Tracking West
New Life in Peru
Over a year ago, 49 gallery cars from Caltrain were sent out of the loud and bustling cities of the Bay Area to their temporary retirement home in the small settlement of Schellville. Over this year, these cars would unfortunately see lots of vandalism as a buyer out of Lima, Peru was deciding if they should purchase this newly retired equipment. Finally, the decision was made, but it would be awhile before the move would take place.
Preparations for the move included many parties and lots of work to fix up the equipment. While these gallery cars were stored in Schellville, there were more cars and plenty of F40PH locomotives stored near Caltrain's shops in San Jose. Weeks in advance, it was found that a lot of work needed to be done in Schellville to clean the cars and fix them as most of the cars would be bad ordered from vandals and the lack of any maintenance or use. This made the cars not fit to be moved until these problems were sorted out. After two weeks of Caltrain, UP, and the buyer fixing up the cars, they were ready to go. Now the move needed to be put in action, but SMART, the owners of Northwestern Pacific, weren't sure if the cars would be ready by the scheduled move date of June 9th. As this photo proves however, this actually did happen and at 09:00 a crew was called.
Now that the move was ready to take place, probably a dozen or more crew members and security showed up at the little yard office in Schellville to get the show on the road. A handful of railfans of course would also be lurking to see this historic move as 40 years of California railroad history was to be sent off to the ports and shipped away. At around noon, the sound of a Nathan P3 and the roar of an EMD 645 interrupted the small town's peace, the train was on the move. The train slowly crawled out of town, but after the train was out of town the small MP15DC brought the train up to a good speed. The train rocked on the old and beat up jointed rail, and made it within an hour to Lombard, where the NWP would hand it off to the California Northern. Although the plan was to get it out to the Union Pacific that day, the CFNR did not have the available power to get it over "The Hill," and would therefore have to wait until the following morning.
This morning, UP 7319 would be hooked up to the set at Napa Junction before heading to the interchange in Suisun City. After getting to Cordelia, the train would be blocked by the Hill Job and then be held up by a malfunctioning crossing. By noon the train would be at the interchange where they would wait for a UP crew to show up. At the same time, the equipment in Santa Clara is also supposed to be headed out, with both trains bound for the Port of Stockton where the equipment will be loaded onto boats.
In this picture, Northwestern Pacific 1501 brings a string of gallery cars through Brazos as the train is about to cross one of NWP's handful of drawbridges. On the other side of the bridge is where NWP will drop the cars for California Northern to take. It is likely this motor has done moves like this many times as 1501 was built as SP 2694. Under SP this unit was based out of the Bay Area until UP took over in 1996, sending it out to places such as Fort Worth and Kansas City. Eventually, UP would retire this unit and GMTX got a hold of it. NWP would end up getting this motor delivered to them, almost original to the as built look, in 2016. Since then it's been hauling freight and odd moves like this near its home territory.
New Life in Peru
Over a year ago, 49 gallery cars from Caltrain were sent out of the loud and bustling cities of the Bay Area to their temporary retirement home in the small settlement of Schellville. Over this year, these cars would unfortunately see lots of vandalism as a buyer out of Lima, Peru was deciding if they should purchase this newly retired equipment. Finally, the decision was made, but it would be awhile before the move would take place.
Preparations for the move included many parties and lots of work to fix up the equipment. While these gallery cars were stored in Schellville, there were more cars and plenty of F40PH locomotives stored near Caltrain's shops in San Jose. Weeks in advance, it was found that a lot of work needed to be done in Schellville to clean the cars and fix them as most of the cars would be bad ordered from vandals and the lack of any maintenance or use. This made the cars not fit to be moved until these problems were sorted out. After two weeks of Caltrain, UP, and the buyer fixing up the cars, they were ready to go. Now the move needed to be put in action, but SMART, the owners of Northwestern Pacific, weren't sure if the cars would be ready by the scheduled move date of June 9th. As this photo proves however, this actually did happen and at 09:00 a crew was called.
Now that the move was ready to take place, probably a dozen or more crew members and security showed up at the little yard office in Schellville to get the show on the road. A handful of railfans of course would also be lurking to see this historic move as 40 years of California railroad history was to be sent off to the ports and shipped away. At around noon, the sound of a Nathan P3 and the roar of an EMD 645 interrupted the small town's peace, the train was on the move. The train slowly crawled out of town, but after the train was out of town the small MP15DC brought the train up to a good speed. The train rocked on the old and beat up jointed rail, and made it within an hour to Lombard, where the NWP would hand it off to the California Northern. Although the plan was to get it out to the Union Pacific that day, the CFNR did not have the available power to get it over "The Hill," and would therefore have to wait until the following morning.
This morning, UP 7319 would be hooked up to the set at Napa Junction before heading to the interchange in Suisun City. After getting to Cordelia, the train would be blocked by the Hill Job and then be held up by a malfunctioning crossing. By noon the train would be at the interchange where they would wait for a UP crew to show up. At the same time, the equipment in Santa Clara is also supposed to be headed out, with both trains bound for the Port of Stockton where the equipment will be loaded onto boats.
In this picture, Northwestern Pacific 1501 brings a string of gallery cars through Brazos as the train is about to cross one of NWP's handful of drawbridges. On the other side of the bridge is where NWP will drop the cars for California Northern to take. It is likely this motor has done moves like this many times as 1501 was built as SP 2694. Under SP this unit was based out of the Bay Area until UP took over in 1996, sending it out to places such as Fort Worth and Kansas City. Eventually, UP would retire this unit and GMTX got a hold of it. NWP would end up getting this motor delivered to them, almost original to the as built look, in 2016. Since then it's been hauling freight and odd moves like this near its home territory.