Trackside with Trains

I entered another "Trackside with Trains" reader favorites poll from Trains magazine. The theme for this installment was Trains Along the Water. I took this picture in Alviso, a small formerly unincorporated area of San Jose. It was a cool, still, March morning. The water was undisturbed except for the faint steps of a few waterfowl. Their mirrored reflections can be seen in the lower left corner of the picture. Last time I submitted a picture to "Trackside with Trains" back in March it garnered enough votes for a respectable third place showing. I'm crossing my fingers for a slightly better showing this time. I'll update and link when I hear the results.

It's been quite some time since I've been out anywhere taking pictures of trains (or anything other than grand kids). I will have to remedy that situation very soon. I need some ferroequinology paparazzo therapy. Update - 6/1/2012 Well this is rather disappointing. I didn't even make the cut. There were three reader submissions, none of which were mine. There's always the next one!

Cool Morning Sunrise

Westbound Amtrak Capitol Corridor #523
Originally uploaded by sharkzƒan

Just wanted to share a sunrise with folks because I have really been neglectful of my blog as of late. We have a grandson on the way so we've been pretty busy with baby shower preparations and just general grandparent stuff. That sounds really wierd to be speaking of myself as a grandparent! Ack!

"A Little Help From My Friends"

A picture of something not seen too often. Usually the Coast Starlight is headed by two Amtrak GE P42DC locomotives. Apparently one had some trouble. Union Pacific loaned Amtrak an EMD SD70M to possibly complete the trip to LA or to get to the next location that had available Amtrak motive power. They obviously would not want the Starlight to be stranded on their mainline interrupting their flow of freight traffic.

Amtrak Capitol Corridor

Amtrak Capitol Corridor, originally uploaded by sharkzƒan.

I took this in Alviso on a calm morning. The lack of a breeze provided a great reflective surface on the water.

Connections

Through my Flickr page I've been corresponding with folks all over the country (and the world for that matter) who have the same interest in railfanning. I was contacted by an individual who wanted to use one of my pictures for their blog. I was quite honored that they would think highly enough of it to want to display it to their readers. I gave him permission to use it. Come to find out he's a conductor for Amtrak and does the Capitol Corridor run from Sacramento to San Jose. He may very well have been on the the train in the image in my last post. I haven't heard from him confirming that, but we'll see. It seems like a consistantly smaller and smaller world as we barrel headlong into the communications and social networking era. Here's a link to his blog "Bad Iron"

I Think It's "The One"

You would only understand this term if you were an enthusiast. So this is "the one", at least until another, grander one comes along. You can also view it large on my Flickr page

Amtrak through Alviso

This shot didn't quite turn out the way I would have liked. I was trying to get a fair amount of the bridge and the reeds from the slough in the picture. However, in doing so I cropped the top of the picture just close enough to where the top of the locomotive is nearly out of the picture. It almost looks like a mistake which I guess in my book it IS! I like the early morning lighting and the soft color it lends to the picture.


This shot is from El Dorado St. near the curve where it becomes Moffat St. The roadway is about 12 feet or so below the track level so it gives an interesting perspective.


This is the end of that same train sporting cab car number 6965. On the eastbound return trip this car will be the head end of the train.


Here's another early morning shot with a nice warm hue to it. Unfortunately my digital camera is not the most up to date so in lower light situations I get some blur in the pictures. I'm hoping to remedy that siruation this coming Christmas (hint, hint).

CalTrain, Union Pacific and Amtrak

This was taken from the top of the CalTrain parking structure in Sunnyvale, CA. at 6:55 am Thursday October 4, 2007. It is about one half second exposure. Unfortunately I don't have a digital SLR to get super informative with. This is a shot looking east at the Sunnyvale Ave. crossing at Hendy Ave. In the background are buildings belonging to Westinghouse. Westinghouse currently uses the plant to manufacture steam generators, marine propulsion systems, and missile launching systems for the Department of Defense. Westinghouse purchased the original site property in 1947. Previous owners of the plant had used the property to manufacture ball mills, mine cars and hydraulic equipment in the early 1900's, and defense products such as torpedo tubes and mounts after 1940. Westinghouse also expanded the site by purchasing adjoining property in the mid-1950's from companies that manufactured heavy machinery and cable


