Some photos of my railfanning around the East Bay 2014

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Thanks guys. More to come soon I hope. Too much work, too little time to chase birds and trains :rolleyes:
 
I was out in the Central Valley and combined a bird sighting trip with some train watching, as there is usually pretty good action for BNSF out this way.

I think this is an ore train? Anyway, it was holding on the siding near Escalon and you can just make out the Amtrak San Joaquin (in push mode) passing it full speed heading for Bakersfield.
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Amtrak coming through by lennycarl08, on Flickr

A different view
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Waiting at Escalon by lennycarl08, on Flickr


20140104-AO6A3525 by lennycarl08, on Flickr

The other side of Escalon (in between Escalon and Riverbank)was a mixed freight idling on a different siding.
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Mixed freight idling south of Escalon by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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BSNF 4358 at Escalon Ca by lennycarl08, on Flickr

I waited a while to see if anything else came by, but it was lunchtime, so back to Escalon and Taco Bell, then back to the other side of town toward Stockton where I caught another manifest going full speed south.
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BNSF fast freight crossing Arthur road at Escalon Ca by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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BNSF 5351 plus 4 speeding toward Escalon by lennycarl08, on Flickr

Heading home, I pulled off on a small road right at the end of the Stockton yard and caught an intermodal heading out with some CP help.
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Leaving Stockton with CP assist by lennycarl08, on Flickr


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Powering up out of Stockton by lennycarl08, on Flickr

The light and air quality that day were abysmal, so I tried a few different ways of processing a couple of the shots.
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Escalon Ca by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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Sidelined by lennycarl08, on Flickr

Back in my neck of the woods, as far as UP goes, they are doing major track work on the old Cal P, so other than Amtrak, I haven't seen much freight traffic at all. They may be doing it at night. Hopefully it will pick up soon.
 
Train #1 is a ballast train; the discharge chutes and solar panels on the sides of the ballast hoppers are a pretty good clue.
 
Back closer to home, traffic on the Stockton sub seems to have picked up lately.

I caught a mixed freight with some UP guest help at #2 crossing Hwy 4 at Collier

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BNSF 5369 crossing Hwy 4 at Hercules Ca by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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BNSF GE and UP EMD on the Stockton Sub by lennycarl08, on Flickr

And its always fun to see a big freight head right through the downtown park
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Rolling through the park by lennycarl08, on Flickr

I caught the San Joaquin with one of the new(old) car sets and cabbage car.
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New San Joaquin coaches and cabbage car passing Point Pinole by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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Amtrak California Cabbage Car by lennycarl08, on Flickr

I purchased the new Tamron super zoom last week. 150-600mm. Mainly for birds and wildlife, but up near the Sacramento NWR I pressed it into service to capture the California Northern "Corning Flyer"
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California Northern502 heading toward Willows Ca along old 99w by lennycarl08, on Flickr

The lens works pretty well on critters too!
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Tamron test 20 by lennycarl08, on Flickr

This was near Maxwell California
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The Corning Flyer by lennycarl08, on Flickr

And right near my home, they are construction a new "Transit Center" in Hercules. There will eventually be a Capital Corridor stop here when it is complete.
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Dash 8 running by the future Hercules Amtrak station by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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Capital Corridor crawling thorugh a work zone in Hercules by lennycarl08, on Flickr

For now though, they are slowly nicely for ongoing track work that make it easy to get some interesting shots.
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Driving the Corridor by lennycarl08, on Flickr

More to come as always…
 
Nice shots. Are you able to handhold the 150-600 zoom?

Thanks Bil. Yes it's light enough to handhold as long as you remember that at 600mm you really need to keep the shutter sped up there. It's no match for the big whites, but it is one tenth of the price.
 
Warbonnets have been pretty common on the Stockton sub

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Out of the tunnel by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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Sunday Z by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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Z train in thirsty terrain by lennycarl08, on Flickr

Mt. Tamalpais in the background
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Crossing Over 4 by lennycarl08, on Flickr

Continuing with the Santa Fe heritage on this line, the old geeps making a run out to the carbon plant in the canyon

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Outbound local with 2 old ATSF geeps by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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Heading to the Carbon Plant by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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Local heading east in the canyon by lennycarl08, on Flickr

This time the in the lead spot
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Out of the haze by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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Empty autoracks heading east by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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BNSF 746 by lennycarl08, on Flickr

Orange engines are a challenge in black and white. This train was about half covered hoppers and half tanks.

