What route does UP prefer for getting freight to/from LA to the Bay Area? There is the coastal route and then the one through the central valley. Which do they use for what and why?
From what I’ve heard, the Coast route isn’t used for much of anything in the way of freight any more. There may be one manifest per day each way. Just about everything else goes up the valley. I’m sure that some of the natives can bring you up to date on this.
How many trains do originate in LA to go to Oakland? Probably not many?
Most trains from West Colton to Oakland would run up Cajon? Then are they more likely to run via Sacramento, or via the WP from Lathrop?
(Hm-- I see they don’t have a facing-point connection for that at Lathrop. Is that enough of a reason to run via Sacramento?)
I’m pretty sure it’s more than one manifest a day, but certainly most traffic moved through the valley to Bakersfield and up the Tehachapis.
Ok, so most of the traffic has moved to Bakersfield. What is advantageous about that route over the coast route?
The train crew doesn’t get distracted by all of the pretty ocean views.
The Coast line is slower (and possibly longer) than routing via Tehachapi and Soledad Canyon to Los Angeles.
Moreover, most of the traffic these days does not terminate in SoCal - it continues from West Colton on the Sunset Route to eastern points. The ‘Palmdale cutoff’ from Palmdale to West Colton was built in the late 1960’s to bypass downtown LA congestion. See map link below for key locations.
There are certain advantages in running certain trains one way over the other way.
However, the big difference is that the Coast has much ABS, whereas the Central Valley has CTC.
In past UP operations on the Coast, they would prefer, in the absence of a caboose, to just leave the switch in reverse (though locked) when a train left a siding. The next train by would normalize it. However, time sensitive commuter and passenger train interests objected. So, instead of having a crew member throw the switch back after the train exited the siding, and have to walk all the way to the head end, UP figured they would run just about everything through the CTC’ed Central Valley.
It’s not longer. As for slower, it depends what you mean; a passenger train that wasn’t delayed by meets would get to Oakland faster via the Coast.
It seems trains from Oakland to LA usually run via Sacramento, but dunno whether they also go via West Colton. The LA-Portland pig train still runs via Soledad Canyon? But no other freights?
The coast route is all mountainous from north of Sanata Barbara almost all the way to Watsonville. It is also has many curves and speed are much slower than on the Valley route. Once you get to Bakersfield on the valley the route it is flat all the way to Oakland via the Mococo line.
Fastest schedule LA-SF via the Coast: 9.5 hours starting in … 1941, maybe?
Fastest schedule LA-Oakland via the Valley: I’ll check, but probably 11+ hours?
The Mococo line is… out of service? In any case, trains don’t run on it. A train coming up the Valley to Oakland can run via Sacramento (the usual now, I’m told) or it can pull into a siding at Stockton or someplace and change ends (transpose the power and the tele) to continue to Oakland on the WP to Niles Tower then onto the SP to Newark and up the Mulford line to Oakland.
I would think that most of the traffic is coming off the Overland route, ie Donner/Feather River heading to/from LA on the Valley. Or it’s Portland/LA
I would think Sunset to Oakland would not be the biggest chunk of traffic.
This website has a list of trains currently running on the coast sub
Wouldn’t traffic coming from the overland route take UP’s track from Salt Lake through Vegas to LA? That’s a lot shorter than going through the bay area if you’re coming from the overland route…
good point.