Re: Answer
Author: WAF
Date: 01-23-2010 - 08:28
OPRRMS Wrote:
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> Nate Beal Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > By this time in summer 1988, the SP had stopped
> > using their tracks (under the bridge on the
> right
> > side) and had begun utilizing trackage rights
> over
> > the UP, here we see what is most likely the
> > Mission Bay turn? Any SP guys feel free to
> help.
>
> So I sent a query along to someone who'd know, and
> here's his answer:
>
> "Read all of the posts up until yours at 1952.
> Sorry, but I can't help. I don't remember SP
> attempting to bypass the Bay Area with an RV to
> (LA?) via the coast train, nor do I even remember
> a Salinas to Tracy train. However, I DO remember
> a SSF to Tracy train because I worked it regularly
> for some time (my conductor was Don Swain). We
> went over one day and back the next; on duty at
> SSF at 1:30 PM (I think) and usually (but not
> always) called at Tracy about 11:00 AM the
> following day. Always went via Warm Springs (so
> we didn't have to run around our train at SJ, plus
> there were always a lot of cars to/from WS). It
> was a fun job, though usually underpowered. I was
> stunned looking at the photo (in the post) with so
> much power; if indeed it was out of SSF, they must
> have picked up extra power at SJ for RV or
> somewhere. BTW, we stayed on the UP all the way
> to Lathrop, NOT Lyoth, and then back on SP and
> around the big wye and headed back west across the
> SJ River for Tracy. The (lack of) power, though
> second generation, usually called for two or three
> units, but frequently we only had one, causing the
> UP dispatcher to always ask us what we had, and
> what kind of speed we thought we could make, and
> even if we could actually make Altamont before he
> would let us on "his" railroad....didn't want us
> stopping, or even slowing down, his "hot" trains.
> One time we had one unit and were so slow climbing
> thru Niles Canyon he informed us we would be
> heading in at Livermore and if we didn't get more
> power, that's where we would stay. Well, we were
> trying to figure out just how we would get more
> power unless we waited until the next day's train,
> sure enough we were lined in to Livermore. But
> after an eastbound passed us, he let us
> out.....guess it was dispatcher humor. And we did
> make it over Altamont, though it wasn't very fast.
>
> Sorry, but that's about it for my memories of SP
> trains on UP over Altamont. As one poster said,
> they did run the beets that way sometimes, though
> I don't know when nor for how long."
The Tracy-Salinas train in the fall would have the Lathrop beets on the head end for the Coast beet train to Betteravia. I don't think the Tracy-Salinas train was a daily affair except in moving those beets. The Mission Bay ( or SSF) to Tracy went to San Jose and back up to Niles as mentioned.I do remember SP trying a few spring West Side beet trains via UP Altamont, but I'm sure the UP complained about it since those trains were quite heavy and underpowered as usual. By 1990, the West Side beets ran via Mococo