Western Railroad Discussion > UP LSF51, Good for 50 (Then Relegated to 10?)

Several times per year, my son’s high school does this funky thing called intersession where the kids spend 2 weeks engaging in non-core curriculum activities related to art, music, literature, science, nature, design, fabrication, etc. (Some of the class options sound like a lot of fun.) He normally takes Caltrain to school, but for intersession he managed to pick an off-campus option that requires him to be dropped off in Menlo Park, CA, at 9 am. This is near peak for morning commute traffic on the Peninsula south of San Francisco, and near enough to Meta’s (Facebook’s) campus to create traffic gridlock. To make lemonade out of lemons, I brought the camera along on Monday, October 28th, to grab photos of UP’s LSF51 local as it came down from South San Francisco to switch customers at the Port of Redwood City.

When the Caltrain dispatcher asks the UP locals if they are “good for 50,” the reply I almost always hear is “Yes.” Once the LSF51 is cleared to head south from CP Sierra in South San Francisco, they quickly get on it and make 50 mph down to the controlled siding between CP Dumbarton and CP Junction to prepare to make the move out to the Port of Redwood City.

Photos 1 through 3: Since moving to the Bay Area / SF Peninsula 20 years ago, I’ve been amused by (obsessed with?) the “wiggle” in the tracks around the tri-light signals just north of the San Carlos Station. As best as I can tell from Google Maps / Earth, the jog in the tracks is there to support the fill and retaining walls below the bases of the signals on this elevated section of grade-separated track. From what I’ve observed, this “wiggle” is fairly unique along the length of the Caltrain ROW. While it was readily evident when viewing the tracks from the perspective of the “engineer’s view” window on the now gone Nippon Sharyo gallery cars, it really takes shape when you compress it with a telephoto zoom lens. (In this case from a cropped 400mm view back out to a 175mm view.) UP 1488 and 1527, both GP40Ns (GP40M-2), lead their train through San Carlos at the maximum 50 mph speed for freight trains. (According to RR Picture Archives, both units were originally built for the Baltimore and Ohio in 1971 as GP40s.)

Continued…

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Photo 4: After leaving the cut of empty aggregate hoppers seen behind the locomotives in the above shots on the siding at Redwood Junction, the LSF51 is seen reversing down the Redwood Harbor Industrial Lead with a tanker car and cement hoppers. The timetable I have shows the track speed here as 5 mph, but it dates back to early 2009. CWR went in sometime in late 2008 or early 2009, which I believe raised the operating speeds to a blistering 10 mph. (The ties and roadbed are still in rough shape.)
Photo 5: This switch job was using a three man crew. One of the crew has de-trained at the switch into the port at Herkner Rd.
Photo 6: Pushing on, the train continues down the lead to the CEMEX facility, whose silos are seen backdropping the train.

Continued…

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Photos 7 through 9: The train was working the CEMEX facility for about 30 minutes. I’m assuming the tank in Photo 9 was the one on the end of their train and was tucked out of the way to swap the empty and full cement hoppers. The clouds made for more interesting skies, but I declined to take many shots I would have wanted due to cloud cover killing my lighting. So it goes.

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Photos 10 through 12: Having concluded its work at CEMEX, the LSF51 moves back up the line to spot the tank car.

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Photos 13 and 14: A tank car was spotted and one was removed at the port. Given the makeup of the train and the layout of the port, I’m guessing the switched cars were for Clean Harbors. I don’t know if there are loads in and empties out or vice versa. The locomotives are seen here across Herkner Rd from the Port of Redwood City offices.
Photo 15: Having completed their work, the final crew member boards the locomotive to head back to Redwood Junction.

Continued…

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Photo 16: Getting up to track speed, the train is paced then passed by the heavy trucks moving in and out of various port facilities. The chances of getting squashed by a semi-truck in this area are non-zero if you aren’t being alert about your surroundings and traffic.
Photo 17: 53 year old EMD vs Kenworth vs Freightliner. I’ll take the EMD.

