09/20/07 Coxy & Marto's Big Railroad Adventure

This summer has been pretty busy from a non-railroading standpoint curtailing a number of modelling projects I had delusions about finishing. However, I am very pleased to find myself out on a ten-day railroading road trip with Chris Martin (Marto) who is visiting the US after a nine year hiatus. I’m in my mid forties with an active young family, so my memory can’t be relied on for much more than a day! I’ll be making the posts on the road as we travel.

Getting out of Dodge…

(09/20/07) I collected Marto at San Francisco airport after he’d been on the plane from Australia for the previous 24 hrs and we headed straight out to Roseville. On Friday morning (09/21/07), we explored the Donner Pass line a little around Rocklin. Here’s Marto in front of the Amtrak depot at Rocklin, CA near Roseville.

The double track line spits near here and does a nice over-and-under about a mile up the line. While walking up to the flyover, the Folsom local showed up with a few cars to exchange further up the line, perhaps at Auburn.

Here’s the crossing. The bridges are very model-genic. (BTW, I’ll be putting all the shots from the trip into galleries when I get time.)

Before heading south, we checked out Railroad Hobbies in Downtown Roseville to pick up the latest Altamont Press timetable. Then it was a jump accross the street to UP’s JR Davis Yard in Roseville.

Here’s a southbound BNSF manifest lead by a new GEVO we caught running along the western yard bypass track.

Mojave Desert, here we come!!

We’re both big fans of contemporary southwest railroads, so it was a no brainer to head south to the Mojave to catch the action.

On Friday, we made our way down the San Joaquin Valley to Tehachapi. We took I-99 and followed the UP line as far as Fresno and then followed the BNSF tracks through the vineyards from Fresno to Bakersfield.

We caught about half a dozen UP and BNSF freights on the way down, just enough to keep the drive interesting.

We took a quick sqiz at the Amtrak station at Modesto since Marto is working up a similar model back in Shepparton.

Gas gets cheaper the further you get away from the big refineries in the Bay Area, go figure!! We went with the minivan as our railfan vehicle of choice - tinted windows, plenty of space for gear and plenty of doors to get it in and out.

Beyond Fresno

At Fresno, we switched from following the UP to following the BNSF line south to Bakersfield. Between Fresno and Hanford, you have to criss-cross the BNSF as it cuts diagonally through the rectangular grid of rural roads surrounding all manner of crops. You can pick up Route 43 out of Hanford which runs alongside the BNSF all the way to Bakersfield.

This BNSF line appears to have seen a lot of maintenance and new track in the last year. Last time I came down this way, which was several years a ago, the line out of Fresno was single tracked.

Diamonds at Hanford

Hanford is a neat little town in the middle of pretty much nowhere. Near the Amtrak depot there is a pair of 90 degree diamonds where the San Joaquin Valley Railroad crosses the BNSF at grade. We didn’t have to wait long before the BNSF served up a northbound stack train.

It is worth the trip to Hanford just to listen to the wheels of a 60 mph train bang over the frogs.

There were some dry spells on the line. We didn’t see any trains at milepost 914.

If it’s Saturday, this must be Tehachapi!

We planned the trip to put us at Tehachapi on Saturday. I’ve sat through enough weekday work windows to know that the weekend is the time to visit the UP Mojave Sub. Here’s a taste, with more to come!

- Coxy and Marto