[:o)]Well, I took my first trip up the hill to shoot a few stacks in the white stuff. Here is a link to my favorit of that day, It’s an UP stacker at Boca, CA. Hope you like it, have a good one all of you! http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=310298
Adam Pizante
Sacramento, CA
Nice picture. I caught two westbound double stacks at the Newcastle tunnel yesterday. One train was westbound on the #1 track and was stopped so the second train westbound on the #2 track could run around. You can spot the work done on the tunnel to allow the double stacks.
The second train had the 2001 trailing.
The 2001 at Rocklin. The concrete base under the first stack car has a date of 1910.
This is a westbound stack train at Bowman CA three days after the snow storm last month.
Cool shots guys, 2001 looks clean!
Adam Pizante
Sacramento, CA
Just a question:
Now that the tunnels have been either notched or floors dropped, does anyone have a general idea about how many trains UP is sending over Donner Pass, now? And are there plans to re-lay the double track between Emigrant Gap and Cisco Grove, or Donner Pass?
Just kind of curious. Last time I was in Truckee before the snowfall, I saw about five or six trains come through there in a couple of hours.
Tom
Tom
Sounds like you were in Truckee at the right time to get several trains that quickly. The Union Pacific does seem to run the stacks one after the other westbound.
I don’t believe the present traffic levels could justify relaying any track at this time. In the future, it might just happen since the Sunset Route is being double tracked, this one might get more track back on the ground also. The problem is the track east of Reno is a single track mainline also.
I live within ear shot of the Roseville Sub and watch fairly often. The traffic is a little more than it was before the tunnel work but the loaded grain trains come west via FRC now. They used to come over Donner so the major trains are now the double stacks, Amtrak and the Z trains, which now seem to have several double stacks on them also. The picture I took yesterday at Newcastle was two westbound double stacks and one was a high priority train that looked like the old Z train with about ten double stacks added, but most of the train was pigs.
You can add in the two Amtraks, # 5 and #6, the empty grain train east and the Roper going to Utah yesterday and that would be about it. I did hear some other traffic in the morning after Church but that is normally a stack train also westbound. On a good day, you might see 8 to 10 trains in the daylight hours now instead of the five to six. Using the FRC for the heavy trains has lessen the loads on the Hill at this time.
CZ
Thanks
It was fairly nice overall. I believe it attended the Rail fest last fall at North Platte.
See how clean it looked with the 2002 at Simi Valley on the Olympic train.
And speaking of clean this is the 1983. 1982 and the 8444 the week after the big display in Salt Lake City two years ago.
CZ
Great pictures CZ, that one of 1983, 1982, and 8444 looks sharp. I’ll see your 2 Heritage units on one train and raise you one, here is the KG1LA-12 pulling into UP’s Yermo, CA yard in the middle of July…
Cajon_92
Cajon
Nice picture. The Katy unit is probably my favorite.
Three Heritages on a stack train is about as good as it gets. Seems like Southern California to Chicago is the big assignment for the Heritage units lately.
CZ.
Today in Rocklin, two more stack trains were westbound on track #1 and Track #2. The dispatcher ran a shorter Z train with stacks around a 129 car stack train using the normal # 1 track westbound. The short train was only about twenty cars or so. It was raining so the pictures are not bright. I noticed that the lead unit has the new LED lighted number boards. Only the newest unit have this feature and they show up well in the rain.
CZ
Short train westbound on #2 track, which is the normal eastbound track.
Very long stack train on normal westbound #1 track. This train was running extremely slow and might have been having some problems.
The photo says “battling” up Donner, ONE locomotive wouldn’t constitute “battling” unless there are 4 more pushers at the end.
After two weeks of no sun and only clouds, today was a brighter day and the stacks were running.
This is an eastbound stack train today.
I don’t normally wait for # 5 but it showed up today at Newcastle and the sun was good for a winter’s day.
Nice shots CZ, that picture of #5 at Newcastle is great.
Here’s one from Newcastle on Sept. 27th 2009
Cajon_92
I saw a long stack yesterday that had a lot of head end power and then one DPU about 10 cars or so from the end. It was almost like it was an extra that tagged onto the back of another to help push. It was westbound on track 1 around noon or so. The only other traffic I see anymore are autoracks. I work right next to track 1 in Auburn. The autoracks seem to use track 1 going both ways. I am so use to hearing nothing but dynamics, its kind of cool to hear the roar of a train under-power going eastbound.
Thanks for all the pics. I am hoping to get some up too.
Dave
Great picture on the Newcastle curve. This curve normally has great light conditions and is a good spot to catch downhill trains after lunch.
The pictures are always much better in great sunlight and a few clouds.
CZ