Coxy's N Scale and Railroad Blog

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A view along the line to a small siding. A couple of spurs branch to the left from the siding. On the other side of the fence to the right is a small 3 track storage yard.

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Looking down the track toward the BNSF Siberia Lead. The branch to the right connects with the BNSF. The RPRC will often leave a small string of tank cars on the connector to the BNSF in preparation for switching the line along cutting Blvd in the evening. The line along cutting is accessed from the BNSF.

The branch to the left is part of the return loop around the Sims Metal scrap metal dealer. Sims takes a variety on interesting inbound scrap mostly in the form of loaded beat to hell gondolas. From time to time they also take old freight cars and even had a couple of UP SD40's on their way to railroad heaven. I wish I'd been quicker to try to scavenge something from them. Heres a pic from Google earth, you can just make out the two units in the lower right.

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Crossing signal on Wright Ave. This view is looking toward the BNSF's Siberia Lead. The track in the foreground connects to the Siberia Lead about 200 yards from the camera.

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Tank car loadout near Wright Ave. The spur takes one to two tank cars an is switched most days..

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For a while in early 2006, the street track along Writh Ave was torn up pending the installation of a new switch to access the spur to the bulk loader to the right of the picture.

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Various bulk loading equipment stored near Wright Ave.

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Wright Ave Grade crossing is protected by boom gates. This is the relay box for the grade crossing.

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Another view to the short siding serving the industries on the left. The line to the street branches to the right in the foreground.

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Two tank cars spotted at the XXX industry. Note the far car is actually on the curve. This is a short spur but often has two cars spotted on it.

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An example of the switches used on the RPRC. Note the flange guides on the frog and the absence of guardrails opposite the frog.

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Interesting industrial landscape with some out of service tracks near the south end of Parr Yard. This shot was taken from Harbour Way South.

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The RPRC has a small 6 track yard between Harbor Way and Marina Way called Seaver Yard. The yard usually holds tank cars and covered hopper cars. Like the yard between Marina Way and Marina Bay Parkway, there are grade crossings over the yard throat on each end. Good for railfanning, not so good for people trying to get around the area by car.

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Note the amount of water that has collected in the yard due to drainage problems. Also note that the thoroughfare track is not the outer one in the ladder.

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The switch leading to this track has guard rails whereas the others have only the guardrail frog. For slow speed trackage they seem to do an adequate job.

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A broader view of the west entrance to the yard. The gates are usually closed when the yard is not being used, though it even when the yard is not being switched, RPRC trains need to pass through here to get from the RPRC terminal at the port to the yard at Marina Bay Parkway and points beyond.

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This is actually the BNSF Siberia Lead crossing both Harbour Way South and Wright Ave. It is an unprotected crossing but for the most part, Marina Way is a pretty quiet road. The BNSF crews often throw off red flares from the lead unit to alert motorists when the crossing is blocked.

This view is looking east along the Siberia Lead. BNSF removed the small three track yard that was here this year. The BNSF used to marshall a few cars for switching the spurs that branch off the Siberia Lead. That switching is now performed by the RPRC so BNSF pulled up the rails. The switch has since been removed too and is currently sitting to the right of the track.

In the summer of 2005, I watched a BNSF switcher shuffling cars here but never took any photos. Google earth still shows the yard shown in this picture.

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This is the view west back toward the BNSF Richmond Terminal along the Siberia Lead. The track does a nice little jog before connecting to the RPRC trailing switch. From a design perspective, I looks like the switch was positioned to connect to the RPRC, then the Siberia Lead jogs bck into alignment on its way east.

Note that this BNSF track was laid with continuous welded rail about 18 months earlier to allow BNSF stack trains to continue from Richmond to the Port of Oakland where BNSF has built a new intermodal facility. I nearly fell over the first time I saw 4 BNSF Dash-9's in HII pulling a long string of stacks along this lowly trackage. It looked lost!

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A damp view from Hoffman Blvd. to the right is Simms Metals. We are looking south along the RPRC track that connects to the BNSF. This connection allows the RPRC to access spurs connected to the BNSF Siberia Lead.

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Another view of the BNSF/RPRC junction. Simple to model.

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RPRC/BNSF junction. Who says junctions need to be impressive.

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This is view west along the BNSF switching lead that runs along the south side of Cuttng Blvd. There are two industries to be switched here, ITT which branches of about a hundred yards down and Channel Lumber at the end of the lead. ITT takes plenty of tank cars and Channel Lumber gets a daily centerbeam of lumber, sometimes two that originate on the UP each night.

The RPRC switches this line around 8:30 pm weekdays. It is great to watch, the tracks are right next to the road and Cutting is not too busy here.

Take care though, this area is not the place to be standing around with camera gear and scanners. Just keep your wits about you and you'll be fine.

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This is actually the RPRC balloon track. Looking east, you can see the tarck curving to the right between the  fence and the Siberia lead. Simms is over the fence. The BNSF lead along Cutting connects back to the BNSF Siberia Lead just beyond the raised planted area.

During the day you'll see a lot of folks hanging around this corner.They arrive with shopping carts piled high with cans and other stuff they've collected and sell it to Simms. From what I can tell, most of their earnings get spent across Cutting at the liquor store and consumed here. It's not a rough crowd, at the same time, it's never seemed prudent to be running around with camera gear here. Fortunately, trains are usually here after hours when people have drifted away.

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This is a new bulk storage and loader. It is served by rail and trucks. I haven't watched it in operation but I assume the material comes in railcars and is fed to the storage bin. Trucks take the material away.

I think it is for loading crushed limestone. There are typically several small 2-bay covered hoppers spotted here so what ever they load it is heavy.