UP 686 Switches South Oakland Indsutries 11/30/07 - Update

(This is an update to an earlier post following the UP686.)

After I left for the office, Al Bayer stayed on to take some more pics of the South Oakland Job . Here’s Al’s pictures and comments on the action…

The crew shoved the cars all the way from Con Agra to the siding track right near the I-880 freeway with the conductor riding the grab iron all the way and watching the car traffic.

Once at the siding track, the engine was cut off the back end of the train and ran around the cars to the front side. I’m still not sure why they did all this, as they could have hooked onto the front of the cars to start with, and just pulled them up the line.

After the engine was cut in on the head end, the engine was revved up in neutral to pump up the air in the cars. After sufficient air pressure was obtained the conductor climbed aboard and the local was off to the Oakland yard.

On a funny note, as the train slowly rolled by I noticed that they had accidentally left the air valve open on the end of the cars where the engine was originally hooked up. Air was bleeding out of the hose which would have been putting quite a drag on the compressor.

I also did not notice a flag on the knuckle as it went by but I may have missed it as I’m sure that the crew placed one seeing how professionally they had performed the rest of the move.

Al shoots regularly around the Bay Area and California. You can see more of his pictures at his Webshots site. You can also email Al.

Thanks for the update Al.

Coxy