Western Railroad Discussion > Cal Northern and Friends in the Central Valley

Driving back from Suisun City, CA to the LA area last Monday, I decided to follow the California Northern job down the former SP West Side line from Tracy to Volta and then pick up whatever else I could find on other shortlines and industrial operations further south.  

1) ...but first, the day before I stopped by the Budweiser factory at Fairfield, CA, where the last of Cal Northern's former Chicago & North Western GP15-1's was waiting out the weekend while assigned as the plant switcher.  CFNR 1570 joined the railroad as their 113 in Park Sierra's green and white colors, and was built as C&NW 4424.
2) On the 18th, I got to Tracy around 8:00 a.m just as the West Side job was getting its light to cross the UP (ex-WP) at Lyoth.  On the point was CFNR 501, one of the NRE 3GS21B-DE gensets that replaced most of the GP15-1's, plus "GP38-2" 2269, a deturboed ex-Illinois Central GP40 which joined the roster after the gensets.

3) The home signals at Lyoth are colorlights, but the fixed yellow distant signals are still old searchlights left over from when this was a signaled, secondary main line of the Southern Pacific.  Today the line is severed in the middle, with a gap between the CFNR's end-of-track at Los Banos and the start of the San Joaquin Valley RR's ownership at Oxalis.

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4-6) I hustled south to Westley to get set up for a drone shot of the train passing the old water tank.  I really didn't need to hurry, as the train stopped to set out a few cars and passed the tank repeatedly in the process.

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7) Back to ground level as the train rolls through Patterson.  No work for them here, at least on the eastbound trip.

8) Anybody know what industry occupied this old metal building at Ingomar south of Gustine?  

9) On the big curve approaching Volta, the train stops to switch a few cars as Liberty Packing.

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10) Although the track is still in place to the northern edge of Los Banos, the last steady customer on the line is Morning Star Packing at Volta.  That's Liberty Packing in the upper right.

11) I left the Cal Northern and continued south to the San Joaquin Valley RR's portion of the West Side hoping to scare up some action down there.  No luck finding anything moving, but I did catch one of Simplot's spherical tanks giving some side-eye to tagged SJVR 2409 as it sat silently in the run around track at Helm on the old Riverdale Branch off the West Side.  The track now ends at Burrell, but the elevator there looked to still be shuttered.  The 2409 is a Knoxville Locomotive Works SE24B rebuilt from CSX 1319, an NRE 2GS14B that, apart from having two powerplants instead of three, would have looked a lot like CFNR 501.

12) We started with a shiny spartan cab EMD, so let's end with a couple more.  Ex-SP SD40T-2's 8545 and 8280, wearing their final Union Pacific numbers, PRLX reporting marks, and a paint scheme that traded Armour Yellow for green, await the next unit grain train to shepherd through the unloader at the Pittman Family Farms facility in Kings Park south of Hanford, CA along the BNSF.  Twenty years ago, this was a smaller Cargill facility switched by the "Mighty Cow," ex-ATSF chopnosed GP7 2014 painted up in white with black spots:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,5866632

There is still an former Santa Fe geep down the road at Guernsey.  The lighting wasn't good for photos, but I did confirm that J.D. Heiskell has ex-ATSF GP9 2260 on the property and apparently in use, renumbered 26 but otherwise in Santa Fe paint.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/24 20:32 by Evan_Werkema.

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Great, great post.  Lots of heavy manifest traffic goes over Donner from this line--endless boxcars of heavy tomato paste, sauce and other product, along with lots of canned fruit from other places.

Los Banos still has a warehouse with a spur on the north end of town, but it's rarely used.

That Riverdale branch has always intrigued me--HELM PACKING used to pack tomatoes way out there, but they're gone now.  The fertilizer plant is the big show now.

Interesting post, Evan.  Thanks for taking the time and effort to put it together.

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ

Thanks Evan. Don't think anyone else has posted photos from this area on TO.
Regards, Jim Evans

Great group of photos and the drone views give some new perspectives.

Rich

Terrific series of photos, thanks for sharing. High quality stuff.

Glad to see the Pittman Family Farms operation has resisted the "ultra low emissions" units and has stuck with the tried and true T-2's. A welcome sight.

There would appear to be a couple "new" sidings added like the one off the existing siding at Westley.
It's good to see the mixture of cars, the traffic base seems to be expanding and a good sign considering
the loss of Patterson Frozen Foods some years ago. Your drone work is pretty outstanding, BTW. 

Out 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/24 09:50 by callum_out.

Very enjoyable series in the Central Valley!

Larry

Interesting to see the differences between two G&W owned railroads.
The California Northern units are clean and mostly graffitti free while the San Joaquin Valley units are always graffitti covered.
Kinda amazed the folks back in the G&W head office allow this to happen.

Wonderful pictures.....thanks for uploading.

It is unfortunate that SP pulled out the center of the this line prior to getting rid of it decades ago - one wonders if it would have been useful as an alternative line (probably wouldn't have survived as a mainline) though that part of the Valley.

-j

Great job covering operations on the West Side line.  Looking at it now it's hard to believe that at one time it hosted the Nightly Owl between LA and Oak.
When the SF SP merger was being planned the Santa Fe guys were planning to upgrade this line to allow hot frieghts to by-pass Stockton.  Then someone pointed out that SP had removed the track between Los Banos and Firebaugh.  Killed that plan.  But it would have been a good idea.  I wonder if they would have still pushed for it if the merger had happened.
My dad worked for SP out of Tracy before the war.  He said that he worked the "Triangle" - Tracy to Fresno to Roseville back to Tracy.  So these were his old stomping grounds.

Love the reflection shot and the T's at Kings Park, nice work.
—Mac

Neat series of images ansd much better than my ground shots. Billm Webb

What is the current scedule out of Tracy?

Nice variety of shots from the chase and related images!
GK

Many great photos here: Westley with Mt. Diablo, Ingomar, the curve at Volta; and those tunnel motors are awesome. I've shot the SJVR returning from Burrell (Foster Farms had a plant switcher there long ago), but someday I'd like to get the bridges between Ingle and Tranquility. But I have no idea when that part of the line operates.

- L.F.

Teriffic report and subperb photos!  Thanks Evan!