BNSF Manifest on Stockton Sub

BNSF’s line from Richmond to Stockton Ca. passes through picturesque Franklin Canyon, a beautiful wide canyon rimmed with rolling hills and the BNSF running along the edges to manage grades on its way out of the Bay Area. As the late-comer to the region, the Santa Fe had to forgo the grade-free route along the shores of the Carquinez Straight and San Pablo Bay already occupied by the Central Pacific (Cal-P). Instead, the Santa Fe took the next best route and built across the hills on the East Bay through Franklin Canyon to reach Richmond.

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If you are in the area, take a run along Hwy4 between I-80 and I-680. That’s Hwy 4 in the distance in the picture above.  Even if you don’t see any trains, which is possible these days as BNSF appears to be splitting its Bay Area traffic between its own Stockton Sub and UP’s Martinez Sub, it will be an enjoyable drive and the railroad viaduct at Martinez is worth the look in any case.

Hercules

At Hercules, the BNSF line exits Franklin canyon and threads its way through the suburbs passing through Pinole, North Richmond and Richmond before terminating at the BNSF Richmond Terminal.

While running some errands last week, I took a few reference shots near the I-80 overpass. Rail traffic on this line has declined relative to levels from a few years ago. The economy has cooled and the BNSF is sending intermodal trains along UP’s Cal-P line under trackage rights dating from the UP-SP merger to reach the BNSF terminal at Oakland.

I like this line and I find myself wishing for more traffic whenever I visit.  As luck would have it, a short manifest was heading west at the time of my visit.  I love the audio on this clip. The train is headed downgrade here, so the power is drifting or slightly into dynamics. The sound of the flanges and the noise of the empty cars is a treat!

This train will continue to Richmond where it will terminate. I would almost bet money that the cement cars on the rear are headed for the Richmond Pacific which will route them to the Cemex plant on Wright Ave.

Modelers Notes

Some ideas I wanted to capture about this location…

• The ballast is a mix of mostly rose and grey which strongly identifies it as BNSF track
• The scene in Franklin Canyon is one of openness despite the building that has occurred over the last several years
• There are no buildings close to the track with a good hundred feet on either side of the main, but plenty of buildings are in the are and would be best represented by flats or backdrop images
• The I-80 freeway bridge is very basic and would be easy to model, especially if the deck is just above eye level. A flat could be employed if this were the case.
• The concrete colors are quite uniform on the road overpass, there is little obvious weathering or rust streaking
• Under the freeway bridge is a nice railroad bridge which crosses Sycamore Ave

Here’s the interactive satellite view for easy reference…

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More notes…Highway and freeway bridges are almost always concrete, not asphalt as you might expect. The asphalt stops prior to the bridge. Here the freeway roadway is a darker grey than the local roads.

The ground is mostly grassed with a small number of low bushes only a few feet tall.

From December to March, this area sees some rain and by early February, there is a thin layer of new grass showing through. This gives the canyon a distinctly green appearance and sparks up pictures considerably.  Compare this to the brown dried out appearance in the google satellite view.

click for larger view

The effect could be simulated by a thin green textured layer, perhaps ground foam, or short static grass, followed by a layer of taller static grass, grey in color representing the longer dried grass.

There is a flange oiler out of sight on the other side of the line on the left side of the photo above. This could be easily modeled by a small rectangle of tape between the ties representing the mat and airbrushing with grimy black, feathering away from the oiler. Note that not much grease is on the ballast outside of the rails, mostly it is between the rails and the rails themselves are discolored black, blending to brown with distance from the grease patch.

Well, that’s all I could wring out of fifteen minutes trackside. After my time was up, I went back to have some pretty decent pizza with my family at Round Table Pizza in the shopping mall behind me. Bear it in mind if you decide to stay a while and wait for a train or two. It’s right next to the track, and there’s no better way to make a train come than to be out of position!

- Coxy