October 20th and 21st, 2007

October 20th and 21st.

A trip to Oakdale, Riverbank, Stockton and the Roseville, Ca areas.

Saturday October 20th
Finely we got a whole weekend without obligations or work and we headed for the Central Valley.

Stockton, CA

ZNBYWSP

• BNSF 7537
• BNSF 778
• BNSF 707
• BNSF 720

Riverbank, CA

North end switch

• BNSF 2422
• BNSF 2412

Oakdale, CA

Sierra Diner Train

• SERA 50

UP Oakdale Turn

• UP 1489
• UP 1495

The SERA 40 and 44 BLW S12's are showing signs of being actively stripped of parts. An unexpected sight was the ex Swanson Milling GP-9 that showed up on the SERA property last year was stripped down to the prime mover and half the cab. The long hood and front half of the unit where missing.

Stockton, CA
We headed back to Stockton as there was nothing going on in Riverbank. West of Escalon a nb San Joaquin passed us with Amtrak 180 as the lead unit.
A quick stop at the BNSF Mormon yard showed the engine terminal full with a couple of interesting units. BNSF 3118 and NS 9387 helped break the orange and green monotony. At the east end of the yard are the Rail Power demo units in cold storage.They have been there since the RPRX 5402 took off unattended for no reason.

A run over to the UP side of things found some activity, but not much.

QFRNPP

• UP 5501
• UP 5264
• UP 5028
• UP 8550

BNSF Transfer

• BNSF 2949
• BNSF 2536

Sacramento, CA
After driving around the central valley without any luck on the train watching front, its was time to head for home, but we where sidetracked by the MRVNW at Elvas. A quick turn around and then down to Haggin resulted in the most trains for the day even though we did miss a sb stacker.

Unknown eb Auto Train

• UP 4036
• UP 9625

Unknown wb Auto Train

• UP 5201
• UP 3794
• UP 4083
• UP 9068

ZLCBR

• UP 3803
• UP 4359
• UP 4491

After sitting for about 45 mins the MRVNW had still not moved from Elvas and the auto rack train was still waiting for it to clear and since there where things I needed to do, it was time to go.

Sunday October 21st
Sunday was a typical Sunday for traffic levels. Traffic has been off for quite sometime and always amazes me how empty the yard has been looking lately.
The east end of the yard had a CTC failure and all trains entering and leaving the yard had to hand throw all switches. This made for some extra radio traffic giving us some heads ups.

QNPFRP at Antelope, CA

• UP 7733
• UP 4225
• UP 4423
• UP 5572
• UP 5568 - rear DPU

MRVTR at Citrus, CA

• UP 4134
• UP 5053

Lt Power at Roseville, CA

• UP 3905
• UP 4872

Lt Power at Roseville, CA

• UP 3291
• UP 2462

ASJNP at E. Roseville, CA

• UP 4904
• UP 9773
• UP 9775
• UP 9734
• UP 9722
• UP 9541
• UP 9239
• UP 9619
• UP 4685

They had a bad order tank car and ended up setting it out in the city yard.

MRVEU at Roseville, CA

• UP 5476
• UP 7699
• UP 5181