Coxy's N Scale and Railroad Blog

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We went out before breakfast this morning and found the Saturday morning-shift crew hard at work near Sims Metal Scrap facility. The sun is not up high enough to fully light the train but the 1268 and the caboose still look great this morning.

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While we were waiting for the next move, the crew met with the Superintendent to review details of the morning's work. To our surprise and gratitude, the RPRC Superintendent, John Cockle, generously offered for Mitchel and I to join them for a run to the south end of Parr Yard where some cars needed to be switched. I can't tell you how pleased we were to hear this!!!

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Here's Mitchel in the doorway of the cab of the RPRC #1268, a 1200hp EMD SW1200.

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John kindly offered to take a picture of Mitchel and I on the porch of the switcher. A good thing too, since I could hardly believe our good fortune and neither would our family without the pics!

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We headed south down track 301 across Wright Ave. Mitchel is in the box seat! I'm sure the gates, lights and bells were all going but I only remember the excitement of being underway!

Parr Yard is ahead on the right on the other side of the fence. To the left are a few industries that mainly deal in products shipped by tank car.

Note the new grade crossing surrounds. The RPRC is very proactive in taking good care of equipment particularly parts of the railroad that interface with adjoining property.

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This is Felice. He is the engineer of the 1268 this morning. Felice took great care handling his train over the line. Most of the trackage on the Richmond Pacific is 5mph.

Felice helped Mitchel sound the horn and bell which was a big deal to young Mitch! I have to say the horn and bell sound great when your on the ground, but they sound a whole lot better from the cab of the locomotive!

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The view over the hood of the SW1200. Most of the train is obscured by the caboose. The caboose is functioning as a buffer car in accordance with RPRC rules. At least one car must be placed between the locomotive and any hazardous loads, but preferably five or more. The caboose can be used as a buffer car, provided it is unoccupied.

That's our train-chasing minivan parked to the right.

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Hard hats are required in certain locations on the RPRC. Lanterns are needed for night operation. Orange safety vests are required to be worn by switchmen at all times. The RPRC takes safety very seriously and its crews do too.

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Various dials and gauges for the SW1200.

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I'm a track hound so I took plenty of shots of the turnouts along the way. We are about to cross the switch to the LRT Lead which runs along Wright Ave. Like many of the switches in this area, it does not have guard rails, instead there are raised lips on the outside of the frog to keep wheels moving in along the correct routing. This design is intended for slow speed use.

Having said that, the diverging route does have a guard rail for the tight curve that extends all the way around onto Wright Ave.

I did notice that the BNSF has installed a few switches like this in the new BNSF Port of Oakland terminal. Those switches spend most of their time handling big thrid gen units and intermodal cars so the design is not limited to light track.

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Passing the lead to Cal Oils.

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I like the light behind Mitchel on this one. He is having a blast. We are still easing our way south along track 301 with a bunch of tank cars trailing beind the caboose.

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A view down track 305 in the Cal Oils facility through the engineers side window.

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Tank car UTLX 70341 is sitting on track 303 also inside the Cal Oils plant.

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We're approaching the south throat of Parr Yard. On the left is track 303 with another tank car, our line curves around to the left towards Seaver Yard on the other side of Harbour Way. On the far side of John's white car is the Parr Yard throat and beyond is the water of Richmond Inner Harbor

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The view back along our train through the Fireman's side window. A crew member will cut our train on the trailing end of the caboose and leave the train on the 301. We'll pull forward then back down into Parr Yard to shuffle some covered hopper cars.

This photo shows a glimpse of the EMD's bell located beyond the stack on the hood.

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Another view forward with the RPRC switchman on the porch getting ready to tend to the train.

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Here's a closer view of the guard rail frog. You can see how the frog is a separate unit from the point and frog rails on the turnout.

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Some nice dockside detail at the Port of Richmond.

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Our train is set out behind us as we head forward to clear the Parr Yard south switch.

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1268's cab end 'glad hand' in the thin Northern California winter sun.

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Who needs Photoshop to highlight things when you can use the sun! The rails in the distance are not used and the connecting switch has been removed. The glint from the sun makes the ties and rails stand out where the turnout was replaced.

About a hundred yards futher on, the RPRC track crosses Harbour Way South to reach Seaver Yard.

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RPRC crewman stands by to line us into Parr Yard for the reversing move. Oops, sorry for cutting your head off in the picture, mate!

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Here we are pulled down past the entrance to Parr Yard. Ahead is the Harbour Way grade crossing and Seaver Yard which has a couple of stub ended tracks on the left and about four through tracks on the right.

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We are now shoving into Parr Yard. Our train of tank cars is on 301 track with track 306 curving away to the right. Note the red and white Hazmat placards on the tank car requiring the use of the buffer car (our caboose). Also, modelers note that other than some light weathering and spillage, the tank cars are pretty clean.

The white tanks in the background belong to an Ethanol plant.

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Another view of our train.

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Mitchel paying close attention to our shove into the yard through the fireman's side window. Ahead are the four cars to be picked up and one car to be switched out of the way.

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This pretty much sums up how we both feel at this point!

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There is our string of tank cars on the right. Ahead on the left side of the fence is the covered hopper to be switched out of the way of the four cars to be collected.

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Easing down to make our pickup on track 123. The crewman is standing by to make the connection with the caboose. Note the tight clearance on the right hand side due to the fence.

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The RPRC transloads bauxite from time to time. The orange colored material is loaded into rail cars for shipment to aluminium manufacturers.

Track 121 is somewhat truncated at this end. I don't know if it is removed permanently or will be relaid at a later date.

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We're closing in on our pickup. The closest crewmember on the ground is counting off distance and Felice, our engineer makes a textbook joint. The crew are very economical with communications. They each know who is doing what and each is thinking ahead to the next move to get the job done. The crewmember further away has released the couplers on the other end of the car we are grabbing.

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Joint made. Air being pumped and tested.

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Looking south out of Parr Yard.

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The switch to track 121.

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Mitchel watching over Felice's shoulder as we head into track 123 to collect the four car pickup.

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A great morning got even better when John suggested we check out the caboose. Here we are heading down to have a look.

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Just beautiful!

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Mitchel and John getting the caboose door unlocked.

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Caboose porch view of the next car. Freight cars are big! About 160 times bigger than mine!

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The caboose interior. Like the other RPRC equipment, pretty clean and well maintained. The crew can shelter from the weather in here during breaks and have a micrwave set up to heat up snacks.

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Inside view of the cupola. Abundant railings are provided for the crew's safety. There are seats on both sides of the cupola.

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Junior conductor Mitchel inspecting the train from the cupola.

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John and Mitchel in the cupola. John gave us a great overview of the Richmond Pacific's operations while we were up here.

As we were talking, the crew pulled our caboose and the hopper out of 123 and placed the hopper on track 122 then we came back for the four cars to pickup on 123. The hopper on 122 was then switched back onto 123.

That's the rest of our train outside the window on the other side of the fence.

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The couplers of our caboose and the adjoining hopper.

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We are rolling here. Just watching the massive wheels trundling down the rails was a sight. Just watching and listening to the wheels it was very evident how heavy everything is in a full size railroad. What struck me was how hard this is to replicate in model form.

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This was the end of our trip. John, Mitchel and I stepped off the caboose and the crew collected the tank cars left on 301. Mitch and I had to get to swimming so John kindly drove us back to our car.

This was a hugely enjoyable experience for both Mitchel and me. We really want to thank John for his generosity this morning and we also want to thank the crew of the 1268 for allowing us to ride with them. The Richmond Pacific is a great little railroad, starting with its people. Thanks guys!