Western Railroad Discussion > Not the Usual at Pepper (SoCal)

Pepper is the nickname for the Pepper Ave. overpass on the east end of Union Pacific's West Colton Yard in Southern California, where railfans can watch UP's train actions.

I knew from listening to my scanner that there was a westbound coming my way from the Yuma Sub - the hotbox detector at MP 545.3, Track 1. That westbound was a 2x2x0 "monstacker" consisting mostly of 53' boxes, with a sprinkle of 20' and 40' boxes toward the rear (first clip).

I no longer enjoy documenting PSR-length trains, but when I saw eastbound headlights coming my way on Main 2, I tried for a meet with my camcorder. The eastbound arrived too late for a locomotive vs. locomotive meet I was hoping for.

The eastbound was weird - 2 units elephant style, light engines, long hood forward (second clip).

It became apparent soon after that the 2 units were going to use the balloon track to turn the consist around (third clip). By this time, the monstacker was coming to a stop for a crew change at Cedar. In the past, the longest train I've seen wouldn't extend past the crossing on the east end of the yard. This monstacker extended far past that, and onto the S curve toward Rancho. There were baretables attached to the rear, and the train extended to the Mojave Sub overpass (underneath Slover).

Sigh for the PSR era monstackers.

Due to miscommunication, the outbound crew was at Montclair. Dispatcher 250 arranged to have them go to Fontana, and monstacker soon moved on past Cedar to Fontana to "meet them halfway" for the crew change.

There was a radio conversation later about a train coming out of Kaiser. Two keywords from that conversation: "UP 8750" and "Indio." UP 8750 was the nose-out SD70ACe unit of that weird light engine move earlier. So my speculation regarding the LOH53 ("53 local") was confirmed, that the job originates out of Kaiser. The video ends with the 53 local heading east toward Indio with just the centerbeam lumber loads, no tank cars this time.

At least for this part of the story, leaders for both trains were EMDs (SD70ACe). Note to Beaumont Hill foamers - hotbox detector at 545.3 has resumed announcing exit messages (axle count, temperature, speed, etc.).

- BNSF Dash 9 in Heritage 1 paint scheme "shoving" nose out.
- "4449" leading a Barstow-bound BNSF train later.
- Video of weird elephant style UP 6 axle power.

(more next)

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I've talked about manifest trains entering West Colton Yard from the east end in the past, but talk is cheap. I was finally able to document a southbound 2x1 manifest from the Mojave Sub doing just that - symbol unknown. The front 2 units were GE C4460ACs, and while I didn't record video, a very nice K3HL horn on the leader, UP 7049. The rear DPU was a Tier 4 GE, nose in.

There was a handful of new boxcars without graffiti on this train.

That's it for the report.

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Nice post.
All the horn use for the private crossings there is new. I was there two weeks ago and definitely noticed that.
Makes it more interesting especially with nice sounding K5LLs on the the SD70ACE and AH units. 
First one in your video was best.
Regards, Jim Evans

Fine report and videos, as always!
GK

Way to go, thanks!

Ah yes, spot we used to frequent! Hope that 53 had enough power to make the hill.

Out 

Absolutely.
—Mac

TheNavigator Wrote:
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> Fine report and videos, as always!
> GK