Coxy's N Scale and Railroad Blog

Key to shortline operations is interchange of freightcars with larger railroads. The Richmond Pacific RR interchanges with the following lines:

• Union Pacific at Stege
• BNSF at 23rd Street Yard and Safeway siding

The RPRC also interchanges on a much more restricted basis with

• The Chevron Refinery railroad (WRSI) near the Richmond Parkway
• Sims Metals at Sims Jct (this one is a stretch, but operationally it functions as an interchange)

These interchanges breath life into the Richmond Pacific. Each day the interchange railroads set out cars for collection by the RPRC. Likewise, each day, the RPRC sets out cars to be returned/delivered to the other railroad at the designated location. On average, the number of cars exchanged in and out tend to balance as far as each connecting railroad is concerned. Cars arrive at the RPRC, are delivered to the destination industry and are returned to the road that exchanged the car for the return journey. The rough numbers of cars are as follows based on my observations:

• BNSF ~20 cars/day
• UP ~20 cars/day
• WRSI - not sure, probably about 10-15
• Sims Metal - not sure, probably about 10-20 cars a month

To the best of my knowledge, cars do not arrive from the UP and get returned to the BNSF or vice versa. There are of course many instances where cars arrive from the larger railroad and are then exchanged with the smaller connection such as the WRSI.

Interchange Schedules and Volume

The interchange schedules tend to stay the same for an extended period, especially for interchanges with the larger railroads. This allows both railroads to plan their operations such that interchange tracks are cleared when they are full and filled when they are empty. (The reverse tends to cause headaches for the railroads or interest for the railfan, depending on your perspective!).  Interchange with the smaller entities will be more driven by demand. The RPRC swaps cars with its larger connections 5-6 days a week.

So looking at the numbers above, the RPRC probably exchanges up to about 40 cars a day, at least five days a week. In other words up to about 200 cars a week or I would estimate around 8,000 - 10,000 cars a year.

BNSF Interchange

The BNSF interchange has found it’s way into lots of previous posts, so I won’t rehash the details here. More recently though, it is worth noting that BNSF has changed it’s interchange routine.

The BNSF Richmond Terminal has recently received a half dozen environmentally friendly and fuel-conservative genset switchers. These functional, but rather unattractive, units are quickly supplanting older four axle units employed in local service such as GP30’s, GP35’s, GP50’s and even GP60Ms, many of the second generation units still operating in the attractive blue and yellow scheme. Mark my words here, get your pics of the older units while you can!!!

Lately, we are seeing the BNSF Oakland Local do some collection from Safeway siding on it’s return trip but the local is now operating much later in the day, leaving Richmond around 4:00pm and returning from Oakland around midnight. The RPRC-BNSF interchange is now also being picked up in the evening by a single genset unit that makes the short trip from the BNSF Richmond Terminal over to BNSF Jct on the RPRC and often brings cars to be interchanged to the RPRC. The cars for the RPRC are shoved into which ever 23^rd Street yard track has been designated by the RPRC and cars to be collected by the BNSF are simply pulled from Safeway siding by the genset unit which then heads back to the BNSF Richmond Terminal. I suspect that the BNSF Richmond switcher collects the RPRC cars when it  has time or the Oakland train is running late.

As the BNSF interchange is now happening later in the evening, I have no photos, but I often see the activity as I’m coming home in the evening and the gates go down on Marina Bay Parkway. (Yahoo!)

Here’s a brief clip of the BNSF genset unit coming over from Richmond on the Siberia Lead to do a collection in the daytime. At the time, I was running an errand to Longs and I grabbed the clip for reference purposes so the video and sound quality are less than usual, but better than nothing.

The BNSF Siberia Lead is separated from the RPRC 23^rd Street Yard by ‘All Aboard’ self storage. The BNSF Siberia Lead threads its way along the far side of Meeker Ave then veers right at the self storage buildings and runs behind a group of office buildings before joining the RPRC tracks near Marina Bay Parkway.

Union Pacific’s MAORV/MRVOA

Interchange with the Union Pacific all takes place over near I-580 at Stege. The Union Pacific train MRVOA (Manifest Roseville to Oakland) arrives in Stege around 5:30am on weekdays and shoves cars for the Richmond Pacific north up the Waterside drill track and leaves the cut of cars just north of the switch leading to the wye tracks. The RPRC collects these cars around 9:00am and begins sorting the cars according to destination using the wye and a siding located there.

The same crew shoves the daily cut of cars for the UP south along the Waterside drill track toward CP Stege. The RPRC crew obtains permission from the UP dispatcher who gives the RPRC crew a signal to move through the interlocking on the Waterside Track in order to place the cars for the UP near Central Avenue. The cars are spotted about a hundred yards back from the signal bridge. This allows a power set to move from the interlocking plant fully onto the Waterside track before making a joint with the waiting cars.

Around 6:00am the next morning, the UP MOARV train (Manifest Oakland to Roseville) shows up from Oakland and collects the waiting interchange cut at Central Ave before continuing on to Roseville. I have frequently seen this train backed fully onto the Waterside track south of the interlocking plant and clear of both busy mains waiting for a gap in the action.

