Western Railroad Discussion > Staying Cool on the Fresno Sub

CChan006 and I trotted out to the Central Valley for some hopeful memorial day action. I'm sick of shooting the locals, so the Fresno Subdivision is the closest line to the Bay Area that sees regular N/S West Coast rail traffic. We got a great selection of trains, but the catch of the day was a pair of Ex-SSW GP60s in Scarlett and Grey leading the 99 Stockton Local South. We knew that the 99 Local would be working the various industries south of Lathrop, so we used that as a slow moving target, weaving in and out of sidings, meeting a constant stream of north bound trains. Ironically, our great day in the valley was really just chasing another local, but it was worth it!

1. We started the day at Warm Springs Yard to watch the MOAOA bring loaded Tesla Autoracks and other freight back to Oakland. We got lucky with a brand new BART trainset approaching the Warm Springs station. 

2. After dropping a large cut and picking up a large cut, the 99 local slowly rolls South - Knowing that it will take the siding for a rapidly approaching north bound. Crossing the Stanislaus River

3. A friendly brakeman waits for the power to attach back to the train after making a setout at BMC Building Supply in North Modesto. 

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4. Art. ACDC blasting down the valley - TNT, I'm a power load. TNT watch me explode.

5. After finding sancturary from the heat under Beckwith Road, a Fresno manifest meets the 99 Local in Modesto. 

6. The Local got put in the hole at EVERY siding into Modesto, temperatures were getting close to triple digits. It was time to go home, but not without a quick check-in at Lathrop. We missed the Oakland bound Z-train departing Lathrop, but were able to intercept the northbound Brooklyn Z doing the Fresno Sub zig-zag as a BNSF grainer patiently waited to move South.  

 

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Nice shots!

Randy Lundgren
Elgin, TX

Looks like you guy had a pretty good day! Thanks for sharing....

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

Nice report, and fun day, indeed! Despite the typical Central Valley temperatures, air quality was surprisingly good, which made midday somewhat tolerable.

Here's a video summary of the day:

MOAOA (Manifest, Oakland to Warm Springs to Oakland) relays Roseville cars between Oakland and Warm Springs. MRVOA (Manifest, Roseville to Oakland) and its counterpart do the Roseville/Oakland relay. These pairs of trains "PSR-replaced" the MRVWS/MWSRV pair. We caught regional power, a trio of SD59MXs (UP 9924, 9921, 9918) and GP22T4 (UPY 1002).

We were able to document a "meet" with the new Bombardier BART train set coming into Warm Springs/South Fremont Station.

The "99 Local" with a pair of patched Cotton Belt GP60s (UP 1068, 1005) crosses the Stanislaus River on the Fresno Sub. I used time-lapse to document the entire long train. Whenever I railfan with SCUFoamer and jmf1910, our goal is to seek "high value targets," sometimes planned, sometimes by luck. This was luck. Even though jmf1910 couldn't join us, many thanks to him and his "foamer help desk" to remotely help us with train intercepts.

The "99 Local" meets a northbound manifest at Covell in the next clip. The manifest looks suspiciously like the now-abolished RailEx/Cold Connect all-reefer ZDLSK on the front end. I suspect the train originated in Fresno, and might be the counterpart to the MNPFR (North Platte, Fresno), or whatever the symbols are in the PSR era. 

As usual, the northbound "Brooklyn Z" (ZLCTM, formerly the ZLCBR, the "Z plus," not in the video) caused late morning havoc by making DS 56  "part the Red Sea" by putting all the trains in sidings. In the ZLCBR days, this train did not run in the area on Mondays (Sunday night departure out of LATC), but it did yesterday, and recent talk here on TO regarding the I-5 corridor is that it has become a 7 day train. This ZLCTM ran 2x2, with 2 DPUs on the rear. In the ZLCBR days, the train would typically have 3-4 engines up front, no DPU. I'll try to post a video of another ZLCTM I caught, since numerous people are interested in this train.

The havoc-causing ZLCTM suffered its own havoc where just a few miles north, it had to stop due to what sounded like "locked axle" (based on radio coversation) on the second unit, a very dirty SD70ACe UP 9060.

An interesting train was waiting for the Z plus at North Lathrop, a 2x2 grain train powered by pure Pumpkins. It's an inside joke between SCUFoamer and I regarding BNSF trains running on the UP, and this train was very appropriate.

Not documented in this thread, but we met additional trains during the Fresno Sub adventure, a northbound "no-grainer" (grain train empties) at Covell, the 2nd train that met the "99 Local" there, and a local returning from Ayala (in Tracy, along the Oakland Sub) which met the Pumpkin grainer at North Lathrop.

- Pumpkin grain train meeting the ZLCTM at North Lathrop.
- Rear 2 DPUs on the grain train.
- Video as described above.

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great stuff! what is the “fresno sub zig zag”? thanks.

Great photos and video from both photographers!

Rich

Great set of photos! Any idea where the BNSF grain is heading? I've seen it photographed on here before in Oregon on the UP and I've seen it myself before in Chowchilla and Goshen but I never was able to find where it was heading. Is it a run-through train or destined for somewhere in the Central Valley?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/20 09:32 by KySy24.

Nice trip. As hot as it was in the Bay area, I can imagine what is what like in the Valley, as one who used to live in Fresno. You two earned those photos!

