Nostalgia & History > Westbound Wednesday, SP Weekend Warriors Through Altamont, 1980

A hot August Sunday, westbound, west of Altamont. SDP45s rerturning to San Jose.
This line is long gone but old WP in the background is now UP and still active with freight and ACE trains.

Regards, Jim Evans



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/20 10:07 by FiveChime.

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Looking ahead 40 years from when it was abandoned, was it a good business decision to pull the line up?  

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

I think it was probably wise to abandon the SP line paralled by UP as UP does not run much on the current
line and no new rail served industries have developed anywhere on the route to Tracy.

Regards, Jim Evans



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/20 12:36 by FiveChime.

Nice shot! The RVSJA was a great train to shoot on Saturday around mid day.around 1979-1980. Usually ran with commute power with some loaded hoppers on the head end. Was told that made the handling a bit of a challenge.

By the time it was abandoned I'm not sure there was has been enough traffic since over Altamont to need a second track, and the ex WP route was better engineered. ACE could use a faster line, but the former SP route wasn't faster.

Jim B

Down to only the RVSJA, yes, good idea. WP later UP could handle this

jimB Wrote:
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> Nice shot! The RVSJA was a great train to shoot on
> Saturday around mid day.around 1979-1980. Usually
> ran with commute power with some loaded hoppers on
> the head end. Was told that made the handling a
> bit of a challenge.
>
> By the time it was abandoned I'm not sure there
> was has been enough traffic since over Altamont to
> need a second track, and the ex WP route was
> better engineered. ACE could use a faster line,
> but the former SP route wasn't faster.
>
> Jim B

Not loaded,empty unless its ballast. Usually had to double the hill as only 2 SDPs were assigned and the train was always much heavier than the tonnage rating of the SDPs

Great photo, would love to see more pics of the portion of the line now used by the Niles Canyon Railway.

Rich

As I recall, the SP Altamont line was abandoned after flood/landslide damage in the mid-1980s. SP then immediately got trackage rights over the former WP line and continued running a few trains this way. At the same time, a new connection was built at Niles Tower so SP trains could connect with SP rails. Before that, there was no connection between SP and WP/UP at Niles Tower at all. ACE commuter trains use this connection today.

wpamtk Wrote:
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> As I recall, the SP Altamont line was abandoned
> after flood/landslide damage in the mid-1980s. SP
> then immediately got trackage rights over the
> former WP line and continued running a few trains
> this way. At the same time, a new connection was
> built at Niles Tower so SP trains could connect
> with SP rails. Before that, there was no
> connection between SP and WP/UP at Niles Tower at
> all. ACE commuter trains use this connection
> today.

They had flood damage and landslides from the winter of 81-82. By then, nothing was going over Altamont except the cement trains to Albrae and they could easily go via Mococo and did. Trackage rights on the WP was decided in August 1976 when the SP and WP had a joint Officer Special over each lines to determine the condition of such detours 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/20 07:03 by WAF.

I also remember growing up in Pleasanton during the '70s that they had planned on merging the two routes. Part of the benefit was just one rail route through downtown Pleasanton and Livermore. I still have newspaper clippings about the plans. Someday soon I'll dig them up and scan them.

danf Wrote:
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> I also remember growing up in Pleasanton during
> the '70s that they had planned on merging the two
> routes. Part of the benefit was just one rail
> route through downtown Pleasanton and Livermore. I
> still have newspaper clippings about the plans.
> Someday soon I'll dig them up and scan them.

Again all of this was discussed on that Officer Special in August, 1976