Western Railroad Discussion > Train Day @ Bealville

Took a drive this afternoon to my favorite hangout - Bealville, California. On the way up, I had seen a couple of block signals displaying green for southbound traffic, so figured I'd give it a shot. Caught my first train at Caliente (about 4 miles from Bealville).

Caliente, CA 1240pm BNSF S/B #7855+2 (3rd unit NS #9788) MT Grain Train 113 cars

I noticed a different car in this train of chocolate-brown hoppers, so I changed my location to Bealville to catch it there for some photos. After arriving, I could see that the grain train was going to stop at Bealville siding, so then knew I would have at least one more train. The grain train arrived at 1252.

Bealville, CA 105pm BNSF N/B #4315+2 Stacks & Trailers
114pm BNSF S/B #7855+2 MT Grain Train departs Bealville

I set up my ZTE Android Phone for video and was going to video the entire 113-car train, but about midway (2 and 1/2 minutes) I began to wonder just how much time I had to video this train. My answer came at the 3-minute mark just as the "different" car entered the frame. The phone signaled me that my data limit had been reached. I hurriedly shot a couple of still shots as the train continued by, but was mildly upset that my phone had run out of time/space. Anyway, the hopper car in the video and the still shot - would that be a BNSF "heritage hopper?"

The other trains that made the day enjoyable otherwise were:

132pm BNSF N/B #6906+3 (3rd unit is warbonnet #707) Intermodal with stacks and trailers
146pm BNSF S/B #7932+3 (3rd unit is KCS #4715) Intermodal with stacks and trailers
230pm BNSF S/B #4076 & #5989

This train stopped at Bealville due to reported "shooters" in the hills above Bealville. I would guess that the previous S/B (#7932) crew reported the incident to UP Dispatcher #254, who in turn notified Kern County Sheriff. Before law enforcement arrived, a BNSF maintenance truck drove in and headed for the reported location of the shooters. In about five minutes, the BNSF man called in to report that he had contacted the shooters, and they were "packing up and leaving." About 5 minutes after that, the crew of the BNSF #4076, assured that it was "safe" up above Bealville, departed. While the train was heading up to Cliff Siding, sure enough, here came two pickups down the ROW road which I surmised to be the dunderheads in question. As soon as they were gone, I decided to leave also just as the KCSO arrived. This car has probably passed through here numerous times, and probably photographed the same number of times. Please excuse me if this is a repeat.

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"Dive ! Dive ! Dive !"

Is Uncle Pete a little more friendly with railfans parking beside the Bealville Forest on the south (uphill) side of the tracks? It used to be a great place for photography until Herr Rusty went 'above and beyond'...

Egad! I am going to have to find a corner to hide in! What happened? My video was right-side up and normal when I transferred it to the computer. How did it end up going sideways and down??? I shot the video in the normal fashion, holding the camera phone horizontally...and it comes out like this???? Guess I'm going to go back to my Nikon digital camera for future videos. Sorry for the mishap - but it does make for an "interesting" angle, right??