Brand-New B-Boats at Beaumont – Part 2
Continued from below: Brand-New B-Boats at Beaumont
Railfan ethical dilemma: you’re an hour late for work and you’re 30 miles away from your job but you encountered a train with brand-new power that you’d like to chase.
What would you do? My choice was to chase the train, of course! Your job will still be there (hopefully), but you get one chance at the train.
So I take off east to get ahead of the LAMFF. For reasons that I don’t recall, I wasn’t able to set up another shot until Cabazon, some 16 miles east of my last shot.
SSW 8043 with the LAMFF at Cabazon, CA on Aug. 5, 1988
By this point the sun had gotten a bit high, so maybe one more shot and off to work I would go.
The LAMFF through Mons CA on Aug. 5, 1988
The track curved enough to where the sun favored the engineer’s side of the train. My car is on the other side of the track, so I was stuck until the train passed by. That’s wasn’t an issue, as this would be my last shot and I wasn’t in any particular hurry. I was only finally going to work….
P.S. – I just realized why I was so nonchalant about going to work. My move back to Texas was about a week after these photos, so I had already given notice. What were they going to do to me?
Losing a Coin Toss…
There have been day-long MOW curfews in my neck of the woods, UP’s Glidden Sub SA012 to SA036. Once the curfews expire, I’ll turn on the VX-170 to see if something might be shootable.
Sometimes the DS will make mention of fleets, EB or WB, depending on traffic. Sometimes there’s a bit less running, so there’s less info from the radio.
Case in point: this afternoon I hear the DS give KCSM 4730 two unforseens in my area, and then radio silence.
There’s not a lot to work with there. All I knew is that this train would go by me. Eastbound or westbound, that’s the question.
If it’s WB, I can get some really nice light on a KCSM Belle. If it’s EB, well, I’d rather not think about it. There’s only one way to find out.
I grabbed the camera and headed to the big curve near the US 59 overpass. I scoped out a nice WB shot, and waited.
You don’t need Paul Harvey to tell you the rest of the story.
I hear a horn behind me. I turn to see the KCSM coming out of the west. Since I had no shot planned for an EB, I almost blew it off. At the last second I change focus points on the camera and bang off a few frames just for the heck of it.
KCSM 4730 and 4731 are EB at MP SA021 (Sugar Land, TX) with a KCS manifest on Jan. 22, 2010.
So I gambled and lost the coin toss. Had it been a WB, I’d have one more shot with nice light, just like so many others that I’ve taken here.
By choosing to shoot “the wrong way”, I ended up with a unique shot that nicely captures the nice contrast between the freight cars and the nose of the 4730.
What do you think?
Brand-New B-Boats at Beaumont
SoCal railfans pretty much have it made, even though I didn’t appreciate it enough when I lived there. One of the neatest things is the ability to easily chase EB trains up the mountain passes as they leave the LA Basin. You bide your time until you find something chase-worthy. Then it’s on!
It was a typical hazy day in Southern California on Aug. 5, 1988. I was driving to work in San Bernardino about 7:30 in the morning. My route took me via I-10, which conveniently took me along SP’s West Colton Yard. Most days there wasn’t anything notable on the main, but this morning was the exception.
Factory-fresh SSW B40-8’s 8043 / 8041 / 8042 / 8040 had just started pulling the LAMFF. The LAMFF was SP’s hottest EB train. It was the eastward equivalent of the MBSMFF.
Brand-new power, decent light – the perfect railfan set-up. Just one problem – I was on my way to work. What to do?
Duh! Chase the train! In short order, I found a pay phone in Redlands, told my boss that I had an emergency (It was true!) and would be a little late.
I was behind the LAMFF as I got on San Timoteo Canyon Blvd. Even though the train was battling the nearly 2% grade, the 4.0 HP/Ton ratio assigned this shooter allowed it to make a steady 40 mph.
I finally was able to get ahead of the train at Hinda, MP 557, a mere 21 miles after I saw it at West Colton.
The LAMFF is in run 8 at Hinda, CA on Aug. 5, 1988
Brand-new power putting out this amount of smoke indicates the engineer has the throttle wide-open. Notice the thick SoCal “air” in the background.
