The Rosville Local power consists of a GP40-2, a GP60 and an SD59MX as it sits at Control Point Sierra facing northbouned on the valley sub. It's train is curving around the leg of the wye and is mostly on the tracks heading to Donner. Oddly, only the GP40-2 is running.
Number 8, is late- Again. Delayed seven hours by an on-board emergency. And the sun keeps hiding behind drifting clouds. Hustling through Lupfer, Montana:
Spotted this on the north end of the former Port Huron & Detroit Railroad (*now owned by CSX) on Saturday:
This week I will be in Las Vegas working at Interop 2013. Since my mother and sister live in Henderson AND my mom is over storing items for me that she's had since we left SoCal 3 years ago AND my employer will comp miles anyway, I drove from Roseville to Last Vegas via I5 to CA58 over the Tehachapis and then the big U-turn to I15. (dumb Sierras making it take longer) Now normally, when I drive places, I see exactly no rail action, but the Railfan gods took note that the good Camera got left at home and so I was blessed with some decent action. Alas, some of these cell phone shots will be about as clear as a picture of the loch ness monster, but I present them anyway. Saturday morning as I get ready to leave, the Redding Turn departs Eastbound(north) onto the Valley sub. Power is 3 SD59MXs and a GP60. The second unit is class unit 9900 with the additional exhaust scrubbers for Tier 4. The SD59s are getting use on the "Turns and Locals" Which may not be so local. Mainly the Redding Turn and the Canyon Crawler (up the Feather River) both of which are over 100 miles one way. (Redding is I think close to 200).
I5 south of Sac offers little to nothing to the Rail fan. Alas, I didn't have time to take 99. I made it to the Harris Ranch exit last night which gave me a chance to loiter today. Buttonwillow had no action and I chose not to explore Bakersfield proper, but I NEVER miss a chance at "The Pass." I'm pretty sure there was some sort of a maintenance window, because I saw 5 trains stopped in various spots between Caliente and Tehachapi. This UP train was stopped right at Caliente. From here, I could see but not get a good picture of another clinging to the cliffs above Bealeville. Yet a 3rd was at Woodford with no good locations to get a shot and 2 more visible from the Freeway. North and Southbound UP and BNSF. Finally I made it to Mojave and turned east for Barstow. As I got to the Boron Exit, I saw what looked like a Borax train, but I couldn't quite make out the last unit in the front consist, but at least one other car had pulled over to check it out. It will be hard to tell in this picture, but this is NS 1070, the Wabash Heritage unit. She is very very far from home sitting in the Mojave Desert.
These last 3 were taken at the Barstow Trainstation/Harvey House. In addition to the UP train pictured, I saw 2 other UP trains as I headed for Baker, but couldn't get pictures. And of course, there was plenty of other action in Barstow.
Kind of. It's a 6 stall roundhouse, abandoned since the mid 1980's. The PH&D was a small shortline, with an office building and a roundhouse located in the middle of a wye at the north end of the line. The Port Huron & Detroit Railroad Historical Society currently owns the office building and is actively working to restore it. The roundhouse across the parking lot is still owned by CSX. This is what it looked like last summer:
Since this is Weekend Fun, I will post another from the unusual sunny weekend on the Oregon Coast Scenic, on rare mileage track along the Nehalem River.