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BNSF 6985 monochrome in the canyon by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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Motive Power by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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BNSF 6895 Westbound toward Christie by lennycarl08, on Flickr

Some railfans far younger than myself were very excited about the KCS unit on the Saturday UPS Z
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Railfans by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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KCS Sandwich by lennycarl08, on Flickr

Getting ready to spot the UPS cars at North Bay
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Saturday UPS delivery to North Bay by lennycarl08, on Flickr

Done and heading for the barn about 3 miles down the track at the Richmond yard.
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BNSF 4088 heading to the barn by lennycarl08, on Flickr

There just hasn't been that much UP freight traffic during daylight lately as trackwork continues on the Martinez sub.
 
Your photos illustrate quite dramatically the drought that has California in its grip. They look like they were taken in July instead of February.
 
I don't have time for a big post, but I have to share this consist I caught on a easttbound double stack last Sunday. It was a very fun day for train watching in Franklin Canyon, as there were 5 westbound trains and this east bound, which after entering the siding at collier had to wait for over 3 hours for the next 4 westbounds to clear. I will have more pics once I catch up.

3 Warbonnets, a Citirail and a CP unit that has seen better days. We don't usually get such interesting motive power on the Stockton Sub. The first shot was shot with my5D3 and new Tamron 150-600mm, although it's actually at 302mm according to the exif:

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Warbonnet entering Collier by lennycarl08, on Flickr

Switching to my 7D with the Sigma 18-240 for a wide angle shot. I love the hand painted "CP" on number 4:
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No Oragne Allowed by lennycarl08, on Flickr
 
Nice shots. I have found the 5DIII/telephoto zoom + 7D/wide angle zoom is a very convenient combo to carry where you may be photographing both birds and trains.
 
Nice shots. I have found the 5DIII/telephoto zoom + 7D/wide angle zoom is a very convenient combo to carry where you may be photographing both birds and trains.

Thanks Bill. Yes, I try to keep the whole focal range with me, without having to change lenses. I would rather use my 5d2 and 5d3, but this great little Sigma, the 18-250 is an EF-S lens. The closest equivalent full frame lens is a monster Canon 28-300L, that has too much overlap with several other lenses I have. For trains, the APS-c and Siggy are a good enought combo, as long as I keep it stopped down to about f8.
 
Catching up on some older ones…You can see the effects of the drought in the first pics, and then a couple of weeks ago, we did get one good soaking rain, which really didn't dent the drought much, but has at least turned the hills a bit green.

This one took the siding and was slowing to a halt, so I figured that a westbound was approaching
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Power Portrait by lennycarl08, on Flickr

I was right
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Eastbound stack at Sycarmore Ave by lennycarl08, on Flickr

Even though I was chasing the setting sun, I headed out to Christie
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Eastoubnd stack at Christie by lennycarl08, on Flickr

The shadows can make a nice ffect if you catch them right
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Heat Waves by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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Eastbound stack approaching tunnel 3 by lennycarl08, on Flickr

Finally we got a small dose of rain!
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Back to Ozal by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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Work Horses of the Martinez Sub by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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Union Pacific in the Neighborhood by lennycarl08, on Flickr

Running light to pick up a train in Antioch
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BNSF 4022 at the defect detector by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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Heritage in the canyon by lennycarl08, on Flickr

Every Sunday sees an empty vehicle train.
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Tilt-shift look for vehicle train in Franklin Canyon by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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East bound by lennycarl08, on Flickr

Wow, I had more than I thought, so I will end with shots of my first sighting of Citirail units here in the bay area.
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Citirail assist passing the farm by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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Westbound and wet by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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BNSF 5681 plus Citirail in Franklin Canyon by lennycarl08, on Flickr

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CREX 1302 at Collier by lennycarl08, on Flickr
 




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