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JAMIE'S RANDOM AMERICAN RAILWAY PHOTOS.


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Good moaning from a cool but sunny Charente.  The tardis is still in Cajon pass on 7th January 2011. I didn't have to wait long before a westbound UP manifest came slowly down the hill just 10 minutes after the BNSF train had vanished.

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The dawn light was reflecting of the Hi Vis strips.

 

The 4 unitd did catch the early sun as they went past me.

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Then the two DP nits came pat with the Dynamic brakes howling.

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And then headed  further into the canyon.  10 minutes after it passed you could still smell the hot brakeshoes in the still air.

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In only a few minutes another sound came as a UP freight headed down the Palmdale cut off above me.

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Jamie

 

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How high up the pass did you go?  I usually get off at the Cleghorn Road exit, park at Cajon Station and then cross the creek and walk up trackside.  There are numerous paths through here, and (unlike Tehachapi) it's public land so as long as you don't walk on the tracks themselves, you're good to wander freely.

 

The creek is nice, and easily forded except perhaps after winter storms.

 

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8 minutes ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

How high up the pass did you go?  I usually get off at the Cleghorn Road exit, park at Cajon Station and then cross the creek and walk up trackside.  There are numerous paths through here, and (unlike Tehachapi) it's public land so as long as you don't walk on the tracks themselves, you're good to wander freely.

 

The creek is nice, and easily forded except perhaps after winter storms.

 

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I stopped about half way up on thevold toad by the grade crossing. I'll have to get my road atlas out yo get the name of it.  The 2nd carriageway of Route 66 is now disused and made a good parking spot.  

 

Jamie

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3 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

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Phwoar... an SD9043MAC

 

Quite a rare beast even then, I saw one in 2012 and fudged the shot!  Especially galling as it was the lead unit.

 

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8232 is off roster now - I don't know what's happened to it.  Scrapped probably, possibly gone to a regional.  It was involved in a wreck in Texas in 2013. 

 

The current UP8232 is a GE ES44AC-H

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7 hours ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

How high up the pass did you go?  I usually get off at the Cleghorn Road exit, park at Cajon Station and then cross the creek and walk up trackside.  There are numerous paths through here, and (unlike Tehachapi) it's public land so as long as you don't walk on the tracks themselves, you're good to wander freely.

 

The creek is nice, and easily forded except perhaps after winter storms.

 

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Looking at my De Lorme atlas, and Google mpas I think that it was In the Cleghorn Canyon area.

 

Jamie

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Good morning from a sunny Charente.  It was also sunny in Cleghorn Canyon on the 7th January 2011.

The UP freight on the Palmdale cutoff, aka the Bakersfield Line went south.

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5 minutes later a westbound BNSF intermodal came out of the gloom.

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It even caught a bit of sun as it approached.

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And then headed into the canyon.

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Unfortunately it blocked my view of an eastbound UP train that was heading up, but I did catch sight of the rear DPU.

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By the time it headed round the bend the sun was a bit higher.

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I had been very lucky, 5 trains in just over half an hour. What a place.    

 

Then it was time to head up the pass and these two critters were in the cement plant at Victorville.

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Then along a lonely Route 66 towards Barstow where the only train I saw was a BNSF power move heading down to LA.  The Digital SLR was wonderful for getting photos of each unit to record the numbers as they passed.

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Along the way Route 66 disappeared into a US Marine base and I had to do a quick U turn in front of some heavily armed guards at the camp entrance and then take I 15 round the base before getting back on 66.

 

Jamie

 

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Edited by jamie92208
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Well, at least they didn't catch you in the act of taking this photo...

 

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I'm not sure who it was asked me politely to go away - not Marine Corps, not Law Enforcement or Railroad Police.  Aviator shades and an M4 suggested PMC but I didn't hang around to find out.  It was no big deal but that year - 2009 - I got stopped every single time I tried to take a railroad picture, from Bakersfield to Barstow and every point in between.  I think it was because after a run in with the CHP I must have had my out of state plates tagged.  