When I am out on the walking trails not far from Stege Jct early in the morning, about half the time I see one or other of the UP trains dropping off or collecting cars.

UP Schedules

It is worth noting that for several years, the routine for the UP was also different. The MOARV used to collect cars from Central Ave in the evening around 8:00pm and continue on to Roseville without much fuss. Both mains are less busy at that time of day. The counterpart MRVOA would drop cars on the Waterside drill track near Stege Wye between 12:00am and 3:00am and continue on to Oakland. Same deal, not much mainline traffic to hold it up.

It is not apparent to me why the UP changed schedules though there were likely reasons behind the decision. What is interesting to me is that the MOARV is often backed completely onto the Waterside track with the entire train spread  around the curve at Albany as I pass it on my way to work around 7:45 and on occasion, I have seen it as late as 9:00am. The MOARV is now a lot more vulnerable to the heavier morning traffic on this line and has to wait it’s turn. When this happens, the RPRC has to wait it’s turn too. Good for railfans, bad for rail crews.

MOARV marking time

On Saturday, I saw the MOARV arrive in the morning and it was still there later in the day, perhaps delayed by trackwork or traffic further along the line. I shot these clips of the train from my car at around 4:00pm.

There’s no place to stand, due to the proximity of the tracks to the freeway, so tracking shots like this are pretty much all that’s available.

Here’s the full train. Note the autoracks which are almost always in this train lately. The rear 2/3 of the cars are the setouts from the Richmond Pacific starting from the first black tank car in the consist. This clip serves as an example of the typical makeup of this train at this time.

The cars are not delivered to the UP in any particular order. In fact, the train will be humped at Roseville, so any ordering of cars by the RPRC would be a waste of time.

Both interchanges provide plenty of action and interaction with the two class I’s in this area. There are not so many cars coming on and off the property that it would be difficult to simulate in model form. I have often seen a particular car on the UP setout point on my way to work, say a loaded centerbeam flatcar with lumber for Channel Lumber on Cutting Blvd in Richmond. Later, as I arrive home, I see the same car now waiting in the 23^rd Street yard along with several other cars for the evening switch job. That evenining, as we are coming back from Point Richmond, I see the evening RPRC crew working the lead along Cutting. The loaded centerbeam is sitting at Channel Lumber and the empty is waiting on the  Cutting lead while tank cars are being switched at another industry.

The next day, the centerbeam rolls past me as I wait at the Marina Bay Parkway grade crossing on my way to work. The crew eventually shoves this car and a dozen others down the Waterside drill track to Central Avenue and that evening, as I return from work, the empty centerbeam car is there, almost fully cycled. The next morning, the UP MOARV makes the pickup. If the MOARV comes at the right time, I’ll see the empty centerbeam car from a distance on my morning walk, as it heads to Roseville and on to points north. Driving to work a little later, more often than not, I’ll see that there is another loaded centerbeam among the dozen or so cars at Stege Wye waiting to be collected by the RPRC crew.

Sounds like an operation just begging to be modeled! Dont’you think?!!

- Coxy

Sims Metals has a plant at the corner of Cutting Blvd and S. 4th street in Richmond California. The busy facility deals in scrap metals and receives all manner of scrap by road and rail. Much of what is received by the plant is sorted then loaded on ships docked in the nearby Port of Richmond. The ships are bound for Asian ports where the scrap will be made into new steel.

A couple of sidings enter the Sims plant from the Richmond Pacific track that runs around the east side of the plant. Sims uses a GE 44 Tonner, #9911 to move railcars into and out of the plant. It does this presumably for safety reasons and to avoid switching fees. Richmond Pacific locomotives are not permitted to enter the plant which may also be related to the condition of the track within the plant.

I was lucky enough to catch these guys using Sims 9911 shuffling gons of scrap into the plant on my way home last Saturday morning. Here’s the clip of the old GE 44 tonner heading back to the rail entrance of the plant.

 The RPRC drops and picks up cars for Sims on the track along Hoffman Blvd. Usually it’s gondolas but from time to time, box cars and flat cars arrive with loads for the plant. The Sims plant also ships out scrap loads from time to time.

A couple of years ago, two dead UP SD40-2’s showed up. You can see them against the fence in the lower part of the photo below. Fortunately, these have been the only locomotives heading off to meet their maker around here!

Trackage around Sims

The BNSF Siberia Lead runs between the RPRC tracks and Hoffman Blvd here and it can be seen in as the top track in the pic above and the foreground of the pic below. In the shot above, the main Sims siding lies along the line of trees and is visible below them while the RPRC track runs along on the other side of the tree line which, as can be seen from the street shots includes a fence. This track is where the RPRC leaves and collects cars for Sims.

The shot below shows Siberia Jct where there is a connection from the BNSF Siberia track to the RPRC 8th Street bypass track.

The two boxcars have been set out by the Richmond Pacific for later delivery by the RPRC to an autoparts facility on the other side of Cutting Blvd. Below is the view along the Siberia Lead as is crosses Cutting Blvd then passes under I-580. The spur to the autoparts distribution facility is just this side of the freeway seen above the track in this picture.

