21 seconds by the track
Saturday, July 7, 2007 at 3:43PM About an hour ago on my way home, I saw a crew member from this pair of light units lining the switch for the Siberia Lead at the Marina Bay Parkway grade crossing. As I zipped over the crossing, the lights and bells came to life and I took a brief railfan detour to grab a few shots from the side road near the crossing.
We see a fair number of NS and CSX units travelling to and from Oakland. This beat up NS unit of Conrail heritage is more rare these days. I like the faded paint, dust/grime and rust marks on the unit. it has a lot of character.
The grime on the blue paint looks like the thin black washes used to weather models. The trailing BNSF unit is characteristically newer and cleaner. I really like the flared radiators on the modern GE units. Note the reflective yellow stripes on the side sill of the BNSF unit. Note also the older style trucks on the GE unit. I wonder if Kato trucks from C30’s are interchangeable with Dash 8’s and 9’s?
BNSF 4414 is looking pretty nice today.
Off they go. Rockin’ slowly along past Safeway Siding toward the Stege Wye and on to Oakland on the UP.
Twenty-one seconds, and I was back in the mighty minivan heading for home. Always have a camera, you never know what you’ll see.
Have a good one!
- Coxy
