Some photos of my railfanning around the East Bay 2015

[Itsed65]

Thanks for all the comments guys I will definitely have more coming now that the weather is turning nice. Here are a few more from the weekend...


This pair has been working the local switching for the last week or so...this was taken of all places from the Pinole Senior center parking lot. They were getting ready to back into the UPS loading facility in Richmond.

Keeping brush clear in Franklin canyon

I should have got out of the truck and stood up. I didn't see those branches in my viewfinder!

I caught the Sunday light power move at Crockett.

Some fisherman trying their luck as the Geeps slow for a red.

Holding at the red for Amtrak

Panning practice as said Amtrak blasted by

Lastly from this afternoon...I thought I was going to have the perfect shot, so of course they stopped, got out, threw the switch and backed away from me! This is heavily cropped, which is where the full frame camera comes in handy!

 

[-chet]

Great collection.

I bet that KCS is a rare unit around there.

Where is the "dirty dirt" coming from?

Are those Enkies or BBS two-piece?

 

[Itsed65]

Great collection.


I bet that KCS is a rare unit around there.


Where is the "dirty dirt" coming from?


Are those Enkies or BBS two-piece?

Thanks! Yeah I have never seen a KCS loco out this far west before. The "dirty" dirt comes from clean up of contaminated building sites in San Francisco as far as I know.

The wheels are 18X8 BBS knock-offs from Tire Rack

 

[Abilene Ks Railfan]

Nice shots! Nice to see the GP60M, haven't seen one in a year or so

 

[Itsed65]

Not the east bay, but I was in the south bay (also known these days as Silicon Valley) this weekend for a model train show at the very historic Santa Clara Depot (est 1863) and caught a couple of Caltrains on the way to and from San Francisco.

Southbound

Downtown San Jose is visible on this sunny afternoon while the train waits for the green

Barley caught this Baby Bullet as it rocketed through the platform area (it doesn't stop at Santa Clara)

I stopped off in Franklin canyon on the way home and caught a light power move on the way back to Stockton

We don't often get clouds like this out here

My fave

 

[Bill Anderson]

Nice shots. What are the light power moves?

 

[Itsed65]

Nice shots. What are the light power moves?

Well I don't know about the BNSF, but for the UP, every Sunday all the road switchers working the Martinez yard and refineries couple together and make a run to the Oakland yard for a couple of hours for what I assume is servicing and then return to Martinez. It's usually 5 or 6 Geeps of varying vintage.

For the BNSF, I think they were just shifting some heavy power back to Stockton that wasn't needed at the Richmond end of the line, but that is purely speculation.

One more from this last Saturday. Not the best, but I kind of like the focus on the signal.

 

[Itsed65]

Just as I was biting into my first Jack in the Box taco, the UPS train came blasting around the corner in Franklin Canyon. I wasn't even set up yet but managed to get a few...

 

[Bill Anderson]

Those are nice "grab" shots. I lived in Sacramento for a number of years, so I know all about that nice green grass turning "gold" by the end of the month.

 

[Itsed65]

I lived in Sacramento for a number of years, so I know all about that nice green grass turning "gold" by the end of the month.

Yup, it is already starting to turn, even though it rained here today. Yesterday started out cloudy in the morning...

Six Geeps running light, and long hood forward, which is rare for the UP around here, toward Oakland.

Slightly different view

Heading away

Capital Corridor pulling into the station

Old timey wig-wag signal in Point Richmond California

Light power coming back in the afternoon minus one Geep. That is Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County across the bay.

It was a beautiful afternoon along the bay

Corridor heading toward Oakland

And here comes the Zephyr

There it goes

I would have stayed longer until I saw a four foot snake slither by withing three feet of where I shooting. I will wait for the chest high grass to be mowed before I hit this spot again.

 

[Abilene Ks Railfan]

Nice catches!! I hate snakes too, the only good snake, is a DEAD one!

 

[jkinzel]

Nice pictures, as usual.
Snakes are good, they have a place in the food chain, they keep the rodents in check, but I really don’t like hanging out with them.