 

I was left alone once I made it back to Arizona!  

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21 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Then it was time to head up the pass and these two critters were in the cement plant at Victorville.

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WAMX is Webb Asset Management, a leasing company.
 

Interesting histories for these two. Both originally GP35s, but by this time WAMX #3845 was a GP38-2. 
 

#3845 was built for Southern Pacific and had spent time as a Quebec Southern Railway locomotive.

 

#3510 was built for Western Pacific, became a Union Pacific engine when UP took over WP, then belonged to Eastern Idaho Railroad before going to WAMX.

 

Here’s a picture of #3845 at the cement plant, with #3510 sneaking in on the left:

http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=235524

 

and one with #3510 as the main subject:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2984966

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Good morning from a chilly but dry Charente.   The tardis is still in the Barstow area of SoCal on the 7th January 2011. The BNSF power move was mostly n the corporate livery apart from this one.

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Then it was back along Route 66, I took this one just to make my pompous Brother in law jealous. He'd been banging on about hiring a Harley and doing route 66 then not been able to go.

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As I got into Barstow an intermodal headed west.

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Then it was a left turn and heading for Mojave.  I hadn't had very much for breakfast so after seeing lots of adverts stopped at Peggy Sue's diner.  There was a Shelby car meet going on.

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Then on through the desert alongside an empty railway line.  I had to stop and photograph this.  I think it's a Joshua Tree.P1075477_resize.JPG.ae4d309cb4e338eda43454ce2ffecf6a.JPG

Then Mojave came in site with a lonely truck and lines of stored aricraft.

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And finally a line of UP locos on one of the branches.

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A good day and still some way to go.

 

Jamie

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P1075491_resize.JPG.a1e3050b763e70b1ca645aea21f355bb.JPGGood morning from the Charente.   The Tardis is still on 7th January 2011 and we are in Mojave, CA.  On the east side of the main line there was another train, probably waiting to head up the Trona branch.

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There were also more parked aircraft.

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Then I followed the line up to Tehachapi, but there was a strange absence of trains.   I continued down the north side of the pass to the loop area.   Parked near the bottom of the loop was a UP pickup.   I got chatting to the driver and it turned out he was the supervisor of a track gang that had just finished changing a length of welded rail.  He told me that he had just handed the track back and that within half an hour trains would start flowing again.   Sure enough he was right.  He told me to listen and a roar was heard to the north.   The roar got louder and then this appeared, 

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An SD 70 of some type I think heading a southbound intermodal.   Apparently the trains had all been queued at  Bakersfield.

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My viewpoint ws just north of the entrance to the loop tunnel. I was quite pleased with this shot as the signal is well inside the tunnel.

 

Before long the locos reappeared on the higher level.

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Jamie

 

 

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Good moaning from a bright and sunny Charente.  The Tardis is still north of Tehachapi on 7th January 2011.

The BNSF freight carried on past me.

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Not long after the locos came into view again.

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One more shot.   The train was more than 75 cars long.

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As proved by this shot.

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My companion had left by now so I headed up to the parking spot that overlooks the top of the loop and got a shot of most of the train as it wound round the hill.

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And the tail end finally came in sight.

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Jamie

 

 

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Good morning from a sunny and cool Charente.   The Tardis is still near Tehachapi, CA on 7th January 2010.. Yes, I'd got the year wrong on my California and El Salvador trip.  I went out in 2009 and came back in 2010. Some day I may go back and edit all the dates but at the moment life is too short.   My newly acquired DSLR didn't record the year on the file name.   Anyway the Tardis has been adjusted.

After taking the last shot of the train wound round the hill I set off down the pass to Caliente CA where I found the work train that had been on the pass doing the rail replacement.

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As I got into town I got a better shot of the locos.

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With the sharp curve above the crossing i had to take a couple more.

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And then a close up.

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The train them ambled off down towards Bakersfield.

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And a few monutes later, out of the gloom came another BNSF freight heading up the pass.P1085539_resize.JPG.7eee46e7f72caf473255c592c9c35745.JPG

That carried on up around the bend.   You could use that as a song title....

