Thursday Proto Photo Sep 25/14

[Lenny53]

[NYNE]

I took this one in California over the summer. It has been awhile since I got out to take train photos.

[Bob Bufkin]

[jwb]

UP 5401 is part of power for an eastbound picking up its train in the departure yard at Pepper Avenue in West Colton. Above it to the left is a DPU on the rear of a stack train heading for the BNSF route over Cajon Pass.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[Guilford Guy]

AAPRCO Pine Tree Limited, possibly the fire time Amtrak engines have been on this trackage.


and some moody shots for photo class

[lock4244]

Lil' late to the party.

Probably not interesting south of the Great Lakes, but up here an NS unit leading a CN freight is fairly noteworthy:
http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=16448

Always a good catch, one of the three remaining BCOL painted C44-9WL's solo on an extra CN freight east of Toronto:
http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=16457

[C855B]

Probably not interesting south of the Great Lakes, but up here an NS unit leading a CN freight is fairly noteworthy:
http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=16448

That's just a taste of what we're seeing down here on CN. You're equally likely to see all NS power on a CN train as CN. It's sort of nuts.

[lajmdlr]

Think you have your directions wrong. 5401 is heading west going to an arrival track or further west (COC, LATC &/or the harbors). The DPU train is heading "north" to take the Palmdale Cutoff to Bakerfield & points north. The BNSF connection is east of there (to the right) a couple of miles at the new flyover.

UP 5401 is part of power for an eastbound picking up its train in the departure yard at Pepper Avenue in West Colton. Above it to the left is a DPU on the rear of a stack train heading for the BNSF route over Cajon Pass.

(Attachment Link)

[jwb]

No. We are on Pepper Avenue looking east. The track 5401 is on leads to the departure yard and nowhere else. 5401 is light power, moving west You can see it is in the yard, because it is moving, but no headlights or ditch lights are on, which is OK in the yard but not on the main. 5401 has nowhere to go but the West Colton departure yard, where it will pick up its train. If you wait for this set of power to go under the bridge and then turn 180 degrees, you will see it continuing to move as in the photo below:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

The train above is on the fairly new track that connects the UP ex-SP Alhambra Sub main directly to the BNSF main leading north to Cajon Pass. If it were going to the Palmdale Cutoff, it would be taking the Alhambra Sub main a little farther to the west. The Cutoff passes over the track the stacker is on.

[jwb]

If it were going to the Palmdale Cutoff, it would be taking the Alhambra Sub main a little farther to the west.

Sorry, I meant a little farther to the east.

[jwb]

Here is a view from Google satellite of the area around Pepper Avenue:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

The camera is roughly at the marker. Locos come from the engine terminal on the lowest track in the lower left. 5401 would have come down this track, moved past the bridge to the east, and zigzagged back to the departure yard on the track closest to the road marked Railroad Access Road in the photo. The Palmdale Cutoff branches from the Sunset main at the very lower right of the photo, just above the plus sign. The track to the BNSF main, where the stacker is located in the first photo, runs above the reverse loop in the upper right part of the photo.