Western Railroad Discussion > Afternoon on the Santa Fe in Eastern Contra Costa County - 11/15

Friday afternoon on 11/15/19, was out and about along the Santa Fe in eastern Contra Costa County. Found my battery drained on the Nikon DSLR, so made use of the iPhone SE instead.

Managed to catch a nice variety of trains. 

Missed a westbound UPS for Northbay with trailers and containers double stacked.

First catch in the camera with San Joaquin 713 with solid set of California cars at Knightsen, coming and going.

Then it was San Joaquin 714 with the Comet car trainset.

Off to Bixler next.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/19 23:18 by Pullman.

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Now at Bixler, where a road accident had damaged a PG&E pole, ultimately requiring replacement. But the light at the curve was spectacular.

Trains came in the form of an eastbound mixed freight, again coming and going.

 

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Then came San Joaquin 716 with it's extra cars to meet the BNSF axle count. A Comet coach and Viewliner diner, "Richmond".

 

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And the Siemens Charger on the rear of 716.

Maintainers were working on the detector at the end of the double track here.

Last freight train of the afternoon was mixed freight heading west.

Not a bad few hours out of the Stockton Sub, all in all.



 

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Great series! Thanks for sharing....
 

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

Great photos. I don’t get out that far.

I believe the extra Amtrak cars are for the minimum axle count on the UP portion of the route.

Gary

Posted from iPhone

I've also seen Viewliner diner "Frankfort" on the San Joaquins as an "axle count" car. Great use of brand-new assets that cost $4 million each.

SN711 Wrote:
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> Great photos. I don’t get out that far.
>
> I believe the extra Amtrak cars are for the
> minimum axle count on the UP portion of the route.
>
>
> Gary
>
> Posted from iPhone

The problem may be Amtrak-created.

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,4903861

Great photos, a lot has changed since I used to chase trains out that way. Didn’t venture east of Antioch too often, but always enjoyed it. How is the BNSF train count these days?

Nathan

Posted from iPhone