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Re: E9A & B on the "San Joaquin" May 1974
Author: OPRRMS
Date: 01-15-2009 - 06:53
Dr Zarkoff Wrote:
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> I have to disagree with you on the location. It's
> only about 1/2 mile east of Mococo, midway to
> Peyton (where the County Spur took off), that
> curve with the road bridge. Avon is about 1 1/2
> mile further East, and that track in the bacground
> is the Tower, a storage track for tank cars going
> to Shell and so named for the interlocking tower
> built along with the Martinez Bridge for the
> proposed connection to the Danville branch. I was
> torn down in the early 1960s when the freeway
> overpass in the bacground (at Mococo) was built.
My memory may be a little hazy (given that my tenure in that neck of the woods was back in '72 to '76, unless one also includes my brief Amtrak period in '87), but it appears to me that Drew has parked along the highway and has walked over to the right-of-way just west of the east siding switch - it would be behind his right shoulder a little bit. Number 710 will pass over the switch, then curve to the left through the Peyton cut and cross more marshland. It'll then cross an inactive drawbridge, the east switch for the Avon siding being just beyond that on the right, with the Avon depot on the left. Port Chicago was 3.2 miles east of Avon at M.P. 40.5 (although the west siding switch where the train will head in was considerably west of that).
I'd always heard the crews, yardmasters and clerks refer to the track running parallel to the main on the other side of the train as being called the "Shell Siding." You say it's the "Tower Siding?" Tank cars are visible on it in the distance. The west switch (the location of an unusual head-on collision) was just east of the crossing that was east of the spring switch at Mococo. The mast for the "P" signal appears to be just barely visible.
Under the 680 overpass was the switch for the lead going into the Mococo yard, to the left of the main.
Given the distance between the train and the overpass, which was at least a quarter-mile east of the spring switch, the train must be more than a half-mile east of Mococo, wouldn't you say?
Looking at a SP Western Division timetable from 1987, the Martinez depot was located at M.P. 34.7. Double Track ended 1.3 miles east at Mococo, M.P. 36. Avon was 2.1 miles east of Mococo at M.P. 38.1. Payton, of course, isn't listed, but it must've been at least M.P. 37, wasn't it?
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> I have to disagree with you on the location. It's
> only about 1/2 mile east of Mococo, midway to
> Peyton (where the County Spur took off), that
> curve with the road bridge. Avon is about 1 1/2
> mile further East, and that track in the bacground
> is the Tower, a storage track for tank cars going
> to Shell and so named for the interlocking tower
> built along with the Martinez Bridge for the
> proposed connection to the Danville branch. I was
> torn down in the early 1960s when the freeway
> overpass in the bacground (at Mococo) was built.
My memory may be a little hazy (given that my tenure in that neck of the woods was back in '72 to '76, unless one also includes my brief Amtrak period in '87), but it appears to me that Drew has parked along the highway and has walked over to the right-of-way just west of the east siding switch - it would be behind his right shoulder a little bit. Number 710 will pass over the switch, then curve to the left through the Peyton cut and cross more marshland. It'll then cross an inactive drawbridge, the east switch for the Avon siding being just beyond that on the right, with the Avon depot on the left. Port Chicago was 3.2 miles east of Avon at M.P. 40.5 (although the west siding switch where the train will head in was considerably west of that).
I'd always heard the crews, yardmasters and clerks refer to the track running parallel to the main on the other side of the train as being called the "Shell Siding." You say it's the "Tower Siding?" Tank cars are visible on it in the distance. The west switch (the location of an unusual head-on collision) was just east of the crossing that was east of the spring switch at Mococo. The mast for the "P" signal appears to be just barely visible.
Under the 680 overpass was the switch for the lead going into the Mococo yard, to the left of the main.
Given the distance between the train and the overpass, which was at least a quarter-mile east of the spring switch, the train must be more than a half-mile east of Mococo, wouldn't you say?
Looking at a SP Western Division timetable from 1987, the Martinez depot was located at M.P. 34.7. Double Track ended 1.3 miles east at Mococo, M.P. 36. Avon was 2.1 miles east of Mococo at M.P. 38.1. Payton, of course, isn't listed, but it must've been at least M.P. 37, wasn't it?
