Western Railroad Discussion > U.S. Navy Baldwin at Redwood Jct.

As reported in a prior TO post, a U.S. Navy Baldwin VO is in transit from the Concord,CA Naval Weapons Station to a private owner at the Port of Redwood City and had made it as far as Redwood Jct. this morning, where it was photographed. Identified as the RPCX2005, it has been re-engined with a 567 block, as the EMD SW style front radiator section clearly shows. Arrived on last nights Mission Bay and should head out to the port on tonight's Broadway Local.

This unit would appear to be one of the first pieces of equipment from the NWS to be disposed of as the base, which has been inactive for years, is on the military's closure hit list. The Army leases from the Navy the tidewater portion of the base(site of the infamous WWII Port Chicago munitions explosion) for its 834th Transportation Battalion and that site remains active so some rail presence will remain. The rest of the base, which according to a recent S.F. Chronicle article, contains over 100 miles of track serving dozens of ammunition bunkers with 350 on base boxcars will close. These are classic 40' silver painted boxcars and it should be interesting to see if they can be scrapped on site or moved out. Any info on what motive power remains on the base would be appreciated.

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The Army currently has 4 locomotives assigned to "Military Ocean Terminal Concord."

They have 2 SW1200s (4648 and 4649), and 2 GP10s (4650 and 4651). The 2 SWs are former USN locomotives from Concord, and the 2 GP10s are (relatively) new to the Army locomotive system.

The yard at Redwood Jct.: the RPCX2005 is at the head of a cut of rock loads consigned to Graniterock on Seaport Blvd. Empties on the right will head to Newhall Yard and on to Graniterock at Logan for reloading. The Baldwin should head out Chestnut St. to the port tonight after 21:00 on the Broadway Local.

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A small portion of the fleet of classic 40' boxcars at the Concord NWS. Photo from the 5/20 edition of sfgate.com.

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Noticed the Port of Redwood City has been upgrading lately, also more large ship traffic. All those squashed automobiles that you see on those beat-up flatbed trucks have been funneling into the shredder there (hellacious noise) and up the conveyor for export. Also noticed that there has been quite a few two-bay cement hoppers on the branch and then on the MBT the next night. Any info? The price of cement seems to be an issue these days, just curious.

Hi TCnR
Iam a Redwood City native now retired in Georgetown Ca and I just signed up with Trainorders. I follow the Port of Redwood City the best I can thru the internet.In 2000 RMC Pacific(now a part of Cemex) spent 10 million on wharf #1 extension and a ship unloader.The ship unloader can suck 850 tons per hour out of a hold.In simple terms the ships are limited by the channel depth as to how much cement they can bring in roughly 1000 tons per foot of draft. The current limit is around 36000 tons. Not an expert but dont the hopper cars carry about 100 tons of cement?Therefore each shipload is about 360 hopper car loads! The cement is first conveyered to the largest silos you see out there. These silos have a cap. of about 59000 tons and with the other silos there (if they use them) the total cap> could be as much as 90000 tons. The total amount of cement brought in every year keeps going up and up . From about 200000 tons in 2001 to 535000 tons this year ending june 30th. If they just used hopper cars to move this stuff then we are talking over 5000 cars a year. I am just guessing in that I have not been to the port since 2000 to observe the action but I think most of the cement goes out by railcar in that they just installed a new "railcar loadout system".