Western Railroad Discussion > Interesting Day on Donner 3/28/20

1.UP 6837 leads the ZLTG2 into colfax siding after breaking down 

2.Amtrak 5 at Colfax 

3,Amtrak 6 at Colfax

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Photo 4 baggage car on the rear 

Photo 5 a powermove crosses over to drop a unit off for the Z

Photo 6 UP 2575 cut off 

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Photo 7 Backing in 

Photo 8 hooking up 

Photo 9 pulling out of the siding 

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Photo 10-11 UP 8037 leads the GSGHHY 27 alongside the ZLTG2 on the one track 

Photo 12 after the Z gets ahead UP 8037 takes off 

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Photo 14 UP 7900 and the MRVOG pulling up to colfax for a patch crew on the 2 

Photo 15 UP 7900 and the MRVOG taking off 

Thanks for looking!

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Nice photo essay on "The Hill". Thanks for sharing.

SantaFeRuss

Great shots!

Randy Lundgren
Elgin, TX

Interesting day indeed! That must have been exciting to catch so much action in one spot, well done. 

Chris Donhost
Vacaville, CA 

Sarcasm alert:  Wow, it's absolutely incredible to watch UP's Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) at work!

Let's see, we have:

The ZLCG2, the hottest train eastbound on the railroad, dead in the water due to malfunctioning motive power.  At least BNSF still powers up their hottest trains for possible cases just like this.  Yes, problems like this is part of railroading, and it always has been; a well run railroad tries to prepare for these issues by protecting their most important trains, or just plain maintaining their locomotives better instead of closing down their shops and laying off their repair people.

Then you have the MRVOG, which it's crew has made it all the way from Roseville to Colfax before the crew expired on its 12-hour law.  Now that's getting the most productivity out of a company's labor costs!

My bets are that this happens A LOT all over the railroad, its just in this case, someone on here was able to witness it.  Yes, it is true that problems like this happen all the time, again, it's all part of the complex and geographically spread out world of railroading; but it goes to show no matter how much lip stick the UP (and the other Class One PSR railroads) paint on their pigs, the pig still exists.  Pushing and running your assets to their maximum (which includes their employees) is a sure fire and almost guaranteed way to open the door to problems like these happening.

But I guess when all that matters to the corporation is profits, ridiculously low operating ratio drives, and slashing and burning your company to achieve these goals, we should expect to see more of these "interesting days".  At least one group should be happy - the truckers.  All that delayed intermodal will be easy pickings for truckers, welcome former railroad customers, especially in the coming recession (or even depression) when the truckers will really be after what business there is.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/20 09:41 by wyeth.

Here on the Oakland sub, the daily stack train to Oakland CA, regularly gets a patch crew in Livermore. Crew change is Roseville with a set out in Lathrop. So it makes it 90+ miles in 12 hours.

Posted from Android

Yeah all three units on the Z looked crappy to.Im not suprised it broke down

Posted from iPhone

Wow, looks like a busy afternoon in Colfax, one of my favorite places in lower Donner.

Rich

After the "Z" train left that siding in Colfax, who closed the switch?  It doesn't look like a CTC controlled switch / siding, and I don't see a "S/S" sign on the switch stand, indicating a spring switch.  So, did that "Z" have to stop and set the switch?    Or did the crew on the other main do it for them?

I would say that is why the train sitting on the other main stayed there was to line the switch behind for the Z train
 

Skygevo Wrote:
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> Yeah all three units on the Z looked crappy to.Im
> not suprised it broke down

A "crappy" looking locomotive could have had a complete mechanical overhaul two weeks prior...