Western Railroad Discussion > YWC54 as the Rialto Local (SoCal)

On the cover of Charles Freericks' book, "Southern California Local Freight Trains 2015/2016" is a photo of the YWC54 making the return trip toward West Colton along the former Pacific Electric ROW through downtown Rialto. The excellent photo has both the train and the former PE depot in the composition.

More about that depot:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2257975

I've chased the YWC54 as the "Lowes Local" toward Beaumont before, but was looking for an opportunity to chase it to Rialto. For the past year, I was trying to find a Wednesday off to coincide with longer daylight (summer), but daylight savings ended before I was able to pull it off.

I planned a quick SoCal trip earlier this month on a Tuesday, based solely on Southwest Airline's $29 fare sale. I had a pretty good day catching trains, and to kill some time before the flight home, I went to Pepper Ave. to relax and just watch things unfold.

What's that Geep facing long hood forward doing there, with two centerbeam loads in tow?

Even though I had never seen this train at the east end of West Colton Yard before, I had a strong suspicion that this was the YWC54 going to Rialto. I was hoping to catch it with any remaining light, but the sun was setting, and other trains kept going in front of it, the MWCRV, then the MWCRO...

The SD40-2 yard switchers then pulled in front of it with a long string of cars, and before I realized it, the YWC54 took off. Chase was on!

I went to the Mojave Sub/San Gabriel Sub flyover where the Rialto Sub begins, to verify that it was indeed the YWC54, then went to a location with the best ambient light available, in downtown Rialto, to catch the local there.

That's it for the quick report.

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Nice, reminds me of years past when cars would show up at Levitz in San Bernardino so you knew
that the "All Cities" had run, you just never saw it!

Out

Nice show. So I can't figure out the operation of those newer UP strobe beacons. They didn't seem to be flashing at all for a while, then all of a sudden a bunch of flashes. Weird.