Coxy's N Scale and Railroad Blog

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Heading home from running errands, Mitchel and I caught the one of the RPRC's SW1200's and caboose easing into the three track yard off Wright Ave to pick up some tank cars. The caboose is used for long backup moves during switching to protect the crew on the end of the train. It's always a pleasure to see the caboose. It seems so unexpected these days. Most of the time though, they keep it close to the engine except when doing the backup move.

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To the left you can see the tank cars brought around from one of the other Richmond Pacific yards. The crew will pick up a short cut of tankers from the Wright Ave yard then back down to collect some of the cut standing in the street.

I love the street running. This little line has a lot of varitey and is very accessible.

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Tank cars sitting in Wright Ave while the other cars are collected from the yard.

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This is a pretty typical tanker seen around here. It is new, pretty clean and has the DOT reflective tape applied. This tape has been showing up pretty swiftly since the ruling. A majority of tank cars seem to have the tape now.

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This is the new Cemex facility on Wright Ave. There were no covered hoppers on the Cemex spur today. The RPRC main track runs along the right hand side of the street here. It was re-laid within the last year with concrete surrounds and guard rails ahead of the construction of the Cemex plant. Wright Ave sees a lot of truck traffic at times and the railroad does it's best to maintain a good surface for both road and rail vehicles. It is also well sign-posted for cyclists.

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Here's another nice view of RPRC 1195 coming back out of the yard with a cut of tank cars.

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Here's the extended vision caboose. A pretty sight indeed!

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Heading west along Wright Ave. That's our train-chasing mini-van to the left.

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As the cars were pulled around the curve onto the street track, they made a hell of a squeel. Mitchel and I were only a few yards from the wheels. I loved it but Mitchel thought it was a bit much. Once the squeeling died down, he was pointing out which wheels were new and which are old. They all looked rusty to me. 1195 pulled about eight cars out on this grab.

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Backing down to the rest of the train. The crewman is calling the distance over the radio. The cars made a colossal bang when the joint was made. The tank cars are empty and make a booming sound when bumped. Great fun!

The 1195 pulled back down Wright Ave and made another grab for three cars out of the yard then picked up the remaining cars on the street before heading down to the port trackage. They probably continued around the loop then switched the ITT plant on Cutting Blvd

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The 1195 headed off down Wright Ave and left this tank car here. The track is only good for about 5mph, it rises and dips about 6-12" and shows little signs of ballast.

At various times RPRC has tank cars, covered hoppers, gondolas, hoppers, reefers and boxcars in this yard. For the most part though, you'll mainly see covered hoppers and tank cars. Note also that the yard is behind fences and there is no public access.

Note the switch stand at left which is actually outside of the security gate. To the right you can see construction of some new facility.