DSC_0451-9922-Stockton
Calrailfans at Stockton, 15 June 2019
Our June Calrailfans meet was at Stockton, which was the traditional June meet location for some years. The last couple June meets had been at a cooler location, but this year it was back to the Stockton diamonds. Not the most scenic spot in California, but a good place to watch trains with BNSF and Amtrak going east west and UP going north south, with the 2 Sacramento San Joaquins and BNSF Inside Gateway trains switching betwen UP and BNSF.
The San Joaquin Joint Powers Board, which manages the San Joaquins, had a fantasy that there are a lot of people who live in the San Joaquin Valley and commute to Sacramento. There aren't. The housing price difference between Fresno or Merced and Sacramento is not great enough to justify a long commute for many people, unlike the difference between Stockton and Silicon Valley, which fills ACE trains. The result of this fantasy was a change to the San Joaquin schedule with the early morning Sacramento train being a northbound Fresno-Sac "commuter train", instead of a Sac-Bakersfield run.
After a year of running the Fresno commuter run empty, the San Joaquins have reverted to their older schedule and I was able to take 702 to Stockton for this meet. We had 4 cars, pushed by F59 2008 and a pretty good crowd for an 0626 departure. We pulled out of the station and promptly stopped with the PTC alarm going off and HEP dying. The engineer went back to the engine (eastbound trains run in push mode) and restarted it...meantime a late running #11 arrived.
The rest of the trip was uneventful. I walked from the Stockton SP/Amtrak/ACE station to the diamonds shooting the remains of the WP depot, burned in a wino fire, 702 rolling onto the BNSF and a bar sign along the way.
I was only at the diamonds until 701 was due, as I had plans with the family for the rest of the day, but BNSF and UP gave us a good show of trains while I was there.
The trip north on 701 was on time with no malfunctions. I shot some cars at the Siemens rail equipment factory sin south Sacramento from 701
DSC_0451-9922-Stockton
Calrailfans at Stockton, 15 June 2019
Our June Calrailfans meet was at Stockton, which was the traditional June meet location for some years. The last couple June meets had been at a cooler location, but this year it was back to the Stockton diamonds. Not the most scenic spot in California, but a good place to watch trains with BNSF and Amtrak going east west and UP going north south, with the 2 Sacramento San Joaquins and BNSF Inside Gateway trains switching betwen UP and BNSF.
The San Joaquin Joint Powers Board, which manages the San Joaquins, had a fantasy that there are a lot of people who live in the San Joaquin Valley and commute to Sacramento. There aren't. The housing price difference between Fresno or Merced and Sacramento is not great enough to justify a long commute for many people, unlike the difference between Stockton and Silicon Valley, which fills ACE trains. The result of this fantasy was a change to the San Joaquin schedule with the early morning Sacramento train being a northbound Fresno-Sac "commuter train", instead of a Sac-Bakersfield run.
After a year of running the Fresno commuter run empty, the San Joaquins have reverted to their older schedule and I was able to take 702 to Stockton for this meet. We had 4 cars, pushed by F59 2008 and a pretty good crowd for an 0626 departure. We pulled out of the station and promptly stopped with the PTC alarm going off and HEP dying. The engineer went back to the engine (eastbound trains run in push mode) and restarted it...meantime a late running #11 arrived.
The rest of the trip was uneventful. I walked from the Stockton SP/Amtrak/ACE station to the diamonds shooting the remains of the WP depot, burned in a wino fire, 702 rolling onto the BNSF and a bar sign along the way.
I was only at the diamonds until 701 was due, as I had plans with the family for the rest of the day, but BNSF and UP gave us a good show of trains while I was there.
The trip north on 701 was on time with no malfunctions. I shot some cars at the Siemens rail equipment factory sin south Sacramento from 701