Western Railroad Discussion > Another gypsum move to Hamilton City CA

In this video, the CFNR 503 crosses the Glenn-Colusa Canal and County Road 203 on Wednesday, October 2 on its way to Hamilton City CA with 46 carloads of gypsum.  The full consist of 92 cars originated at the Empire Mining Company in northern Nevada.  From Empire NV, a service line runs six miles north to the Union Pacific yard at Gerlach NV. From there, the OEGNA30 made a run to Davis CA via the Winnemucca, Canyon and other UP subdivisions. [The train symbol is shown as listed on the UP train orders.]

At Davis CA, the UP 7346, 8651, and 9022 brought the consist north on the California Northern Railroad (CFNR) track to the Wyo siding on the former Southern Pacific West Valley Line (MP 167, north of Orland CA). The train length for this run was 5,190 feet with a total weight of 13,784 tons.

All 92 cars were stored on the Wyo Siding and the six-axle UP power returned to Davis (the crew went on duty at 3 a.m.).  A Corning CA based crew picked up 46 carloads on Wednesday and headed east on the 10 mph Hamilton Branch with the CFNR 503 on the lead and the CFNR 501 trailing. (The 501 and 503 are NRE model 3GS21B-DE gensets.)

At the end of the Hamilton Branch, the cars were parked south of the former Hamilton City Holly Sugar Plant for offloading. (See previous TO posts for images.) When the 46 hoppers are emptied of their loads of gypsum, they will be pulled back to Wyo and the remaining 46 cars will be moved to the offload site.

This will now be a regular run for the CFNR with as many as twenty consists planned for 2020.

Previous photos of this operation are here:  https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,4854446,4857087#msg-4857087

 
 
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/19 17:41 by Graybeard1942.

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That's an excellent development, not only for the CFNR but also for the previously moribund gypsum
facility at Empire, for years a very active and profitable site.

Out

I am assuming that gypsum loads have nothing to do with the old sugar plant

Posted from iPhone

Yes, it's what Starbucks serves as healthy sugar, other than that, no. The sugar mill is now only an industrial off load
and ag products distribution facility.

Out

The offload site is actually a bare field behind the main storage facility for the fertilizer distributer now in residence.  As a heads up, it has been confirmed that the 92 MTYS will be headed back to Davis mid-day on Friday.

Who said gensets can’t pull?

Posted from iPhone

They do fine when they're right, it's just keeping them that way that has been a problem.

Out

I saw this train working its way south as we passed over it on I5 at the south end of Williams, CA about 2 hrs ago.  I didn't see the front end of the train.

I bet the UP wishes they had this line back so they could collect all the revenue....

Seeing a long train (92 cars) on the West Valley Line would be a sight to see, just like the old days.  How fast do the trains go these days out there along I-5???

Most likely 25 though G&W had talked of raising it to 40.

Out

coach Wrote:
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> I bet the UP wishes they had this line back so
> they could collect all the revenue....

The UP still owns the West Valley line. And I doubt they want the operations of it back. After all they just signed a new long term lease of the line about 5 years ago to Rail America. If they had wanted the operations back, they would have just let the existing lease expire and taken back operation of the line. Besides, they like the long haul, not the short haul or switching end of things.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/05/19 12:09 by ble692.

They may want to negotiate trackage rights so they don't have to run through Chico!

Out

I learned yesterday that apparently UP will be removing the West Valley leg of the Tehama Wye, thereby eliminating any direct link with the East Valley and the UP Valley subdivision. We joked that as soon as that is accomplished, the trestle over the Sacramento River at Tehama will collapse. It was built in 1898 and rehabbed somewhat in 1929.

I also learned that the Hamilton Branch, which connects Hamilton City and the West Valley connection at Wyo, actually runs downhill toward the Sacramento River.   The Hamilton Branch is 10 mph and in the video Engineer Ashley Remy was throttled back to 5 mph before crossing the trestle. She told me that for most of the trip, she was running the genset in dynamic.  That makes sense considering the train had 46 loads of gypsum running downhill.