Western Railroad Discussion > UP officer special S-OACB 11 PHOTOS!!!!

Well, guys, as many of you know, Garret and I chased the somewhat massive UP officer special today. I got up yesterday at 5am to see if it was preparing to leave, early, but it actually never ended up leaving yesterday, it ended up leaving today. My plans for today were to just sleep in, but for some reason, I woke up at 9:30 right before the Zephyr departed. I looked on my email, here (trainorders) to see if there was any update of the train. There was nothing. I remembered there was a webcam for the port of Oakland, so I finally found the site, and found the webcam. I looked closely, and I could make out the top of the train and the two last dome cars of the train, there were no locos. The webcam is updated once an hour so I decided to look at it an hour later, and guess what............. you guessed it, there were locos on the consist, I could make out the 2 SD70m's!!! So I haul ass down to the railroad tracks and met up with my railfan buddy Terry (tjohnson here on trainorders) so I end up waiting 2 or 3 hours thinking that the train passed before I got there, or the train was late. So Garret gets off work early and he gets here, and also decides to pass by the trainyard before he meets me to pick me up. He said that when he passed, the train was at the old Amtrak yard in Oakland, where the trainsets were stored. So he picks me up, and we go back, there is no train there anymore, we make a quick scan and the train is ready to depart and is sitting at CP Magnolia. So we set up shop at the first RR X-ing at Oakland (near espeeboy's old work). Finally the train departs at 2:15PMish. We were ready to chase the train, we had plans for Oakland, Altamont, Lathrop, Stockton, and anywhere we could catch it after that. So we chase the train, catch it at all the places we want, and the last place we saw it was Stockton, she highballed out of there after a quick quick stop and was unchasable after that, and we were doing a good 80 on the freeway. It was a good special and I am already ready for next year, hehehe.

I have 31 photos to show you. Why so many? cause I am showing you a photo of each car in the consist, plus the "scenic" shots.

I think the last report was out of Oroville and that was at like 10pm?? So this train is still on the way to Council Bluffs, IO. Have fun chasing, and be safe.

Later dudes,
Alex Ramos

First photo is a pic of the train waiting for a Massive autorack to pass, lead by a 5200 series notcher SD70m. Shortly after the autotrain passed, the special was ready to highball.

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HIGHBALL OAKLAND!!!!!

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little better view......

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first car on the consist was City of Salina.

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Second car on the consist is Katy Flyer.......

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Third car is Portland Rose

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Fourth car is Sunshine Special

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fifth car is Texas Eagle

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Sixth car is Council Bluffs

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Seventh car is UP power car 205

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eighth car is the first dome car of the train, Columbine

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ninth car of the train is Colorado Eagle

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the tenth car of the train is Powder River

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the eleventh car of the train is one of my favorites of the UP passenger fleet, Kenefick.

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the 12th car of the train is Lake Forest

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The thirteenth car of the train is Green River

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The fourteenth car of the train is Lake Bluff

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the fifteenth car of the train is Sun Valley

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and sixteenth car of the train is City of Portland

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and the mighty Challenger brings up the rear of the Officer special. It was quite funny, in one of the dome cars, a bunch of executives were in the dome, they all waved to us at the same time.

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