Western Railroad Discussion > Yet other batch of recent SoCal pictures

I’m nearly caught up now, but here’s another small group of photos from ‘not so new’ locations starting on the morning of November 16…

1) No train here but since I last had been out, we got a light dusting of snow on our mountains and the moon was still up over Keenbrook.

After a heads-up (thank you), KCS 4800 showed up solo on a westbound coil steel train, making it a ‘one train morning’ with all efforts toward it. The symbol was UBEAKAI, Beardstown, Illinois (thanks Gary) to Kaiser in Fontana.

2) After a lengthy wait at Summit for a new crew, 4800 is seen here approaching Cajon at 10 AM.
 

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Knowing the train was Kaiser bound, to reach its destination it would have to travel over the Metrolink San Gabriel Sub, which is part of the old Santa Fe 2nd District. Myself and several others waited at Rialto Ave in San Bernardino.

3 and 4) Two different focal lengths from the Rialto Ave crossing. Most of the cars had CSX covers on them with BNSF GE’s 6925 and 6726 pushing on the rear.
 

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The following morning I rode up to MP 58X with my friend Mike. We wanted to take advantage of the snow on the mountain tops and were able to shoot a few eastbounds.

5) One of the better trains was BNSF 7361. The colorful rabbit brush is pretty much done for the season.

6) Sharp looking Ferromex SD70ACe 4078 was mid-consist.

7) BNSF ‘yellow-letter’ 4397 leads another stack train up Main 2.

That will do it, thanks to everyone for looking and Happy Thanksgiving to all!

OYW
 

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Very nice look back at a couple of locations that bring back a lot of memories. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
JB

The coil train must have replaced the one from USS-UPI (formerly USS-POSCO) in Pittsburg, CA when it closed. Beardstown, IL is in the middle of an agricultural area west-northwest of Springfield, IL. There is no sign of anything steel related in the area. The coil train must have originated on CSX. Does BNSF interchange with CSX at Beardstown?

Great group of photos, especially of the coil steel train with unusual power.  And nice to see the pics on the old Santa Fe Second District.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Rich

Nice catches, especially the KCS on the erstwhile 2nd District.
GK

Love the 7361 unit image!

texchief1

Signature Bob shots, consistent on his sun angles as always. Hope you had or are having a great Thanksgiving meal with your family my good friend !

texchief1 Wrote:
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> Love the 7361 unit image!

Magnificent photos as always!  Love the KCS shots and I believe that 7361 shot may have future BNSF calendar potential.

Nice. I saw that KCS Coil train in Ludlow in the evening of the 15th. Guessing it tied up in Barstow for the night before continuing west. 

Thanks for the superb photos and variety. Full moon in daylight over snow + clouds is my favorite, and shot #3 is an eye-catching shot of the coil train. Then you have #5... 

Cool coil train and as always, Killer shots on Cajon!

EricSP Wrote:
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> The coil train must have replaced the one from
> USS-UPI (formerly USS-POSCO) in Pittsburg, CA when
> it closed. Beardstown, IL is in the middle of an
> agricultural area west-northwest of Springfield,
> IL. There is no sign of anything steel related in
> the area. The coil train must have originated on
> CSX. Does BNSF interchange with CSX at Beardstown?

Must be an interchange point, and the nearest sheet mill is Nucor in Crawfordsville, IN. I'll go out on a limb and say this is very likely the source of coils going to CSI in Fontana because it's now majority-owned by Nucor, so sourcing their own coils is definitely going to be something from one of their 6 sheet mills back east. There's a couple in Arkansas and a newer one in Gallatin, TN (plus SC and WV), but these would not have to ship by way of Beardstown. BTW, the slabs they use at CSI are imported from several countries and they take a short rail ride from the port to Fontana, but the coils are mostly (or all) HRC needing to be further processed for the west coast market...

JG



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/24 09:18 by jgilmore.

Very enjoyable series!

Larry

Great stuff!