Western Railroad Discussion > Chasing the California Northern

Last Friday I went with a friend to chase the California Northern on the former SP West Valley Line from Davis and Woodland north.    This line used to be the route for the Shasta Daylight, and was also used by Amtrak's Coast Starlight until the 1990s when the Starlight was rerouted through Sacramento.  We managed to catch several different movements, so quite a successful day.

We showed up at the Davis Amtrak station right about 8am.  A headlight visible to the east on the siding showed that the Cal Northern local was still switching the UP interchange.  A second headlight to the east turned out to be a westbound UP freight (probably the MROMI - Manifest Roper Yard-Milpitas), making for a busy few moments in Davis. 

1)  Overtake in Davis!  Cal Northern NRE NZE24B DET4L #2401 on the left rolling slowly toward the wye to the West Valley Line, while the MROMI overtakes on the center track.
2)  2401 took its train to the north side of Davis to do some rearrangement of the consist, prior to moving the cars to Woodland. 
3)  We decided to head north of Woodland to look for the road local that usually works north out of Woodland.  Near Williams we spotted some signals on and caught this train moving south about 1020am, with NRE 3GS21-DE #505 leading.    We turned around to chase south. 
 

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4)  Train was not moving too fast, so we had no trouble leapfrogging him for multiple photos.  Here he is at Meyers Rd in Williams. 
5)  He stopped here in Genevra to switch a rice warehouse, and then here he is moving south past a disused searchlight.
6)  Approaching Harrington, which used to be the junction for the Colusa Branch. 
 

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7)  Rolling through Hershey. 
8)  Rolling through Dunnigan. 
9)  Splitting the searchlights near Zamora. 
 

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10)  Rolling through Zamora past some impressive palms.
11)  Through the trestle over Cache Creek in Yolo. 
12)  Entering Woodland, he dropped his train and went off on the former Knight's Landing branch to switch some industries.    This is where we left him and headed back to Davis.
 

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13)  Back in Davis we caught the 2401 dropping some cars on the UP interchange and heading back toward Woodland.

Our plan to then watch some trains on the Cal-P was foiled by the malfunctioning lift bridge at Martinez, which tied up the Cal-P for the next 3 hours or so.  Oh well, try again...

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Most excellent work!

Great coverage andexcellent Images. Duncan, cover here and I will give the tour of Cal Northern and SMART (NWP) freight.

Very cool series! I remember the SP days.

Larry

Great coverage, Dwatry. Seems like a nice time of year to get up there. Too bad about that dang bridge.Imagine if you were on an Amtrak!

Thanks for getting in some genset action!  I know the crews hate them, but for lineside observers, they do represent a change of pace from yet more widenose GE's.  Gotta wonder if there are any railroads other than California Northern and the US Army still using NRE gensets regularly.  Does Pacific Harbor Lines or San Diego & Imperial Valley still use theirs? 

Those orange Knoxville Locomotive Works single prime mover SE24B's were rebuilt from other railroads' retired 3GS21B-DE's.  Curious if anyone knows how the KLW's are performing, in general and relative to the gensets. 

Excellent day out, with some different power.  Chris.

Almost all of those boxcars are filled with tomato paste, diced tomatoes and other agricultural products headed east.  Business on this line continues to grow, as more businesses either locate here (due to good service provided by the Cal Northern), or existing businesses starting to ship by rail again.  

I think I remember reading last year sometime that UP wanted to terminate the lease on this line and take it back, but I don't know what came of that?  Anyone know?

Funny thing, too, is that when they re-routed the COAST STARLIGHT off of this line, one of the reasons was to create more stops for passengers (Marysville -Yube City), and Chico, CA.  But now the Yuba City / Marysville stop has been eliminated, and Chico only provides a few passengers per day.  It would be faster for the train to take this route again, and better for UP to get the CS off their East valley line.  Sacramento passengers could still catch the train in Davis, CA, like they used to.  It's flat, fast, and sparesly populated, although Orland is pretty big now, and that could become a stop.  It would be cool to see that happen.

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> Thanks for getting in some genset action!  I know
> the crews hate them, but for lineside observers,
> they do represent a change of pace from yet more
> widenose GE's.  Gotta wonder if there are any
> railroads other than California Northern and the
> US Army still using NRE gensets regularly.  Does
> Pacific Harbor Lines or San Diego & Imperial
> Valley still use theirs? 
>

Yes PHL and SD&IV are still using their NRE Gensets. Like the California Northern their mechanics understand their quirks and make them work.

Great series, really like #10!

PHall Wrote:
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> Evan_Werkema Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Thanks for getting in some genset action!  I
> know
> > the crews hate them, but for lineside
> observers,
> > they do represent a change of pace from yet
> more
> > widenose GE's.  Gotta wonder if there are any
> > railroads other than California Northern and
> the
> > US Army still using NRE gensets regularly. 
> Does
> > Pacific Harbor Lines or San Diego & Imperial
> > Valley still use theirs? 
> >
>
> Yes PHL and SD&IV are still using their NRE
> Gensets. Like the California Northern their
> mechanics understand their quirks and make them
> work.


Richmond Pacific is also still using their NRE Genset.

Jeff

Good stuff Duncan
Video would of been nice so ee could hear what the odd looking units sound like.
Regards, Jim Evans

In the east the gensets have become about as rare as a high-nose GP7.

You really get the sense of it when R. J. Corman bought Railpower.... and then stuffed and mounted a unit along the road in Red Bluff, SC (near Myrtle Beach).
https://www.rjcorman.com/newsroom/press-releases/closure-r-j-corman-railpower-locomotives

And reportedly recently scrapped it.  Not even a good advertising billboard.

Are any of the Brookville's still running in CA?   I was in the shop when they were being built.

Yeah, this sums it up:  https://www.trains.com/trn/railroads/locomotives/gensets-a-disappearing-act/ 

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/29/24 08:56 by randgust.

randgust Wrote:
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> Are any of the Brookville's still running in CA? 
>  I was in the shop when they were being built.

CCT 2101 has been sidelined since early 2018. CCT 1201 and CCT 1202 run infrequently at the Port of Stockton these days. No. 1201 and No. 1202 are reportedly very finicky and considering they are the only two BL12CG's in existence, the mechanical side of things is rather complicated.

Great group of photos of the CFNR chase.  Reminds me of a trip I did back in 2012 where I followed a northbound train out of Woodland and observed them do a train swap at Cortina - with another job which came south from the Tehama area.

Rich

To Rich's comment, that's the way it was done for years. What wasn't done for years was switching the rice warehouse, that
had been a truck only business for as far back as I remember. Great post, love to see the line I used to chase frequently.

Out