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Two Freights over Cuesta Grade
Author: Matt C. BatrynRodriguez
Date: 02-19-2015 - 14:40

I spent five years in San Luis Obispo, CA while attending Cal Poly, and in that time I got many chances to photograph UP’s operations over Cuesta Grade between San Luis Obispo and Santa Margarita. To this day this is still one of my favorite stretches of railroad to visit and photograph. Over the long Presidents Day weekend I took a quick trip up to SLO, and was treated to a northbound freight each morning. Figured I’d share a few photos here…

Getting up early Sunday morning I found that the empty Coast Cans were lined into SLO. As the outbound crew was just going on duty as they arrived it took them a little while to depart the depot. This allowed some time for the sun to come up, and also for me to hike out to a nice photo spot. In the first shot the cans pass Chorro (one of two siding left on Cuesta Grade).

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h209/toothpickmatt/Trains/1024/UP_5898a_zpspgaponp4.jpg

Next they are seen again continuing their accent of the Santa Lucia Mountains between Chorro and Serrano.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h209/toothpickmatt/Trains/1024/UP_5898b_zpswelxc66m.jpg

Lastly they are seen going away at Serrano still working up grade.

[i65.photobucket.com]

The next morning I woke up to the horns of something heading north through SLO. I turned on the radio as I got stuff together and shortly learned that they had stalled near Goldtree, just north of the Stenner Creek Trestle. It was very foggy out, and the crew reported having issues with wet rail and the second unit losing power. Have to wonder if the flange greaser in the foreground did not help any either. The dispatcher called the SLO based helpers to assist, but it ended up taking several hours to get a crew on duty and get them moving out of SLO, so I was unable to hand around and wait for them. This train was running north from the LA area to deposit its train load of empty well cars in the siding at Soledad, CA. One kinda cool thing I did not realize until going through the photos at home was the UP 3998 was one of the 25 SD70Ms that SP bought. Kind of cool to catch her running on her home rails.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h209/toothpickmatt/Trains/1024/UP_3998_zpsrceahppg.jpg

Well that’s it for now. Hope you enjoyed, and was sure nice for me at least to catch a few freights running over Cuesta.

Take care,
~Matt C. BatrynRodriguez

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Subject Written By Date/Time (PST)
  Two Freights over Cuesta Grade Matt C. BatrynRodriguez 02-19-2015 - 14:40
  Re: Two Freights over Cuesta Grade BOB R 02-19-2015 - 15:29
  Re: Two Freights over Cuesta Grade HUTCH 7.62 02-19-2015 - 15:48
  Re: Two Freights over Cuesta Grade Margaret (SP fan) 02-19-2015 - 15:53
  Re: Two Freights over Cuesta Grade SLOCONDR 02-19-2015 - 17:44
  Re: Two Freights over Cuesta Grade Matt C. BatrynRodriguez 02-20-2015 - 14:57
  Re: Two Freights over Cuesta Grade Freericks 02-20-2015 - 10:22


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