I went up to the Canyon last weekend (see his excellent post yesterday about the Inside Gateway). We got a lot of action this weekend, so thought I'd share my favorite shot, even if it is one of a bridge shot over and over by railfans in the Canyon. The bridge is sure getting hard to shoot with all the growth, but I was just happy to see an sd40 on the point in 2017.

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I will keep saying it over and over to the younger generation of fans: take pictures of everything and anything railroad. It disappears faster than you think! I grew up with nothing but SD40's and 45's and now they are almost gone. The generation before me watched steam disappear. Don't make the assumption that 'I can always get it tomorrow'. Thanks James for posting another gem made all the better with an SD-40 in the lead! But even more thanks for showing me some of your favorite places in the Canyon !

Posted from iPhone

casavoye Wrote:
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> I will keep saying it over and over to the younger
> generation of fans: take pictures of everything
> and anything railroad. It disappears faster than
> you think! I grew up with nothing but SD40's and
> 45's and now they are almost gone. The generation
> before me watched steam disappear. Don't make the
> assumption that 'I can always get it tomorrow'.
> Thanks James for posting another gem made all the
> better with an SD-40 in the lead! But even more
> thanks for showing me some of your favorite places
> in the Canyon !
>
> Posted from iPhone

I'll second that! I grew up with SD9's on the SP and didn't take very many photos of them. Was more interested in the new Superfleet engines over on the Santa Fe. Then one day the SP retired them, just like that. They had been running for ever and I just assumed they would keep plugging along. I was also too cheap with film as well, should have looked taken way more pictures than I did.

Same thing just happened again with the MK50's on the Utah Railway. While I have some photos, I didn't get any videos. And way too few photos!

Nathan

Nice!!!

Is that the Flyer or a through train?

An AWESOME throwback to the great legendary era of the John Kenefick presidency at UPRR.
Those were wonderful days with SD40s SD40-2s and Centennials DDA40X ruling the rails of the west.
---Daniel

James --
That is a beautiful photo! And, as others have said,
it is even more wonderful because of that old SD-40
on the point. (Hey -- how can SD-40s be "old"? Wasn't
it just like last week that they were the mainstays of
the UP's main-line freights? Where did the time go? LOL!)

Nice shot James. There used to be a great, albeit cozy, camping spot on a bluff just above the trestle. From there, it was a great vantage point looking down the river. Thanks for sharing.

Kent in CArmel Valley

M5R24 Wrote:
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> Is that the Flyer or a through train?


It's the local out of Oroville on their westbound trip from Portola to Oroville. Looks like loads out of Quincy on the head end. Are they calling it the Flyer now? Canyon Flyer?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/17 21:34 by ble692.

M5R24 Wrote:
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> Is that the Flyer or a through train?

The Flyer from Portola to Roseville (and back) with mostly lumber from the mill in Quincy.

The train typically has empties going east and lumber loads out of Quincy when going west. Last I checked, it's just Portola to Oroville, not Roseville. On this particular day however, it was a monster train with a ton of old boxcars. I think the boxcars were coming out of storage at Portola, but they may just be heading for scrap.

I have heard it called the Canyon Crawler, Canyon Flyer and simply "the local." On this trip, all we heard over the scanner was the dispatcher referring to it as the local.

I caught those same two units yesterday running west at Blairsden:

https://vimeo.com/218865188

Posted from iPhone