Hi guys, doing this from my phone, so no rail images, just an attachment. This is Union Pacific Nee Southern Pacific "Track 1" just out of the summit tunnel heading past the most famous section of "China Wall" on the Donner Pass. I had not been here for 10 years prior to last weekend. My wife needed to train for the Ragnar race in a week and needed to train at 7000'. The boys and I played at Donner Lake and watched trains as the clung to the mountains hundreds of feet above.
That would require UP to relay track. I had the kids and didn't have my telephoto, so I couldn't get a shot from Donner lake or go wander off to where the trains were
Yup, you never know what power to expect on any railroad around here. Those NS ponies were on a UP train heading south out of Hearne, Texas.
The SAL's classic signals are beginning to fall, to be replaced with generic "Vaders". Went out to try and capture an image this morning in overcast light.
I particularly want to get a well lit shot of a train passing one of the SAL's signals with a doll signal mast. The small signal atop the doll mast was removed long ago and placed on the ground as a dwarf signal that you can see at the foot of the main signal. The doll signal controlled the siding.
Yes, those are vintage SAL signals in the picture. The only thing I dislike about them is that they are "approach lit", so remain dark until a train is extremely close. This makes for lousy railfanning, as you can't be clairvoyant by observing signal aspects long before train time.
Here's an example of a destested "Vader" signal in all of its generic presence, spreading across U.S. lines everywhere. Here is its evil designer:
Approach lit can be a pain in the.... If they're running at track speed, you may have scant enough time to get ready. If they're crawling for some reason, a person can sit and wonder....
I like how NS, at least the New Orleans North East implemented Approach Lit signals in the 80's and 90's. Waiting for the Crescent at the Slidell, LA station, the signal a few hundred feet south would go amber as the Crescent entered the Lake Pontchartrain trestle 9 miles away, then go red when it exited only 2 miles away. So I knew how much time I had to relieve the pressure on my sitting posterior and move to where my Viewliner would stop.
I honestly hadn't realized the cars were that much shorter. I knew they had the "adapter" car, but the step down is quite something.
