Western Railroad Discussion > UP MofW Coast Work train, Amtrak, and ACE at Alviso, CA last week

My wife and I flew into San Jose around mid-day last Thursday 2/18 for a memorial service for her father in San Mateo on Friday.  Having the rest of the afternoon free before needing to head up the penisula, we decided to go hiking on the trails of the Alviso Marina County Park.  We had time for a short 1-hour hike when we were here a few months ago, and we wanted to go further on the trails - getting about 7 miles on Thursday.  I didn't bring the DSLR, but wound up in the right place and time with my iPhone for 3 of the 5 trains we saw in our 3 hours there.  

1-3) Just after crossing the tracks at Elizabeth Street, the gates went down and I figured it was an Amtrak train, but was pleasantly surprised to see it was a northbound UP work train, presumably returning from repair work on the Central Coast around Surf.  Led by UP 5444 and another GE, the long train had almost everything needed by an MofW crew - including buses, porta-johns, tampers, etc.  Here are several pictures of what I could see.  The train passed at 1:55pm.

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4-6) More of the long UP work train at Alviso, looking south from the Elizabeth Street grade crossing.

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7) After hiking as far north as we could on the trails near the site of the Drawbridge ghost town, I was caught on the wrong side of the tracks by a northbound Amtrak Capitol - pushed by Charger 2108 at Drawbridge at 3:20pm.

8) And the pic of the day for me, an Altamont Commuter Express eastbound train pushed by new Charger 3113 at 3:52pm.

9) We wound up seeing a couple more Amtrak Capitols pass, while we were a bit far away.  Here's a southbound at around 4:45pm.

 



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/21 06:45 by PasadenaSub.

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10) And the short video my wife took of a northbound Amtrak Capitol.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/21 06:45 by PasadenaSub.

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A few more, from earlier in the order.

11) The tail end of the work train, alongside the marshes.

12-13) Looking north towards the ghost town of Drawbridge, with the sign providing a good idea of what was once here.

Thanks for looking, it was a really nice day in the Alviso marsh area.

Rich



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/21 06:47 by PasadenaSub.

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Great pics from your phone!

Great stuff Rich!

Posted from Android

I used to work in North San Jose and would take my lunch at that park.  There is a 9 mile loop that goes around the old salt ponds - great for mountain biking.  Once a week a bunch of co-workers and I would ride the loop.  On other days I would pick up lunch and just sit enjoying the fresh bay air, do a little bird watching and catch a couple of trains.  I forget which trains they were.  I think there was a northbound ACE around 12:15 and a southbound Capitol around 1:00.  Sometimes a freight would slip in between them.  Lunches at the marina park is one of the few things I miss about not being in the Bay Area anymore.

Thanks for the kind words, here’s a few more pics of the variety of equipment on the UP train.

Rich

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