Western Railroad Discussion > The Dark Side of My Friend

The rolling refrigerator of soon to be Gyūdon, Tonkatsu, and other delicious Japanese dishes, the ICBOA, generally runs over Donner Pass on Sundays. This train carries many ONE and predecessor line refrigerated containers loaded full of US meat products destined for Japan, as well as other Oakland bound marine containers for export.

After the IOANP recovered from issues and got moving east on the morning Sunday, July 28, the floodgates briefly opened at West Norden as a couple of trains moved through in each direction over a short period of time. First up was the eastbound ZLTG2 that I previously shared. Next up was the westbound ICBOA, which revealed itself on Main 1 as the ZLTG2 finished passing. There was a manifest running up Main 1 from the west, so after stopping briefly, the ICBOA was crossed over to Main 2 at CP RV191 West Norden to continue west.

Between trains I had turned off the camera I use for video along with its external shotgun microphone. I neglected to turn the mic back on in my haste to resume shooting when the train started rolling. This resulted in 4k footage with early film industry sound, that is, none. Lead unit UP 5743 had a birth year of 2001, so I dug through my music collection to find an appropriate track from 2001 to accompany the video. I settled on “El Lado Oscuro De Mi Compadre” by Tijuana based Nortec artist Terrestre (Fernando Corona Murillo). Besides being a favorite track from Nortec Collective’s Tijuana Sessions Vol. 1, I think it has the perfect tempo for the passing train. In addition, El Lado Oscuro De Mi Compadre translates to The Dark Side of My Friend. This seems appropriate in many ways, given the appearance of the third unit in the consist, UP 9054, with PSR scrawled in the soot on the American flag. (Perhaps you would also feel this train is the dark side of your friend if you were a vegan railfan?)

Photo 1: UP 5743 is stopped on Main 1 at West Norden waiting for the signal to proceed and cross over to Main 2. The exhaust from UP 6759, the DPU on the eastbound ZLTG2, is seen above the third set of double stacks.
Photo 2: A diverging clear is indicated for the westbound ICBOA at West Norden.
Photo 3: UP 9054 has undoubtedly looked better than this. I can’t say if its filthy condition is a sign of PSR induced neglect, but the employee that scratched PSR on the long hood wasn’t bashful about sharing their feelings or making a joke. (Perhaps both?) Either way, I feel you.

Continued…

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Video: A modern take on the silent film era. I suppose if I get a drone to shoot videos I’d have to do this with every recording. I’ve watched this multiple times just because I like this track so much.
Photo 4: UP 6533 is on the back end. I’m not sure why the stacks in the last well are askew, but apparently things weren’t off kilter enough to trip a defect detect, so on they roll.

Cheers,
Sean

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Whoa... I didn 't know Charles Schultz's kid Pig-Pen grew up and went to work for Uncle Pete... :^/

Lance

That third unit on the head end almost looks like it's been camouflaged. They used to have a wash rack at the Roseville shops but I bet that's been scrapped a long time ago....

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

Oh that unwashed loco is just a real-world SP Heritage Unit.

santafe199 Wrote:
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> Whoa... I didn 't know Charles Schultz's kid
> Pig-Pen grew up and went to work for Uncle Pete...


Lol, good one. I was gonna say nice catch on the NS unit in the consist. ;^)

JG

PSR has no pride at all! When the UP completely rebuilt Roseville Yard in the late 90's they spent millions on a new washrack. Upon completion it was tested and basically never used again? This was obviously before PSR. I asked many management types and they would basically shrug there shoulders. No one ever answered why they weren't using it.

broken_link Wrote:
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> Video: A modern take on the silent film era. I
> suppose if I get a drone to shoot videos I’d
> have to do this with every recording. I’ve
> watched this multiple times just because I like
> this track so much.

Enjoyed the video! Soundtrack matches the slow-rolling into the snowsheds. The music gives me a combination of "dark and comic" feel.

Frozen tonkatsu (at grocery stores) might use the pork in the reefer boxes, but most of the "good" restaurant ones are from Kyushu (southwestern Japan - angus pork, or "kurobuta") and they aren't expensive, either. I see that there are many more new ONE boxes (CONTAINER+ lettering) in service now.

Jesse6669 Wrote:
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> Oh that unwashed loco is just a real-world SP
> Heritage Unit.

Yup same thought here, a modern SP unit!😁

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA

Some finger writing on side of Pig Pen says PSR 🤣, can't make out what else is finger written next to that, wonder if any funny stuff finger wrote on the other side in the grime?

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA

Screen grab from one of my videos 1994 Elko,Nv. Eastbound.
"SOUThern Pacific" finger written over grimy unit's lettering.

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA

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sp3204 Wrote:
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> PSR has no pride at all! When the UP completely
> rebuilt Roseville Yard in the late 90's they spent
> millions on a new washrack. Upon completion it was
> tested and basically never used again? This was
> obviously before PSR. I asked many management
> types and they would basically shrug there
> shoulders. No one ever answered why they weren't
> using it.

I've always heard they stopped washing engines at most locations that had the racks due to the contaminated runoff. I suppose the cost for water treatment became too much, not to mention possible fines from EPA for something amiss in the process.

I also seem to recall that paint used now doesn't hold up as well under the chemical cleaners used.

No matter the exact reason, it all boils down to not wanting to spend money.

Posted from Android

Ref photo 3, Mid train DPU's running over the Cascades in Oregon that are covered in soot are common into Klamath Falls, Or. Starving for air going through all the tunnels,
Steve

Clever cut at 0:47, made me think it was some kind of glare effect!  I better not watch this much more or that beat will worm it's way into my head.  Cool beat!

mapboy

Cool audio track on that video. 

Mmmmm, tonkatsu. Katsudon. Great, now I'm hungry. 

Nothing to add to the comments above for this well written narrative of a well photographed interesting train with a great musical soundtrack.

Excellent, excellent soundtrack. I have some video I took
on Cajon Pass of old SP  SD-40's and 45's (pre sound-silencers) taken 
trackside on the ascending track with full load in Run-8. In addition to hearing
the gears in the traction motors, the blowers full tilt to
cool the motors and of course the full EMD engine
sounds there was the  smell of hot lube oil, ozone, dust, and exhaust
all merged into one. Even the ground shook.
 
I always thought this needed a soundtrack, and of course this
was when  the original Top Gun film came out.
The soundtrack would have been "Danger Zone,"
(by Kenny Loggins?)

Unfortunately this video is on videotape from an old cam- corder
(remember those?), otherwise I would post
.George Andrassy