Jim B

I like the video of the meets in North Modesto! Poor crew got put into a siding at EVERY siding it felt like! Had a great 1/2 day chase!

bbcc Wrote:
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> great stuff! what is the “fresno sub zig zag”?
> thanks.

Thanks. I know that I'll get roasted and probably provide false information, but the "Zig Zag" is where the Fresno Subdivision swings South East out of Lathrop to connect to the Lathrop Intermodal facility along with a connection to the Tracy sub? and Oakland sub.

KySy24 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great set of photos! Any idea where the BNSF grain
> is heading? I've seen it photographed on here
> before in Oregon on the UP and I've seen it myself
> before in Chowchilla and Goshen but I never was
> able to find where it was heading. Is it a
> run-through train or destined for somewhere in the
> Central Valley?

I saw this same train southbound out of Portland last Friday, was surprised by the fresh DPU. UP symbol wiki shows this grain movement likely one of three between Portland, OR and Ivory, Famoso, or Modesto. Not sure if the train is loaded at one of the terminals in Portland or it originates somewhere else on the BNSF.

cchan006 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The "99 Local" with a pair of patched Cotton Belt
> GP60s (UP 1068, 1005) crosses the Stanislaus River
> on the Fresno Sub. I used time-lapse to document
> the entire long train.

The fact that the train was long is a direct result to recent changes made in the PSR/Covid 19 world. The LRS56 Rogers was recently abolished which necessitated the movement of MET cars to/from Modesto on a something else. That fell to the LRS99 and the big block of cars in the middle was those cars. The Foster Farms facility at Kearney (Turlock) on the end of the Tidewater Industrial Lead no longer gets soy unit trains. So the Foster Farms soy cars are now going to Delhi on a regular basis, which previously did not receive soy. That was the big block of hoppers on the rear. Not on the train at this point but also part of the recent changes is the movement of intermodal cars from Stockton to Lathrop that are moving in the manifest network. All of this had made trains of 70-80 cars out of Stockton recently on the 99. And the crew dying on the HOS. 

> The "99 Local" meets a northbound manifest at
> Covell in the next clip. The manifest looks
> suspiciously like the now-abolished RailEx/Cold
> Connect all-reefer ZDLSK on the front end. I
> suspect the train originated in Fresno, and might
> be the counterpart to the MNPFR (North Platte,
> Fresno), or whatever the symbols are in the PSR
> era. 

The only trains with Fresno symbols now are the MNPFR and MFRNP. The MNPFR can wander throught the San Joaquin Valley just about anytime, but the MFRNP is normally called around 22:00 in Fresno and departs midnight-ish. The new do work everywhere trains between Roseville and West Colton are the MRVWC and MWCRV. In this case the 9061 was the MWCEU 24, which also had some work en-route. The reefers on the headend were from Fresno. Some were serviced there by Harbor Rail Services, while others are still coming out of Delfar as they clean the place out of cars.

> An interesting train was waiting for the Z plus at
> North Lathrop, a 2x2 grain train powered by pure
> Pumpkins. It's an inside joke between SCUFoamer
> and I regarding BNSF trains running on the UP, and
> this train was very appropriate.

That was The GMP2MV 22 going to the MET at Modesto. It was a train of nutmeal and they seem to run about once a week, usually with BNSF power. It interchanges from the BNSF to the UP at Portland and runs to Modesto and back on the UP and with UP crews.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/20 10:21 by ble692.

Two months ago it was zero to few Rosevilles and many Fresno, now the opposite, ah the adjustments of PSR.

Out 

Train symbols have always been "fluid". Traffic ebbs and flows. New management who need to leave their mark on things.
It's a never ending game.

SCUfoamer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks. I know that I'll get roasted and probably
> provide false information, but the "Zig Zag" is
> where the Fresno Subdivision swings South East out
> of Lathrop to connect to the Lathrop Intermodal
> facility along with a connection to the Tracy sub?
> and Oakland sub.

We already got roasted by the Central Valley yesterday, so no big deal. :-)

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lathrop,+CA/@37.8224714,-121.2674121,15z

Above link should get you close to the double junction at Lathrop, where Fresno, Oakland, and Tracy Subs meet. The closest line of travel to a zig zag would be a southbound train on the Fresno Sub (western most tracks to the wye) that goes to the Oakland Sub (eastern tracks that go south on the "2nd" junction, or the junction east of the wye), and vice versa. That used to be common when we had regular trains (MRVSJ/MNWRV) that went Fresno/Oakland Subs.

Tracy Sub starts at the wye and goes south. Oakland Sub, the eastern tracks, goes north/south in a straight line, and to the north is the Lathrop Intermodal Facility. The balloon tracks visible between Fresno and Oakland Subs are inside AAFES (Army & Air Force Exchange Service), a military distribution center. 

Staying on the Fresno Sub (going north or south) has an illusion of a zig-zag, especially when observing trains near ground level, as the tracks curve slightly southward past the 2nd junction going east, even if it might not look like it on a map. If trains were observed above ground from a nearby overpass along Lathrop Rd., the train looks like it's taking a sweeping curve, because the southward curve isn't noticeable... but Fresno Sub zig-zag, it is!

The Control Point names on the Fresno Sub, going north to south are North Lathrop, Pacific (east end of the wye, west end of the next junction), Hicks (crossing with the Oakland Sub), and Palm (east end of the junction).