Western Railroad Discussion > Altamont Pass San Jose Turn Revival

Union Pacific continues to stick with its "Stockton Plan" with Bay Area yards served by three Stockton based turns: LRS-90 to Warm Springs, LRS-91 to San Jose and LRS-92 to East Oakland, all routed over the Oakland Sub and Altamont Pass. No real pattern to call times has developed as most trains get patched en route and operate as crews are available. These trains, the Coast Q trains, several intermodals and the ACE commutes have made the pass as busy as its been in a number of years, adding to the congestion. For now, during the Digicon to CAD transition, DS-56 is dispatching east of Niles and has been communicating with crews and m/w on 160.230 but the trackside detectors continue to transmit on 160.740.

So at least for now, after an absense of many years, we have a San Jose Turn on the pass, reviving an old Western Pacific symbol. The turns tend to operate with older second generation SD's--not F-units but about the best we can do in 2005. Photo below shows today's westbound LRS-91 seen cresting the summit at Altamont with a matched power set of UP3250-3595-3727. Will work at Newark before heading on to San Jose.

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Not seen on the pass today.....

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With the old SP right of way on the right.


Nudge

We'll have 918 ready for the new "SJT" in just a few months...

Cool comparison shots. Interesting how the road was widened on the right taking advantage of a small chunk of the former SP ROW under the WP bridge there. I find it interesting that in 8 years of residence in the Bay Area I have still yet to catch a freight of any kind on this pass...

:(

I know what you mean...I have been throught that area a number of times, but I have only seen one train. It looks like a great area to get some shots; I just wish there was more traffic over the pass...

BJR

A couple of years after the WP merger the San Jose Turn moniker was used on the Stockton-Milpitas run. Power then was a set of three ex-WP GP35s, which in the early 1980s still had their full light package.

The frosting on the cake was to catch them going by Niles Tower. But hell, I'll take these new SJTs anyday. I'll have to start keeping an eye out for them.

Altamont can be a tough place to railfan. Unless you enjoy watching wind turbines spin its not the kind of place to camp out or park and wait for some activity. Best strategy is to monitor the radio, identify an eastbound in the Niles area or a westbound near Lathrop and beat them up to the summit. Area is also prone to the infiltration of valley fog at certain times of the year which can hang around for days/weeks. An eastbound LRS-92 East Oakland Turn led by UP8626 is seen in the photo below cutting through morning fog working uphill near m.p. 54 two weekends ago.

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Dan and PLA will have the 918 ready, how about we get the 918,917,913,707,2001 together and do it right?
921 needs wheel work before it can be out on the mainline.

What do you think Dan?

Rod McClure FRRS

You already know what I think! Altamont Pass would sure be a trip. I'll have to leave it to you and some of the more "connected" PLA folks to make that happen. In the meantime, I should probably open up another can of Bondo and get back to work... ;)

BLEhogger Wrote:
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> Dan and PLA will have the 918 ready, how about we
> get the 918,917,913,707,2001 together and do it
> right?
> 921 needs wheel work before it can be out on the
> mainline.
>
> What do you think Dan?
>
> Rod McClure FRRS
>