The Napa Valley Wine Train

My wife and I were in northern California recently. I was there for a conference in San Francisco and we decided to have a little vacation and see the redwoods. We went north to Eureka and spent a few days touring. The redwoods are amazing and so are the coastlines. Eureka is the northern end of the defunct North Coast Railroad and there are several Geeps rusting away in Eureka. I think the closest engine was a GP7 and the rest are GP9s.


We spent a few days in and around Eureka and then headed down to Napa. I wanted to see the ex CN FPA4s on the Napa Valley Wine Train. As it happens, we caught up to the Wine Train as it was heading back to Napa. It does not go very fast so we were able to leapfrog it a few times.


I tried to include the surrounding scenery with the Wine Train.


Fortunately there were quite a few vineyards. NVRR 71 and 70 were the power.


I took one video of the train going by.

We left off the chase after that, as I didn't want to subject my wife to any more railfanning while on vacation. :)

I did go visit the shops later that evening to see the other engines. I stored the photos here in a gallery and recorded some information about the Wine Train on my web site.

Union Pacific videos from California

I've put videos of the two Union Pacific freight trains I saw in California on YouTube.

Here's the small one, UP 361 at Castroville:


The other train had 26 beat-up freight cars with UP 5342, 5355 and 5447.


Those were both from my last day of California railfanning.

I see someone else shot a UP freight in Castroville, though at a level crossing:

Last day of California Railfanning

On my way north from Monterey to San Francisco, I did a little train-watching (of course). The big surprise of the day happened right away, as I saw a UP wayfreight heading the same way I was. I got ahead of him and taped him going under an overpass, with UP 361 leading 10 cars.

Flush with excitement, I continued on my way to highway 101 and headed north, hoping to intercept Amtrak's Coast Starlight before it went to Salinas. Their web site said it was 1 hour 23 minutes late so I figured I had a shot. I exited at a place called Bloomfield Road and parked near the tracks. As I was setting up my tripod, a southbound UP freight approached! I hurriedly set up the tripod, turned the video camera on, and took some snaps. UP 5342, 5355 and 5447 led a motley group of 26 freight cars by.


I waited and waited for the Coast Starlight, but it didn't show. Amtrak's web site kept saying the same thing, 1 hour 23 minutes late, so I decided to check their arrival in Los Angeles. 23 minutes late. I guess that meant it had run ahead of the UP freight. Oh well.

I headed north to NASA's Ames Research Center and spent an hour in their visitor center. I saw this commuter train there.


I then went to Cal-Train's Mountain View station. I was to meet a friend there at 17:12 so I had about an hour to watch trains until she arrived. Here are a few photos.



The two of us met a couple more friends and we had Mexican food followed by gelato, a very pleasant way to spend an evening. I left there and went to the San Francisco airport, taking the AirTrain to the correct building and flying overnight. Now I'm in the Toronto airport waiting for my plane to board. Once I arrive in Fredericton, I'll have a few hours before heading north to railfan the Gaspe for the weekend. Busy times.

The Coast Starlight

I decided I wanted to see the northbound Amtrak Coast Starlight Monday evening as it approached Salinas. It was due into Salinas at 18:36, and the Amtrak web site said it was 20 minutes late, so I left Monterey at 18:00, figuring I had lots of time. I ended up here just to the southwest of Salinas at 18:30. I set up the tripod and waited...



I checked the Amtrak web site with my phone a few more times. The delay had lengthened to just over an hour, then 1 hour 46 minutes! The sun was setting quickly and I figured I was going to run out of light before the stupid train showed up. I hopped in the van and headed south down the 101 to try to catch it sooner.

Without a scanner, I didn't want to overshoot, so I stopped here, just south of Gonzalez. The sun finally dipped below a hill, and less than 5 minutes later the Coast Starlight showed up with AMTK 115 and another engine leading 12 cars.


You can see there was some light, but not enough:


I was a little annoyed that the sun went down. If it was just a few minutes earlier the light would have been beautiful. Oh well. At least I saw the train. :)

Day 1 in California

I'm in California for a few days, so naturally I've made an attempt to see a few trains. My first day was yesterday (Sunday August 5), and I spent a few hours at or near Bayshore Station near South San Francisco watching Cal-Train.

2007/08/05 13:12, Location: San Francisco
-- (Train #432) : JPBX 903 (5 cars)

2007/08/05 13:24, Location: San Francisco
-- (Train #431) : JPBX 924 (5 cars)


2007/08/05 13:31, Location: San Francisco
-- Running light: JPBX 504, JPBX 500
I was surprised by these two.



2007/08/05 14:08, Location: San Francisco
-- (Train #434) : JPBX 924 (5 cars)


2007/08/05 14:35, Location: San Francisco
-- (Train #433) : JPBX 909 (5 cars)


2007/08/05 15:10, Location: San Francisco
-- Running light past South San Francisco station: JPBX 500, JPBX 504

2007/08/05 15:18, Location: San Francisco
-- Off at South San Francisco: UP 1386, UP 1530, UP 589, UP 2579, UP 1351
-- (Train #436) : JPBX 919 (5 cars)