Re: E9A & B on the "San Joaquin" May 1974
Author: Dr Zarkoff
Date: 01-17-2009 - 01:49
>> I've never
>> heard the term "Shell Siding" (worked there on and
>> off 1974-1987).
>I've sent an email to one of the switchmen who'd know, and will post his answer.
Actually the memory came back early this morning that it was called the Tower only at the west end, and I forget what it was called at the east end, other than "Peyton".
>> During this time, there was no
>> siding at Avon either.
>The longest track, next to the main, was called the siding, but as at Ozol, it wasn't designated as such.
My 1938 West Div timetable shows Avon as a 62 car siding, Ozol as "119 [cars] center", and Peyton as nothing at mp 36.8. However, this precedes the era we're discussing. As of late as mid-1985 the sidings listed for the Cal-P were Pinole (E and W) Ozol, Bahia, Elmira, Dixon, and Davis (E and W). All were center sidings (SP symbol "M") except Pinole and Davis. By this time Avon was no longer a siding and Peyton had disappeared altogether. The Avon corral track went away around c1982 in a [loaded] propane car derailment.
> (By the way, is his kid still working for Amtrak?)
Yes.
>> Not much more than half a mile because MP 36 is
>> directly underneath the freeway overpass. Peyton
>> is approximately MP 36.75, and "W/E" Avon is MP
>> 38.1 "Mococo" was listed as being at MP 36, but
>> the spring switch was really nearer 35.8.
>I've asked the local MOP to see if he can extract the mile post locations of the west and east switches from a track chart. Stay tuned.
Well, you can go out there and look also. MP 36 is under the freeway overpass, the old one not the new one, on the Marina Vista side of the tracks (probably obscured from the road by one of the concrete pillars). The Mococo road crossing was moved about 200 feet west when the new power switch was put in. Roadmaster charts from the late 1980s show the spring switch at approximately 35.8.
>"The track on the waterside is now the Main track.
Yes, the former Tower is now the main track.
>The track on the land side (south side) is the storage track 1072.
Don't ya just love the Borg? "I'm going to get in my car, drive [west] across the Bay Bridge to 94100". Or, "UP Dispatcher 262, 68179". No more Bankers, Eppinger's, Eppinger's Siding, Life Saver, nor Vallejo Junction. We can't get authority to pass a red eastbound control signal at "Hercules"; it has to be "CP RV 021". How sterile and antiseptic. They can't even pronounce Rodeo correctly.
The name for the new crossover at Bahia is going to be "Marsh". How imaginative, why not "Goodyear" for the slough? (not to mention that it was a former name for Bahia)