A quartet of brand-new Cotton Belt B40-8's approach Beaumont, CA on Aug. 5, 1988
As the train approached the top of the hill, the engineer throttled back to transition to dynamics. This allowed me to get ahead of the train easily for a shot at the first of two big curves on the approach to Beaumont, CA.
By this point I’m more than an hour late for work, and I’m a good 30 miles away from San Bernardino. But I’m chasing a good-looking train, the haze is behind me and I have plenty of film.
What to do???
To be continued…….
SP Rosenberg Local with a GP30
One of the things I heard early on as a railroad photographer was ” Don’t shoot when the sun is high”. I said that I heard that, not that I had learned it. So I took a lot of photos with less than ideal light. I’ll admit it.
SP GP30 shoving into the west siding, Rosenberg, Texas on June 24, 1981.
It’s a couple of days past the first day of summer, it’s early afternoon, and the track runs through here east to west. The light doesn’t get much worse. According to the rules, I should never have taken the camera out of my bag.
Truthfully, I’m glad I did, otherwise I wouldn’t have captured this view of SP GP30 5013 shoving a cut into the east end of the west siding in Rosenberg, Texas. (The SP at Rosenberg had 2 sidings until roughly the early 1990’s, when the east siding was pulled up.) The SP rostered but 8 GP30’s, all of which were off the roster by 1986.
In Yo Face at Mo City – Pic of the Day
BNSF 7765 and 4 more GE's are EB at Missouri City, Texas on May 8, 2007
Everytime I take a shot like this, I have no idea if I’ll be able to focus properly on the fast approaching train.
Even if the shot doesn’t work out the way I planned, there’s nothing like the adrenaline rush when my photographic quarry blows by me at 50 mph…
Unexpected Encounter with Miss Katy
I suspect virtually anyone reading this needs no introduction to UP’s Heritage locomotives. Just in case, UP’s website has a good page about these engines.
In any event, I’ve never had real good luck catching these engines on the road. The only time I was able to catch the Katy Heritage unit, SD70ACe 1988, stopped and in good light was Aug. 25, 2007. It had gone to Strang the day before and was slated to leave Strang on a QSRLI (Quality Strang, TX – Livonia, LA) train early Aug. 25th.
As I had a wedding ceremony to cover early that afternoon, I figured there was no way I could get the 1988 on this particular visit to the Houston area.
As I’m driving to the wedding reception about 5:30 P.M., I had to pass over the Strang sub. As I glanced eastward, I spotted something in the distance that seemed, well, a little too red for your average UP engine.
Long story short, the 1988 was waiting just short of the Central Ave. grade crossing, the normal parking spot for trains waiting for a light at Manchester Jct.
It was really socked in to the west, but opportunities like this are rare, so I spent about 20 minutes waiting for the sun to work its way out. The light was still a bit hazy, but what can you really do?
UP 1988 holds the QSRLI at Central Ave. in Houston, TX on Aug. 25, 2007
UP 1988 under threatening skies in Houston, TX on Aug. 25, 2007
I just know that the crew aboard this train had to be wondering “what is this guy, dressed in a tie on a hot and humid day, doing taking pictures of our train?”
As I was taking “just a few more”, the DS called the UP 1988 to advise that he was ready for them at Manchester. I quickly re-located to the Manchester Ave. grade crossing for a nice shot of the train going by the open lawn at Peiser Park.
UP 1988 pulling the QSRLI past Peiser Park in Houston, TX on Aug. 25, 2007
All in all, not too bad an encounter with Miss Katy, considering I wasn’t expecting anything.
Mexico Bound Manifest – Pic of the Day
I’m starting a new category that will allow me to post an image, typically an action shot, for which there might not be a narrative. There’s no fixed time frame for this shot, so it could be current, it could be vintage.
Presenting (drum roll….) the premiere edition of the Pic of the Day.
KCS 697 Rosenberg, TX 9/14/2007
KCS 697 and 2 other SD40-2’s have an IJALZJ (Intermodal Jackson, MS to Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico) at track speed just west of Rosenberg, TX on 9/14/2007. It sure looks like a manifest train, but bringing up the rear were a couple of well cars with some 48′ and 53′ containers.
