My recollection regarding Binney Junction is that on a WB WP freight leaving Oroville (downhill, a little) with, typically, three F units and only 4500 hp, we'd get a pretty good roll on the train only to see the home signal there red. Since SP controlled it, we often had to wait what seemed like an inordinate amount of time for the signal to clear (and usually with no SP traffic in the way), thus losing some of our momentum, though I don't recall actually having to stop there very often.