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Jamie

 

 

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Good morning from a still dark Charente.   It was getting dark in California on the 7th January 2010.  The freight that was passing me now had it's head end on the opposite side of the valley as it climbed. The 4th unit was interesting still in Warbonnet scheme but with BNSF lettering.

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The last of the evening sun caught the 2 rear end pushers as they went over the crossing.

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My DSLR was an Olympus E-520 and I thought I'd see how it did in low light. I was now down in the flattish land at the bottom of the pass and caught this UP freight heading south.

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It was interesting how the reflective stripes and numbers really stood out.

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I did eventually get into Bakersfield after a very full day and plenty of trains. After booking into my motel and finding somewhere to eat,  Subway If I remember correctly, I found the station and caught these two Amtrak/Amtrak California units.

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At 7.30 the next morning I found this near the UP depot and just had to take a photo.  Larger than some Police stations that I have worked out of and a bit more mobile.

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It was cool and misty in the central valley that morning.

 

Jamie

 

 

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28th of August 2009 - a tad warmer than your visit I bet

 

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There was another sadly abused caboose a bit further east that day, where a SVRR job was working

 

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Somewhat shocked to realise that 2009 was my last visit to the Tehachapi line...  I've not been back since.  I went a couple of times a year from 2003 - 2009, then stopped going.

 

2005 - 2015 spent more time on the Santa Fe Transcon, Southern Pacific Sunset Route and at Cajon/Colton.

 

 

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Good morning from a sunny but cool Charente.  It was misty and cool in Bakersfield on 8th January 2010. No update yesterday I was busy looking at the real thing in Tours.

Anyway from Bakersfield I drove north along IIRC Highway 99, trying to keep as close to the UP tracks as possible.  The first thing I saw was this early GP unit sitting outside some form of food processing works.

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I thought that the dirt in the foreground was a good surface and drove onto it for a better shot.  It turned out to be some sort of slurry waste that a tanker was spreading.  I did manage to drive to safety though.

Then on to I think, Tullare where this B17 was sitting by the road.

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And also an F4.  I always liked the look of them.

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Then a bit further on this UP switcher sitting in a locked compound.

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Then on to Modesto and a variety of things.  This was a way from it's alleged home.

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And this was even further.

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More tomorrow I hope.

 

Jamie

 

 

Edited by jamie92208
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J D Heiskell 1886 was built as Northern Pacific 232 and is a passenger equipped GP9 (20319 5384-15 6/55) - note the "torpedo tubes" on the long hood which are the air tanks normally on the underframe but displaced to make space for the boiler water tank.  It became BN 1617 as still visible in the number boards.  The location is Pixley.

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RLK 2121 is a rare beast - a BL20-2.  EMD only built 3.  2121 was originally a CBQ GP9 #279, built in June 1954!

 

I saw one of the others at Bakersfield in 2009.  Originally built as Spokane Portland and Seattle #153, built in June 1956.

 

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For some reason I didn't bother photting the CORP GP38...

 

The other local power that day were: GP35 CEFX 3034 (Ex-DRGW #3034) and Esquimalt and Nanaimo GP38 3870 (previously Penn Central 7818; Conrail 7818; P&LE 2050; CRLX 344; CSCD 344, 1996; ENR 344, 1999; ENR 3870, 2000)

 

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and UP GP38-2 #735 (Missouri Pacific #2235)  The absence of dynamic brakes make this an easy spot as a former MP unit.

 

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45 minutes ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

 

and UP GP38-2 #735 (Missouri Pacific #2235)  The absence of dynamic brakes make this an easy spot as a former MP unit.

 

1263872210_DSC_0939corrected.jpg.c3333bd78dc9ab5274039f73d5f75088.jpg

 


Not quite definitive. UP had some ex-MKT (another flatland railroad) GP38-2s without dynamic brakes. For example:

 

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/708010/ - ex MKT #308

 

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/389497/ - ex MKT #315

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