Baby Boats Live On…
There aren’t too many 4 axle GE’s left on U.S. Class 1’s, even less with the venerable “pug nose” that characterized GE locomotives from the U28B to the B36-7, a span of nearly 20 years.
The UP has retired hundreds of these “Baby Boats” in the last few years. Most were scrapped, but 70 of these ex SP/MP B23-7’s and B30-7’s have been given a new lease on life as control units for remote control yard switch operations. Called CCRCL’s by the UP, they are numbered UPY 105 to UPY 174. These units are used to permit RC operation of non-RC locomotives.
UPY 128, ex UP B30-7A 254, nee MP 4854 at Houston, TX on 6/10/2006
UPY 150, ex SP B30-7 7865 at Houston, TX on 6/11/2006
UPY 150 at Houston,Texas on 6/11/2006
The above image shows UPY 150 doing its thing, providing remote control of 2 non-RC GP38-2’s as they shove hard against a long cut into the top end of Settegast Yard on June 11, 2006.
Empty Auto Racks into Houston
CSXT 4774 crossing Greens Bayou in Houston, Texas on Jan. 20, 2008
We’re on the East side of Houston, specifically CP LF 353 on UP’s Lafayette Sub. CSXT SD70MAC 4774 crosses Greens Bayou as it brings empty auto rack train ADYBVR-18 the last few miles of its run to Englewood Yard. This train originated in Dayton, about 40 miles east of Houston, and will terminate at Brownsville, TX. The train will interchange to KCSM at Matamoros, Mexico for the move to assembly plants in the interior of Mexico.
CSXT 4774 at Tower 87 interlocking in Houston, Texas on Jan. 20, 2008
CSXT 4774 has stopped its train just east of Tower 87 to allow traffic ahead to clear up. The date is January 20, 2008 and the impact of the “Great Recession” is apparent in the background. The line of 25 stored locomotives, one of many around the system, awaits an uncertain future.
3 of a Kind on the Katy
By the time the MKT was acquired by the UP in 1988, the Katy operated unit trains hauling a diverse group of commodities: coal, grain, and aggregate. But 1975 was a different story. Powder River basin coal hadn’t begun flowing into the Katy’s service area and the construction boom in Texas wouldn’t begin until the early 1980’s.
Grain, however, was another story. The Katy’s Kansas City to Houston main line was ideally suited to move solid trains of Midwest grain to the export terminals at the Ports of Houston and Galveston.
MKT 181 at Fort Worth, Texas on Aug. 3, 1975
It’s a scorching hot August 3, 1975 in Fort Worth. Three matched GP40’s, led by the 181, patiently wait for their turn to proceed through the Tower 55 interlocking. The outbound crew here will take the train to Bellmead (Waco, TX). By this date, it was uncommon to catch a matched set of 3 units in the handsome Barriger red as the Katy had begun re-painting its locomotives into the “John Deere” yellow and green scheme 4 years prior.
Extreme Cab Hops on the SP
A cab hop was the railroad term for light power with a caboose. They were a common occurrence for U.S. railroads during the caboose era. The Southern Pacific was no exception. Where the SP stood out was the extreme examples of the cab hop genre they could produce.
SP SW1500 at Englewood Yard, Houston, Texas on Nov. 13, 1988
Our first example is a more diminutive version, with SW1500 2644 with SSW caboose 55 in tow at the west end of SP’s Englewood Yard. The caboose era on U.S. railroads is quickly nearing its end by the time this photograph was taken on Nov. 13, 1988.
SP U28B 7025, Taylor Yard, Los Angeles, CA in May 1977.
The other extreme of what a cab hop could look like is illustrated above with SP U28B 7025 along with 6 other road units departing SP’s Taylor Yard in Los Angeles in May of 1977. What make this cab hop extreme isn’t so much the number of units as much as the locomotive models pulling the caboose: U28B / U50 / GP35 / DD35 / U25B / U25B / DD35. Only one other railroad could assemble this collection of power – the UP, but I doubt they ever assembled a lash-up like this.
Extreme lash-ups like the second example were fairly common in the LA basin during the mid to late 1970. The SP dedicated most of its oddball power for the numerous LA Basin haulers (Hauler was the SP slang term for its transfers in Southern California.)
Southwest Rails 