Nostalgia & History > UP 3680 Napa Pipe Train on Donner 1991

UP 3680 East leads a Napa Pipe train over Donner Pass.
This train had multiple riders, one shown (1:40) catching an unauthorized ride.
Train stopped at Colfax to add water to units and to allow the units to cool down.
Alta CA
May 1991

Thanks for looking
-Lee

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Nice to see tunnel motors used in an area they were designed for..... Cool video! Thanks.

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

Very nice video with lots of great sound.

Loved it, man those days where a blast being a railfan!

Great stuff gonx!
Great sound too!

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/23 18:04 by RailRat.

Fantastic video!  There's a chance I saw that load come off the Napa Branch at Suisun as that was my senior year of High School at Armijo and I would try to get my teammates to take our track practice runs down to the Suisun Slough so I could check for trains.  And if I was lucky enough to borrow my dad's truck, I would drive home that way (the very long way) to check for trains all the way to Cordelia.  Napa Pipe sure used to crank out a ton of stuff back then, I remember trains coming in every afternoon, the SP units (mix of Geeps and Cadillacs, some still in SPSF paint) would park over by the Suisun-Fairfield depot.  Sometimes the train would roll right off the branch and head east, but it seems like most of the time it parked and another set of units came by in the evening or overnight to pick up the train as it was gone by the next morning.

Was surprised to see the UP unit leading, don't remember really seeing those in Suisun.  Would UP power run through on the SP often?  And would it go any further west than Roseville?

 Nathan

To compliment the Video here's an old discussion about similar pipe loads and another SP photo on the grade outside of Lombard. Curious what the name of the grade is, I thought I knew but it's been a while.

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?3,4657329,page=1

Obvious in the video and the photo is the 3 x 4 and two on top configuration of the pipe. Anybody know the diamter of this pipe? Presume it's for a specific Contract, also saw this dimension and stacking technique enroute north of Klamath Falls. We have had build photos of the Napa MR Club project making model loads of the pipe.

tia.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/23 18:14 by TCnR.