This was an interesting picture to take. I was trying to get the time exposure but with my "basic" digital point and shoot it's difficult to get fancy. This was about a three second exposure on a southbound out of Sunnyvale at 6:45 am Thursday October 4, 2007. I actually set my camera on rail for this shot. I found a piece of scrap metal and set the camera on it to stabilize it since the rails are not a flat surface. Because of the length of the exposure, the sky appears as if it's nearly daylight. It was actually quite dark at this time and it was difficult to tell the actual frame of the picture since the display didn't register any image other than the dots of street lights and the headlights of the train.

Union Pacific number 4400 heading up a southbound load of Toyota's that just came off the assembly line at the New United Motors Manufacturing Incorporated (NUMMI) plant in Fremont, CA. Passing through the Santa Clara, CA. station bound for southern California. It's a rather bland, run-of-the-mill shot but I can give a little background on the motive power. UP 4400 is one of two hundred and thirty one SD40T-2's originally owned by Southern Pacific. These units were in service for SP from 1996 to 2001. The second locomotive UP 9229 is one of two hundred and fifty six C40-8's in service since 1987.

This is a shot of the Amtrak Capitol Corridor passing the abandoned Agnew Station in Santa Clara, CA. on Saturday September 29, 2007 at 3:04 pm on it's way to San Jose. It's being pulled by P42 DC number 164. This site has other shots of # 164. There's pictures of it from Washington state to Washington D.C. It's been around the block a time or two.

Latest Railfanning Excursion

Waiting patiently for the ACE (Altamont Commuter Express) train to cross the Alviso Slough around 7:32, I am pleasantly surprised by the Amtrak Capitol Corridor F59PHI 2010 whizzing by at 7:15, just ahead of the ACE train. Both are making their next stop at the Santa Clara-Great America station after coming from the Fremont/Niles Canyon area.

A shot of the bridge over the Alviso Slough. This was taken at 7:21 am just a few minutes after the Amtrak passed.

As I pass the time waiting, I notice that the railing running along the bridge (seen in the picture above) is a heavy cable and is secured with a sturdy support. An old piece of track is used as a support for the cable. A hole has been drilled through it and it has actually been welded to the bridge structure.

Nice to see they don't just leave all the old track laying alongside the road bed to rust away and that they actually recycle it and put it to a good use. However, just on the "other side of the tracks" there is the rusting away rails I mentioned. The shot below has a section of track that has been replaced but not removed.

My ACE train finally arrives and in trying to do some fancy schmancy shot I end up being less than prepared. Hence the cut off locomotive.

Trying to recover from my photo faux paux (pun intended), I took this trailing shot of the ACE so I didn't go away empty handed.

I then left for the San Jose Diridon train station in downtown San Jose. There were quite a few trains idling on the tracks to keep me interested. The picture below is the southbound #332 express train MPI MP36PH-3C 923 "Baby Bullit" that arrived in San Jose at 9:58 waiting for the return trip up the peninsula to San Francisco. I believe this will be the northbound express #365 which departs at 4:25 pm


The maintenance shed at the south end of the station busy with activity. This MPI MP36PH-3C 927 locomotive is having some heavy work done on it's engine from the looks of it.

Here's a better shot of the tear down. I'm not too sure of what they are actually doing but those big holes in the engine are about the size of basketballs.

This is the sister unit to MPI MP36PH-3C 927, she's MPI MP36PH-3C 928 who looks like she's getting some type of lubrication maintenance. There are barrels nearby that appear to be axle grease. The cart on the left contains jugs of fluids as well.

Below is a portable welding unit that looks ready to go into action on the EMD F40PH locomotive #918 named the County of San Mateo.



This is the Amtrak Capitol Corridor #521 being pulled by F59PHI 2010 that had surprised me earlier at the Alviso Slough when I was waiting for the ACE train to pass by. It's sitting idle waiting for it's return trip to SAC as the #532 at 12:20 pm.

This is the Amtrak Coast Starlight pulling into San Jose on track number one at 10:37am Thursday September 20, 2007. Pulled by P42DC 115.