Western Railroad Discussion > Feather River Route Pt. 2

My best train buddy and I camped this last weekend along the Feather River at Twain. We got a great variety of trains and could not have taken so many well timed photographs if it wasnt for a super friendly and reliable source.

1. Almanor

2. Almanor

3. Cresent Mills
 

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4. Keddie

5. Pulga

6. Merlin

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7. Pulga

8. Tobin

9. Spanish Creek

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10. Pulga

11. Rock Creek

12. Twain

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13. Moccasin

14. Paxton

15. James

 

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A great set of photos!  I wonder what the BNSF train is with the CSX unit and those containers?

Single-stacked for the Inside Gateway, or a special move?  The cars don't appear to be typical stack wells.

Rich

Very nice series!  Looks like that intermodal train is a military train maybe destined Herlong on the UP.

saw this bnsf train on the tehachapi webcam the other day n someone said it was a military train but there where two csx locos then 

PasadenaSub Wrote:
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> A great set of photos!  I wonder what the BNSF
> train is with the CSX unit and those containers?
>
> Single-stacked for the Inside Gateway, or a
> special move?  The cars don't appear to be
> typical stack wells.
>
> Rich

Rich,

That was a military train, symbol U GTYHLG1 18M (Special Unit Train from Gentilly, LA to Herlong, CA). The second CSX unit (5469) was on the "soup" out of Bakersfield so either that train list was wrong and the unit was removed at Bakersfield, or it was removed in Stockton (or somewhere in between, which I doubt because it had a pretty short run time between Bakersfield and Stockton). BNSF crews take these from Stockton and usually pause at Del Paso on the UP Sac Sub to swap with a UP Roseville crew, who takes it to Portola and swaps with a Sparks crew there for the short trip to Herlong. The BNSF crew  continues on in the van to Keddie/Quincy to stay in their pool rotation. 

trainjunkie Wrote:
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> PasadenaSub Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > A great set of photos!  I wonder what the BNSF
> > train is with the CSX unit and those
> containers?
> >
> > Single-stacked for the Inside Gateway, or a
> > special move?  The cars don't appear to be
> > typical stack wells.
> >
> > Rich
>
> Rich,
>
> That was a military train, symbol U GTYHLG1 18M
> (Special Unit Train from Gentilly, LA to Herlong,
> CA). The second CSX unit (5469) was on the "soup"
> out of Bakersfield so either that train list was
> wrong and the unit was removed at Bakersfield, or
> it was removed in Stockton (or somewhere in
> between, which I doubt because it had a pretty
> short run time between Bakersfield and Stockton).
> BNSF crews take these from Stockton and usually
> pause at Del Paso on the UP Sac Sub to swap with a
> UP Roseville crew, who takes it to Portola and
> swaps with a Sparks crew there for the short trip
> to Herlong. The BNSF crew  continues on in the
> van to Keddie/Quincy to stay in their pool
> rotation. 

We learned that the second CSX unit was taken off at Riverbank, for reasons unknown. The miliatary train consisted of a few massive generator/pump stations and every single container was full with pipeline. We were hoping for something more exciting like ammuntion, but nope, just piping. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/20 14:12 by SCUfoamer.

SCUfoamer Wrote:
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> We learned that the second CSX unit was taken off
> at Riverbank, for reasons unknown. The miliatary
> train consisted of a few massive generator/pump
> stations and every single container was full with
> pipeline. We were hoping for something more
> exciting like ammuntion, but nope, just piping. 

That's actually pretty impressive. IIRC they departed Bakersfield around 16:30 and the Stockton crew was called at 00:30 so they must have made it in less than 8 hours including the Riverbank set-out. The DS must have cleared the way for them. I wouldn't be surprised if they set it out because they needed another unit for the MODBAR. I caught the train in Portola. Here's a couple shots of it there, one for the recrew at the depot, and another as it departed Portola approaching Rocky Point.

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SCUfoamer:  You have taken some wonderful photos.  Thank you for sharing them.

SCUfoamer Wrote:
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We were hoping for something more
> exciting like ammuntion, but nope, just piping. 

Ammunition you say?  Here you go.  Here is my cab on the rear of a hot munitions train in Cincinnati, OH last winter.  

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Great series!

Great stuff..!!  Thanks for posting.

Congrats on the IOTD! Well deserved.

BB

Excellent series. Curious to know what the traffic count on that line is on average.
MILW86A

IOTD FTW! Nice.

Congratulations on IOTD!  As further info, the locomotives from the military train returned lite yesterday evening from Portola, going by Clio about 800pm.