Western Railroad Discussion > Spring in California's Central Valley

Jmf1910 and I spent some time in the Central Valley today. We spent most of our time between Modesto and Lodi bouncing between the UP and BNSF Valley lines. Traffic was nothing special, but Jmf1910 expertly identified trains. Here is a small sample from a productive day of chasing.

1. A westbound ACE train cruises down Hearst towards Sunol. It will soon enter into Niles Canyon and enter the Bay Area bringing hundreds of commuters to their jobs in Silicon Valley. It was cold this morning.

2. We were originally planning to head to the Riverbank BNSF yard, but noticed lit signals on the UP Fresno Subdivision. We pulled off and caught the Lathrop to LA Z train at Ripon.

3. We finally made it to Riverbank and putzed around the yard. After a little while the Sierra Railway Oakdale shuttle seemed to be preparing to head back to Oakdale. We were able to set up for a shot about half way to Oakdale with a single reefer in tow.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/18 23:07 by SCUfoamer.

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4. Jmf1910 knew two Southbounds were between Sacramento and Lodi. We set up at one of our favorite spots on the Fresno Sub - Thanks CChan006! Here a RVWC manifest can be seen navigating the famous hogbacks of the Central Valley... lol

5. Spring wild flowers look on as a LA bound Z charges South

6. The last train of the day before we headed home was the local WSRV Manifest. Here it is seen transferring from the Oakland Sub to the Fresno Sub near Lathrop.

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Might the Sierra local be heading to Oakdale rather than Cloverdale?

Nice shots on this fine, sunny, spring day.

Gerry

NWP would be really surprised if the Sierra showed up in Cloverdale, other than that, some really nice
shots. great use of the temporary green!

Out

Great pics! Miss Cali sometimes, especially spring.

Where exactly was shot #4 taken?

SCUfoamer Wrote:
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> 4. Jmf1910 knew two Southbounds were between
> Sacramento and Lodi. We set up at one of our
> favorite spots on the Fresno Sub - Thanks
> CChan006! Here a RVWC manifest can be seen
> navigating the famous hogbacks of the Central
> Valley... lol

Thanks goes to Valleyman who told me at least twice to try that location - and I finally went there last year.

Nice photos and a nice report!

nickgeorge25 Wrote:
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> Where exactly was shot #4 taken?

South of Galt.

Thanks for the Oakdale correction. I have confused those two towns since I was a kid. Going to the damn town today didn’t help much!

Posted from iPhone

Does anyone know what place gets mechanical reefers on the Sierra?

Nice pics!! I like Pic 1!!

EricSP Wrote:
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> Does anyone know what place gets mechanical
> reefers on the Sierra?


There is a rail car repair company at the Riverbank Industrial Complex.

Nice to see all that green growth.Nice touch in photo #2 to have the exhaust distort what looks like a water tank.
John

Great shots!

#4 and #5 are at what was one the SP location of Forest Lake. Just to the south of the photographer would have been a siding way back in the day. Use appropriately named Forest Lake Rd off Lower Sacramento Rd at the south end of Galt to get there. Between that location and "Mt Acampo" about 5 miles to the south, we do have couple little hogbacks on the Fresno Sub lol.

#6 at CP SP093 Hicks in Lathrop shows one of the two last searchlights on the Fresno Sub. The other remaining searchlight is on the far side of the same control point. It can't be seen in the picture because of the train, but it is an even older signal. Likely originally a semaphore signal later cut down with new searchlight heads that were placed on the original Union Switch & Signal double case.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/18 12:43 by ble692.

Thanks for this really nice photo essay. You sure got a lot of variety with the many different railroads whose trains you photographed. Well done!

Photos 1, 3, 4, and 5 are especially beautiful. Spring in California's Central Valley is a lovely time...... the flowers and the trees. Nice.......

Thank you!

Great shots dude, especially at Forest Lake and Hearst! #1 and #5 are superb. That was smart thinking heading to these locations at the right times of the day. Although we didn't have as much traffic as we would have liked, that was overall a good day in the Valley.

Really nice collection, thanks

Very NICE series!

Larry

BigE Wrote:
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> EricSP Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Does anyone know what place gets mechanical
> > reefers on the Sierra?
>
>
> There is a rail car repair company at the
> Riverbank Industrial Complex.

Thanks