Western Railroad Discussion > Mixed Freight (near West Colton, CA)

I ran into a manifest train with doublestacks and autoracks yesterday, led by SD70AH-T4 UP 3048. I got the entire train in the first video which is 5:56 long. If I remember right, the train registered 568 axles at Yuma Sub's hotbox detector at MP 545.3.

I was distracted so I couldn't quite hear the actual symbol mentioned by DS 250 "TLH". Yup, same TLH who've done various desks in Northern California, notably "62" on the Cal-P. My guess is that the train was the MTUWC (Tucson, AZ to West Colton, CA).

Before UP changed things around in recent years, we were used to stack trains being strictly stack trains, and "unit" auto trains with infrequent mix of autoracks in manifest trains. I decided to document this train as a symbol of the current PSR era.

- First spotted UP 3048 near El Casco.
- Several SD70Ms seen that day - on ZCIG4, 4x2x0.
- Video of the Mixed Freight west of Cedar.
 

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I saw some EMD leaders that day, besides the UP 3048, one of which is in the video. More SD70M non-leaders, too, so it seems UP is trying its best to use them during holiday "peak" season. Not documented, but on my way to the airport, I saw a westbound stacker led by SD70M UP 4902.

- My rental during the trip, an AWD Subaru Outback.
- I put the Subaru in the video, because it's my first time driving one.

That's it for the report.

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Nice enjoyable post Charles!

Great stuff.
Notice the SD70 4333 has a K5LL horn. First time I've seen one of these on UP power other than
SD70ACE, and AH units.
Regards, Jim Evans

FiveChime Wrote:
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> Notice the SD70 4333 has a K5LL horn. First time
> I've seen one of these on UP power other than
> SD70ACE, and AH units.

Jim, I've been lucky enough to document 2 more SD70Ms with 5 chimes:

UP 4519 in 2016:
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,4106018

UP 4683 earlier this year:
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,5799855

And I have run into a handful more the last few years that I wasn't able to document. Down with the obnoxious K3s! :-)

oyw Wrote:
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> Nice enjoyable post Charles!

Thanks Bob. Really enjoyed your reports from last week, especially the SPatch. 

Nice catches... did you like the Scooby?

exhaustED Wrote:
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> Nice catches... did you like the Scooby?

I only visited SoCal for a day and didn't have a chance to really push the Outback, but I did like it.

LeftCoastRailVideos (TO member gjc) drives a Subaru, and so does a mutual friend of SCUfoamer and mine, who may or may not want to be mentioned. Subarus seem a good railfan vehicle, as I've been a passenger several times while chasing trains.

cchan006 Wrote:
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> exhaustED Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Nice catches... did you like the Scooby?
>
> I only visited SoCal for a day and didn't have a
> chance to really push the Outback, but I did like
> it.
>
> LeftCoastRailVideos (TO member gjc) drives a
> Subaru, and so does a mutual friend of SCUfoamer
> and mine, who may or may not want to be mentioned.
> Subarus seem a good railfan vehicle, as I've been
> a passenger several times while chasing trains.

Just bought a new Outback in July. We've had 8 over the years, plus I purchased 3 more for my office when I was working. Great cars with a couple quirky features, but unbeatable in snow!

TJY
 

Fine video documentation, as always! Nice clear weather, too.
GK

TheNavigator Wrote:
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> Fine video documentation, as always! Nice clear
> weather, too.
> GK

Thanks Gary, and belated thanks to your multiple nabs of Business Specials and a military move last week.

Great group of photos and videos, Charles.  The weather really feels like Autumn down here now (well at least our SoCal version of it).

Rich

PasadenaSub Wrote:
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> Great group of photos and videos, Charles.  The
> weather really feels like Autumn down here now
> (well at least our SoCal version of it).
>
> Rich

What's supposed to be summer weather in Silicon Valley, mid 80s? Felt nice.

As a segue to your NS pool power meet report few days ago, I ran into ZLAAI on Sunday, led by a couple of NS units. 

Interesting videos.

That manifest with the short domestic IM blocks was certainly a Vena special.

But it's clearly not their hot "we're a 70 mph railroad" Z train domestics, like LA-G4 -Memphis, -Mesquite, or -Atlanta. I wonder two things about the short IM blocks on this train:

• Are each of the blocks for lower density lanes like Brooklyn or Lathrop to Tucson or Santa Teresa, or LA to KC or New Orleans (the latter possibly the UMAX/CSX block)?
• Are the IM blocks humped or otherwise inserted into the consist at West Colton?