 

[Itsed65]

Nice pictures, as usual.
Snakes are good, they have a place in the food chain, they keep the rodents in check, but I really don’t like hanging out with them.

Yeah they are fine in the wild, but I was a good 10 feet into the grass, and being in a wheelchair, I can't exaclty make a quick escape. The guy I saw was just a gopher snake, but I didn't want to wait and see if any of his rattler buddies (of which we have PLENTY in these parts) were around, especially as now is the time for rattler babies, which are especially dangersous.

We caught this guy in our garage last summer trying to escape the heat of the day...King snake. He was about 6 feet! We put him in the yard as they have been known to eat rattlers (among other things).

 

[jkinzel]

So happens our Capt. is into shooting snakes with a camera and quite knowledgeable when it comes to venoms snakes. He said that a bull/gopher/king snake is good to have around, but I still don’t want to see them when I’m out taking pictures.

He is not into trains, but was impressed with your pictures, even the one of the snake. He will get within arm’s reach of a rattle snake to take pictures of them and he has some great stuff. Nope, no, no, no, no way, not me. Don’t even like guarder snakes in the garden at home, but I tolerate them because they eat bugs.

 

[Itsed65]

Well, no snakes this last Thursday, but I caught the UPS train in Franklin canyon again. I know these are similar to the ones I already posted, so I won't post any more after this set, but it was such a nice day I thought the clouds made a nice background to this train.

Then 20 minutes later, 5 running light came by the opposite direction. Since the last time I posted, I found out that these are heading to Antioch for a northbound steel train.

Thanks for looking. I went to Roseville today and took about 300 pics at the UP yard. It will take me a while to process all these as I am also cooking for an Easter/Passover dinner tomorrow, and I will be busy with that all day, but I will get some good ones (I hope) up soon.

 

[Itsed65]

So I spent the day up Sacramento way this past Saturday, and what would a trip up that way be withough stopping at Roseville for some train watching? It was cloudy and a bit drizzly, but for this place that is actually a good thing becuase the sun can play havoc with the angles I can get from the Amtrak station and small viewing platform in Old Town Roseville. So other than the washed out sky, I think I got some pretty good shots.


I belive this is the Jordan Spreader from Chris's photos that recently had a collision with a GP-38.

UP 9703 (Dash 9-44CW) sits forlornly at the Locomotive Maintenance facility.

I watched them running this ES44AC in and out of the shop for a bit, check out the switch points! They got it so close, they had to back it up so the guy could get the points to move before continuing foward.

Trying to sneak a peak inside the shop from the Amtrak platform. This is using my EF70-200mm f/2.8L with a 1.4 teleconverter. Still takes a pretty sharp image. It looks a tad fakey becuase I really boosted the shadows to see the loco backing into the bay.

Another of the locomotive maintenance area. GP-38 566 is the one making all the smoke as they were just firing it up.

After I came back from lunch, 5395 was outside the shop and sitting there cold

I have lots more if there is any interest. I'm trying not to flood the thread with similar pictures

 

[Abilene Ks Railfan]

Nice ones!!! I like the small wings logo on the 566

 

[Itsed65]

More from my day at Roseville

They were running this big string of mixed engines up and down the yard when I got there

This shot of a short string of containers being backed up was taken through the dirty windshield of my van. I thought it came out pretty well.

A couple of remote control units doing some grunt work

A very dirty GE leading a manifest off the pass into the yard

Nice to see there is still a car around with my favorite railroads original markings. GO WP!!!

Crew change time on an eastbound intermodal

Finally, of course it would be way cooler to see these in action on the pass, here are a couple of old SP rotary snow plows.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Itsed65]

Last bit from Roseville, and next I will have some different stuff.

They used the wye to turn this trio around, I'm guessing to align the Calfornia Northern Genset it a certain way.

This pair was parked right by the road conviniently

Bit of a pano shot of the stacker stopped for a crew change

Lastly, I couldn't resist taking a picture of this bunny rabbit, hopping accross the yard

 

[jkinzel]

As always, another set of amazing photos, and the rabbit picture is great. Thank you for sharing.