Western Railroad Discussion > UP 3076 vs 3077 (SD70AH-T4 in SoCal)

I was railfanning the UP Yuma Sub during the recent storms that hit SoCal about 2 weekends ago. There was very little rain east of Palm Springs, but the further west I went, the harder it rained.

Due to low visibility, I couldn't quite see the ROW from I-10 around the windmills, so I took the road from Whitewater exit for a closer look. I spotted a stopped eastbound manifest (symbol unknown).

- Eastbound manifest led by UP 3076 stopped at SP582.
- Patch crew going onboard UP 3076 at West Palm Springs.
- Video of the entire train near Thousand Palms.

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Union Pacific is the only railroad that still has the SD70AH-T4 (or SD70ACe-T4) in the roster. CSX had returned theirs to the lessor last year, and other railroads lease them as PRLX units in various colors - I recall seeing a report here on TO in grey/green/blue demonstrator colors.

2:02 in the video, the manifest meets a westbound train with 2 engines, and I recognized the 2nd unit facing backwards as another SD70AH-T4... so I gave it chase into the rain. UP 5834 + UP 3077 led DODX (Department of Defense) empties.

- UP 3076 meets a westbound manifest (rest of the train not shown) at West Palm Springs.
- Westbound with DODX empties further west.
- UP 3077 second in consist.

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Unfortunately for most of us, this post has a bad ending. When I ran into UP 3077 again 2 weeks later (President's Day weekend), I got to see the other side and it was badly tagged.

From onboard my flight into Ontario, I got a good look at the ZCIG4 from the air, stopped at Inland Empire Intermodal Terminal on the west side of West Colton Yard. The hump herder SD40-2s were bringing boxes to the rear of the train. After I picked up the rental car, I headed to Pepper Ave. overpass for the Z, and to my disappointment, UP 3077, 6th in consist was tagged.

The properly powered Z was being held up by ILBDU-ish train (likely symboled ILBG4 now) which was crawling through San Timoteo Canyon. DS 244 set up a passing maneuver between Hinda and Beaumont, which I guessed wrong, but threaded the Z through Main 1 without delaying a westbound manifest that was incoming. I got the Z between Beaumont and Banning (this video). All of the trailers came from CI (City of Industry). Most, if not all of the orange Schneider boxes behind the trailers came from IEIT (Inland Empire Intermodal Terminal).

I'll post another thread on the ILBG4. That's it for the report.

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Nice Shots, I like the video.  I bet UP is enjoying all of that Schneider business.  I noticed at :33, there were 4 upper containers missing doors--probably 5 finger discount shoppers

Just over half (36 to 35) of the platforms (and more than half of the boxes) on the ZCIG4 came out of the West Colton "pop-up" ramp instead of the CofI ramp.

That's the hottest Chicago lane Z, the only one to use the BNSF rights from KC to gain G4. Good to see it adequately powered. Wonder if BNSF insists on this to run that stretch of their Southern Transcon. Though it does appear UP is powering up all of their hotter IM trains these days.

 

Nice videos and report. Thanks for getting out there.
GK

Good videos.  Per the ZCIG4, that was either holiday or sunday, pretty small.   You can see a typical version on the Benson, AZ cam today the 24th at 00:25 camera time.

The theft as noted is interesting considering the train starts at CofI,  Are the theives getting it when it stops for a pickup at Colton, or somewhere before?