You can also just see the lead along Cutting Blvd that branches to the left (west) from the Siberia track just before Cutting Blvd and just this side of the Cutting Blvd grade crossing relay box.

The RPRC switches the Cutting lead in the evening and can be seen drilling tank cars for an industry and exchanging centerbeam loads for empties at Channel Lumber, both located on Cutting Blvd. The crew will also run across Cutting on the BNSF rails to reach the autoparts distribution facility and BOC gases. The distribution facility receives 86’ and other boxcars like the one on the Siberia Jct track while the BOC plant has a two track loadout for carbon dioxide and receives CO₂ tank cars.

Back To Scrap

I moved around to Hoffman Blvd to get a better view of Sims 9911 moving cars around. Here’s a couple more clips of the small unit carefully moving cars into the scrap yard. Note the slow speed the cars are moved into the yard. You can see a lot of activity in the yard behind and the crew are very careful to keep everyone safe as they position cars for unloading.

Pardon the wind noise! A lot of the industrial noise you can hear in the clip is coming from the scrap yard.

Industrial Interchange

It was fun watching this unit and it provides great inspiration for a simple interchange operation instead of just another siding into an industry. The Sims plant only has a couple of sidings which hold about 6-8 cars as well as a spot for their locomotives. For the most part, they appear to mainly use the siding that 9911 is switching. The cars on the RPRC track create a slight obstacle for operations though the RPRC can get to the rest of it’s tracks via Wright Ave.

I plan to include an industry on the RBL that has it’s own small switcher like this one thus creating an additional simple crew job or two to collect, switch and return cars to the RBL instead of an RBL crew doing all the switching.

GE 44 Tonner in N Scale?

As far as I know, there’s no N Scale offering of this unit. The Simms example looks great with those funky exhaust stacks, though I would definitely put this guy in the “ugly locomotive” bucket along side other early GE’s, the EMD BL2 and pretty much every Alco ever built! Having said that, I’d love to get one if someone makes one because it looks so different from the other units I’ll be running. I have an N Scale Magazine article describing how to scratch build on but if that is what I have to do, I’ll use an Also S-1 or something like that as a stand in.

Just in case you’re interested in modeling this unit here’s another side on shot:

And if you’re interested to see more of the Sim’s plant area, here’s the interactive Google map to of this area.  You can move the map around by dragging it and you can zoom in. Here’s the cool stuff though, if you open the larger Google map and click on “Street View” you’ll see that the Google car has been all around the Sims plant and that the street view pics show some nice street views of the plant including trucks waiting to enter the plant on 4th street.

I was only able to collect a few shots and clips before I had to continue home and the kids were waiting patiently in the car for me to be done with yet another of my detours! As always, feel free to click the “comment” link below to post your own thoughts on this or any other post on this blog. Or click the “email” link above to send me an email and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

The BNSF Stockton Sub line runs along side Giant Hwy in Richmond. The first siding east of Richmond CA is found here and is named Rheem. Trains will occasionally get track warrants as far west as Rheem and be held a mile shy of Richmond due to other movements in the yard so it is not uncommon to catch two trains here or even three if there is a light engine move in the mix.

I am interested in modeling the steel fabrication plant located about halfway along the siding. This post is in part to remind me that the plant receives both boxcars and coil steel cars. There is a sliding door on each side of the building that allows the cars to be moved through the plant for loading or unloading. The building itself is about 120 feet long (just under 10 inches for an N scale version). That means about two and a half cars fit inside the building.

On this particular day, there were five BNSF cars waiting for collection by the BNSF local. Space between the building and the cyclone wire security gate is limited and two cars were tied up outside the fence. The plant typically receives newer boxcars and a variety of coil steel cars.

I like the way the spur drops sharply down beside the siding. The main is the track on the right.

What’s on the other side of the building?

The google maps view below shows the spur branching to the left of the main line, passing through the building and making a very sharp left hand turn to a small yard parallel with the main building. I have recently seen several box cars extending around the sharp curve on the weekend when the plant is not operating and the large railroad doors are closed. I doubt that locomotives are allowed into the building so there may be a tractor to move cars around the trackage at the back. (The map below is interactive. You can zoom in further and drag the map around to look at the details. You can also switch to a map view or open a larger google map.)

A model of the plant would be easy to construct and the pass through track is appealing. I plan to locate a plant based on this prototype on my Richmond Belt Line. Here’s the plan view of the RBL section where the plant will be located. The model would be part of the fictitious but plausible Henseley Industrial Park. The prototype steel plant is located about a mile north of the area that is the basis for the industrial park, so it’s not a huge stretch to put the steel plant on the RBL instead of the BNSF.

And below is the 3D rendering. The plant is reached via a switching lead unlike the prototype which relies on BNSF access from their siding. No matter though. What I want to capture is the spur and pass through track.

I have limited space for the yard tracks on the other side of the plant so they’ll go un-modeled. It will add enough interest though, to switch cars located on the far side of the building using a handle of suitable cars such as gons, flatcars or box cars.