Western Railroad Discussion > Looking for UP Valley and Black Butte Sub info

Hello all,

Planning a trip up to Redding and Shasta later this week. I was wondering if anyone here knows what the current freight traffic is like around those areas? Specifically what comes southbound in the morning and northbound in the afternoon/evening?
But any current information in general between Redding and Shasta areas will be very helpful.

Thanks in advance,

Traci

Posted from Android

TRACI....you will be wasting your time,if you are lucky you may seen one manybe two NB and witha little luck one or twoSB...UP has found a way  to screw them selves and they will pay for it and we as railfans continue to suffer the droubt.....

In Dunsmuir we're seeing a SB doublestack somewhere around 8 am to noon 7 days a week, although that time has been varying quite a bit lately. If it's late there's usually a SB lumber train in front or behind it. Ocasionally a second SB doublestack shows up, sometime after midnight but I haven't figured that one out, occasionally they are both in daylight hours so it's worth noting.

They've been running one or two NB 'splitters' in the morning around 8 am, those are very long, mostly empty trains that are simply split in the middle ( by tonnage) in Dunsmuir and then put back together at Black Butte. The second section uses a pair of locomotives nicknamed 'Helpers' that lay over in Dunsmuir usually near the Amtrak Station. Sometimes the Helpers pull HoS trains into Dunsmuir from the Canyon, sometimes they run a few cars to the CORP interchange at Black Butte, etc. Not really classic 'Helpers' but they get a lot of radio time. Occasionally they split in Lakehead and put back together at Grass Lake, but that seems to be mostly the loaded Herzon ballast trains going north. This is because of the tight curve and grade at Cantara Loop.

Things die down after noon although a SB lumber train could show up. They often hold a train at Mott / Azealea or Upton waiting for a crew to be on Duty at Dunsmuir, or they may run it into Dunsmuir siding and tie it down, just depends on crews and traffic. There is the occasional NB or SB train in the afternoon. There is or was a NB doublestack with International containers early in the week, maybe somebody else can pin down those days. I've seen empty doublestack trains running north lately, but also running south or just tacked on the rear of the morning doublestack.

The NB doublestack usually shows up around 5pm or probably later, that's pretty much after dark now. It hits Gerber around 3 pm and gets lots of Radio time going through Redding and often up the Canyon. There's often a NB running just behind it, with cement loads probably picked up at Anderson, just south of Redding.

There is the occasional grain train often with BNSF power, loads south and empties north a few days later. That train had Canadian power occasionlly but more likely BNSF power, but just as often another bunch of UP locomotives.

There's also a Dunsmuir Depot Railcam on YouTube.
Hope that helps.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/20 21:01 by TCnR.

TCnR and Barstool,

Thanks for your quick and informative replies! Very helpful. I may have to alter the plans a bit since that traffic seems a bit sparse. Kinda sad but I'm not surprised since this PSR crap has ruined things elsewhere too. I'm coming up from the Bay Area and don't want to waste too much time or gas.

Cheers,

Traci

Posted from Android

The fall colors are happening right now, although I haven't seen the bright red colors yet. The colors will be working their way south down the canyon, but after that it gets pretty dark around here until Winter Solstice. Closer to the Holidays the traffic on I-5 goes nuts.

SF to Dunsmuir is about 4 hours if no traffic and staying with the traffic flow, it can take hours just getting out of the Bay Area when there is regular commute traffic.

It's worthwhile checking out Photobob's website for locations.
My more recent Canyon photos are here: https://pbase.com/clivew/dunsmuir

There's a Railfan Map of Dunsmuir out there somewhere, maybe Bob has it on his site now.

TCnR,

Thanks! I did want to catch some of that color but I might try this trip in the spring. Still have a couple days to make a decision.

Traci

Posted from Android

Been working outside in the mentioned area near the tracks since Labor Day, and in a full 10 hour shift I rarely see more than two or three freight trains. I've had several full days that I only seen one freighter. My non-railfan coworkers have mentioned it on-and-off that there's no trains running. 

There's been some pretty big work windows on the line, tie replacement around Sims and in the Canyon, heard about bridge work that I think is around Marysville, also some work north of Klamath Falls that moved the schedules around a lot. They put the work windows during daylight Monday to Friday ( usually ) so that throws off the random train events, but also stacks up the trains in other areas.

Another issue is sidings that are too short for the present train lengths, all the meets happen at the big sidings and nothing seems to be happening in between. The trick is to find those big sidings. The old story of once the sun goes down they start running trains, doesn't bode well in the winter time.

Whatever priority they have seems to be with those two doublestack trains, then MoW or crew HoS, then whatever they have left over.

+ The radio chatter for work windows is usually around 07:30, the MoW Supervisors put in their requests by Laptop and using some sort of Wi-Fi or cell data link, the Dispatcher works through the requests and sends them back. There's usually some bickering going on about who was first and whether they need the switch or just between switches, where the stack trains are, where Amtrak is, etc.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/20 10:38 by TCnR.