Western Railroad Discussion > Chasing Trains Around the SF Bay Area

I decided to go out yesterday, and chase trains. Late in the afternoon I was catching some chatter on the scanner about a westbound Q-Train headed for San Jose, CA, as well as a double stack headed for Oakland, CA. So I packed all the camera gear in the car, and headed off to chase the double stack train to Oakland coming out of Lathrop.

My first stop was at FO57 East Altamont with the UP #4095 taking the siding for the ACE train......

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A perfect meet here at Altamont, the rear end of the double stack cleared just as ACE was coming up to the east signals.. Here is ACE heading for Tracy.....

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back to the stack train.. here it is crossing over Greenville Road heading into downtown Livermore, CA

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After racing through Livermore, I decided to go down to Hearst siding to catch it there, well I didn't make it in time and paced it all the way into the Niles canyon. Found a spot right at the entrance of tunnel #1, where it held for traffic ahead....

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Another shot at the same location above....

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After sitting for about 7 minutes, UP 4095 received a yellow, and headed into tunnel #1, and then out to Niles junction, where it would come off the Oakland Sub, onto the Niles Sub, and then onto the Coast Sub where they would pick up a Track Warrent.

Here they are cruising at a good clip through Centerville depot.....

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After Centerville, I hoped into the car, and headed up the 880 north, I was only able to get off at a couple locations to gets some shots, (none of which turned out good) After the crew released it's Track Warrent north it headed for Fifth Ave, for a new crew.

Here is the train holding for a new crew, I tried to do the best I could with the lite around....

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Here is a closer shot of the cab.....

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When I was done chasing this train, I went over to Oakland Jack London Station, to catch up on some more night photography.

This shot is of CDTX 2003 holding in the station...

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Here is AMTK #114 leading Amtrak 14 the Coast Starlight northbound.....

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Amtrak 14 with signals in view.....

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After 14 left the station, Amtrak switcher #566 was pushing a California Car northbound

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here is the switcher, looks like this is a very rough ride for the crew..

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Finally, not train related, but had to put this in, was one of the SF Skyline, and the Bay Bridge all lit up...

enjoy all the pictures! I had a good time out there, some of you local bay area railfans want to go out sometime and chase trains drop me an email....

Garrett
Livermore, CA

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Thanks for the great pics, Garrett. Brings back a lot of old memories of my youthful days knockin' around the Bay Area. I always enjoyed visits to the Altamont where I saw WP's (green liveried) final four F-7's lashed up on the Milpitas Autos. Looks as though the commute passenger business has livened up the Altamont. 'Trains' magazine had an interesting article on California's commute trains in the last issue. I miss Bay Area R.R. action but not the Bay Area itself as I now live up here in Mount Shasta and am now 1 year into retirement from my 17 year stint as an engineer for SP/UP based out of Dunsmuir. Thanks again for the great memories and pictures.

John Googins
Mount Shasta, California

love that entry Altamont shot and those last night shots. The Shoreline Park nightshot is very nice. Looks like you have covered all of my normal raiflanning spots, East Oakland, OKJ, etc. Too bad the SP7674 was returned to UP since it held down the Amtrak coachyard job last week while the AMTK566 was out for maintenance...

Nice photo essay. Kind of Espeeboy-style...surprised you didn't bump into him in Oakland somewhere. (But he doesn't photograph armour yellow.) Always amazing about crew change at a place like 5th Ave., when a new crew moves the train just a few miles to the terminal. Seems like the carriers just don't have a plan together sometimes for efficiency.

stash Wrote:
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> Always amazing about
> crew change at a place like 5th Ave., when a new
> crew moves the train just a few miles to the
> terminal.

It's actually not a "new" crew, but either a yard crew or an inbound road crew that still has time to work.

> Seems like the carriers just don't have
> a plan together sometimes for efficiency.

UP's Oakland Intermodal Terminal only has six tracks. When they're occupied, inbound trains must be yarded elsewhere. The Desert Yard has five tracks, one of which must be kept clear for use as a pull-back track. West Oakland Yard has 27 tracks, but the majority are out of service due to track conditions, and of those that are in service, half can only be used from one end.

When an inbound train cannot be yarded, it has to be held out until there's room. If it'll be a relatively short wait and the inbound crew will still have time, they'll yard it. Otherwise the inbound crew will be relieved, and a yard crew (or occasionally a different inbound crew) will yard the train once there's room for it.

so roughly over the last year, how many times has "bunny-hogg" rescued dead trains from East Oakland? I imagine many many times...


topper Wrote:

> It's actually not a "new" crew, but either a yard
> crew or an inbound road crew that still has time
> to work.

> Otherwise the
> inbound crew will be relieved, and a yard crew (or
> occasionally a different inbound crew) will yard
> the train once there's room for it.

Really nice photo essay. I'd love it if you could do more of them!!!
Ron Wilson