Western Railroad Discussion > Unpatched SP299 Leading SB Coastline ARVLB (New Autorac

Unpatched AC4400 SP299 is leading a new UP California self-contained southbound Coastline train - the ARVLB 20 with 52 loaded autoracks bound for Long Beach, CA (exports?). Maybe UPRRPR can chime into this question and let us know why and where these autoracks are coming from/going to. It has one weird schedule in departing Roseville yesterday evening, getting to East Oakland by just before midnight last night and now finally getting off to head down the coast at about 6PM with the power tying back onto the train at East Oakland yard right now. D'oh, missed some cool light power running through Jack London Sq. and I was just over there 1 hour ago!

Should be very nice if anyone on the very southern end of the coastline or in L.A. can catch and shoot this unpatched SP AC4400 leading into the sunrise tomorrow!

Letz see if I can get some decent shadow on the nose pics...



Tonight the train is set for arrival at San Jose at is set for after 7P and a San Luis Obispo arrival is set for just before 2AM. Tomorrow the train is set for arrival at Gemco (Van Nuys) just after 10:30A, LATC arrival is set for after 1PM, Long Beach arrival is set for after 9PM.


-Ryan aka "espeeboy"
on the ex-SP/WP Oakland sub MP11.2

Well let me see if I can at least guess the answer to my own question. I think these are loaded autoracks from Warm Springs that I saw set out from the AWSNP 19 on Monday night and bascially this means this train is the replacement train for the somewhat short-lived AOAWF (Oakland to Westfield, TX autoracks). But what is coming from Roseville?

The SP299 with the QRVLB 20 passing a parked (dead) Q-train in East Oakland

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Besides that little UP herald sticker, she's looking pretty good! Realized later that I had accidently set my digicam to 800 fast film speed so these may at first look a little grainy...

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Passing the last old SP signal bridge left in Oakland with the removal of last week's other Fruitvale bridge making this one an orphan. Them target lights still work and will do so until UP coughs up the extra money to finish the CTC project they started and can't finish...

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The Long Street Job comes out to wait its turn as the SP299 has now backed up to pick-up its conductor who had to throw the switch for the main. Kind of a funny move with the Long Street Job immediately following the train out of East Oakland yard...

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The only good shot of the day and a glint one.

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Last shot of the day via the I-880 overpass (first time trying to pull this off)

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Great shot, I wondered how much the ticket is for stopping long enought to catch a train at that location. It's a wonder the wall didn't endup blocking the view.

Espee 99

I was stopepd there on the shoulder with flashers on last minute at the south end of that retaining wall for about 45-60 seconds max! I know, a ticket ain't worth it but my bad luck so far has come with speeding and nothing else (yet). In fact, got a speeding ticket just a few miles down the I-880 last week but not due to railfanning. The boss was riding shotgun with me and we were pushing at 80 something to make a late meeting at a nice large new house construction project in the Los Altos Hills. Sucks that the ticket goes on my record since he was the one giving out the "go fast" orders but I'll make sure the company pays for the ticket or for my time in driving school!

Still have a clean ticketless record for my (short) 7 years of railfan driving on the road! As always, y'all stay safe when in pursuit!