Cheers,
Sean

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Wow, these turned out great! Dispite the funky cloud cover, you really captured the essence of what goes on down at the port. Great job Sean and a pleasure to meet you Monday.

Chris

WOW!
That power looks GREAT!
They'd be covered in graffiti in LA.
TAH

Thank you, Chris. Likewise, it was a pleasure to meet you as well. I always enjoy meeting other railfans out and about, especially ones that I've met virtually or read posts from on TO.

ChrisCampi Wrote:
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> Wow, these turned out great! Dispite the funky
> cloud cover, you really captured the essence of
> what goes on down at the port. Great job Sean and
> a pleasure to meet you Monday.
>
> Chris



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/24 10:16 by broken_link.

Great photos!  I grew up in San Carlos, and am amazed at the changes over the years.

Funny, I was able to shoot 1488 from its "good side." There isn't a terrible amount of graffiti on this unit, though somebody tagged what I think might be the battery box (?) below the engineer's window. You can see it in Photo 13. South San Francisco occasionally gets grungy, tagged units, but typically things are fairly clean.

90mac Wrote:
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> WOW!
> That power looks GREAT!
> They'd be covered in graffiti in LA.
> TAH

The 51 job--simply called the "UP Switcher" by the Caltrain San Jose North dispatcher--has a little of everything for observers with mainline running under the wires, street running and industrial switching.  The street running on Chestnut can be hit or miss as to whether they shove or pull and seems to be up to crew preference on any particular day.

The tagging on the 1488 isn't too bad and comfined to the battery box on the engineer's side.  Seen back on Oct. 18th at Chestnut and Middlefield on a pulling day.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/24 10:50 by milepost20.

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Magical set of pictures. Thanks for sharing this generous amount of photos with us. Very enjoyable and lots of different angles. Those San Carlos shots are superb. 

90mac Wrote:
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> WOW!
> That power looks GREAT!
> They'd be covered in graffiti in LA.
> TAH

Because UP parks units at the Fourth Street yard out in the open with no security at all. They also leave units unsecured at Anaheim too.
The units get tagged and management does not care...

PHall Wrote:
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> The units get tagged and management does not care...

That's not a metric they are graded on...

milepost20 Wrote:
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> ... The street running on Chestnut can be
> hit or miss as to whether they shove or pull and
> seems to be up to crew preference on any
> particular day.
>

When they shoved out do they use a "shoving platform", what used to be called a caboose in the old days? It seems I've seen a photo of a crew member riding the side of a car out there, not a safe move with street running in my opinion.

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/24 13:23 by Railbaron.

Railbaron Wrote:
> When they shoved out do they use a "shoving
> platform", what used to be called a caboose in the
> old days? It seems I've seen a photo of a crew
> member riding the side of a car out there, not a
> safe move with street running in my opinion.
>
> Posted from Android

I have yet to see them use a shoving platform on Chestnut.  The crewman protects the shove almost always from the somewhat safer  position of one of the covered hoppers rather than hanging on.

The DRGW 01522 which is seen on occasion in the Warm Springs/South San Francisco area would be a good candidate. 
Seen at SSF in the photo.

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I believe the caboose was used on the harbor lead as a buffer car when needed to go between tank cars and the engines. So in the case of them not having any cars for Cemex but some for the tank car shippers then they'd take along.  

In the Broadway days I feel like they always had tank cars on the point of a shove. The tank cars have a platform and railing. 

Nice shots!   I always promise myself to come over to the West Bay to shoot this guy but then never do.  What time did you catch him coming south through San Carlos?

dwatry Wrote:
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> Nice shots!   I always promise myself to come
> over to the West Bay to shoot this guy but then
> never do.  What time did you catch him coming
> south through San Carlos?

dwatry one good option is to just go to south city on MWF and watch them switch. When they shove a train up to CP Sierra, which is north of Oyster Pt. Blvd., you know they are ready to make the main line move to RWC. 

Another option is to listen to the Caltrain feed. The streaming file can be got offen railroadaudio.net.