A friend of mine from up north is down visiting and he wanted to go see some trains so we went up to Cajon pass. We got there saturday morning about 8:30. Our first stop was Cajon blvd as Zak was going to try and meet us there. Two trains passed by one in each direction. This was to be the last westbound we saw for many hours. We then headed up to Silverwood where we found a eastbound held just before the connector. It turns out there was a track problem (broken rail?) and they had to wait for the track inspector. By the time he showed up there were 4 eastbounds stacked up behind him on the #1 and they were running eastbound traffic up the #2 (normaly downhill) track. They put a 10mph slow order on #1 and opened the track. It was one eastbound after another on both tracks. Several times there were trains running side by side raceing eachother to the top, that was cool.
After about 10 trains we decided to go get some beer and snacks. We then went up to Martinez spur for some more eastbounds on all three tracks. The hotshots were running on #2 while several manifests held the #1 for run arounds on the Martinez sideing. While this was going on a couple UP trains came in from Palmdale line and a work train followed them to Highland where they tied up. My friend asked about the autoracks and as if on cue here comes the V-SDGBAR (autorack empties San Diego-Barstow) on the #2. He was up to about 50mph and half way past us when we heard the air dump. I was amazed how quickly he stopped. It only took about 30 seconds. The rear end was even with us when it stopped. I heard them tell the DS they had a undefined emergency and the conductor was going to walk the train. So we decided to drive to the head end and see if we could spot the air hose separation. Well it turned out to be a couple cars back from the head end and by the time we got there they had found it and were working on finding another bungie cord for the hose. So we went back to the rear end. There was another eastbound holding the #1 for a runarou
Man, I sure sucked that I had to pull a saturday work load or I would have been there. All of that action would have been sweet, I hope you guys didn’t have to wait long. I’m sure it was hot up there, yesterday was a killer down in the valley. I’ll be on the next trip for sure
I don’t dislike the city itself, what I dont like are the reputations that the city has.
At least from what I heard from my sister-in-law’s younger sister is that San Diego has too many gangs and is full of too many mexican immigrants. Not that mexicans are bad (my dad is a mexican american).
I only say it as I hear it. Chad, I do not hate SD. However, I would never want to live there. It is way tooooo warm tooo long. 40’s and 50’s are just fine=)
AND I WILL NOT HOLD ANYTHING AGAINST SD, BECAUSE I CAN’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING SHE SAID ABOUT IT. I am sure its a nice place.
I apologize if I offended anyone. Sorry, I did not mean to. I will not post anything to that manner again in the way that I did. Sorry Chad.
Hey Andy,
No offence taken. To tell you the truth I am not a big fan of city liveing. I much prefer liveing in a small town. And I can’t stand apartment liveing like I am now. But to make the big $$$ you have to live in the city (at least in my line of work). Haveing said that, I must say that as far as city liveing goes this place isn’t bad. And I have lived in just about every major city or area in California at one time or another. And I definately do not miss the snow. I haven’t had to wear a jacket sience I have been down here, that’s a big plus. And sience we are right next to thew ocean it does not get that hot here either.[8D]
Since I grew up there, you have everything we’ve every wanted. Sometimes more than you’d wish for. Beaches are the best and The Coaster is the best commuter train around. What other commuter train gives you a view of the ocean to calm you as you are heading home after a long day of work? (maybe the one in Miami) Weather is darn near perfect. I would wear shorts year round. You have to spend a week here in the winter and try to see everything, by then you won’t leave back to your snow covered house. And as you can see from Chad’s thread, some of the top railfanning area are not far.
Great write up Chad. Even though I am sure it happens alot, that is the firt time I have read, or seen about a train poppin’ air lines. I start to think right away about the whole 1 or 2 man crew debate. Cant see how you can have that sorta thing happen with one man running around.
There was no shortage of people for this one. It just happened to stop right next to the head end of another train so there were 4 guys. They also sent security up for assistance and there happened to be a maint truck going by too. So there ended up being 6 heads by the time it was fixed. I know what you mean though. I don’t think they should go down to one man crews, for many reasons.