Center For Railroad Photography and Art announces 2008 winners

For those that are unaware, the CRPA announced the 2008 photo contest winners. The theme this year was 'sense of place'. I have to say the 1st place winner definately deserved to win. His first and last shots are stunning.

http://www.railphoto-art.org/award_2008/

I actually was one of the winners this year. You can view my images in the bronze section.

The Madera Flyer!

I had gotten an email from a buddy of mine working out of Roseville that UP recently repainted a caboose that was to be used specifically for the "Madera Flyer". I had never heard of this local before which makes sense because it works out of Fresno, CA. After shooting a couple of emails back and forth, it definately sounded of interest so my friend Mikey and myself decided to spend a day out in the Valley chasing this local. 

The local runs out of Fresno (MP 200) every weekday on duty around 7am. The train works at Madera (MP 183), Notarb (MP 178), Chowchilla (MP 170), Merced (MP 151) and Atwater (MP 143). The latter two on tuesdays and thursdays only. The day we went was on a Thursday and they worked at Notarb and Madera in that order. The cool thing about the local is their work at Madera is done on a 3 mile branch line which requires a long shove to some industries. UP recently refurbished a former Mopac caboose specifically for this job and it was placed into service very recently. After witnessing the shove and seeing the amount of roads that need to be crossed, I know why UP made the decision to tack a caboose on the tail of the train. 

The caboose ( UP 25833) is painted yellow (suprise, suprise) and says "Madera Flyer" on the bay window part of the car. The steps are painted silver and the outer edges of the wheels look polished so it gives it the look of having white wall tires. There's headlights on each end and a bell and Nathan K3 horn mounted on top. Also to note are the names of the four people that refurbished the car on the side ( John Maxwell, Eloy Salinas, Mike Martinez, and John Buberniak, dated February 2008 ).

Mikey and I left the Bay Area at about 5:30am and arrived Fresno at 9. After looking for the train for a good thirty minutes and not being able to spot it or the caboose in the yard, I was about ready to give up. Mikey decided it would be good to stick around for a bit longer, so we did. Of course he made the right decision because the train started to talk to the yardmaster five minutes later about getting permission to depart. Up to this point we hadn't seen the caboose in person, we'd just heard about it, so I was very impressed ( and glad to see it ) when I saw it at the end of the train. After holding for one freight train it was time to go.

Highball!

On the approach to Notarb

After working at Notarb, the shove to Madera begins

 

"Can you believe it?!? I get paid to do this!"

The Madera Flyer rolls slowly onto the branchline. The trip is about 3 miles to the local industries. 

Work begins

Kickin' cars

Rail

Off to the next business

On the return to Fresno

One Last Night At Ozol

Located in Martinez, CA on the UP's Martinez Subdivision (aka "Cal-P"), Ozol is a former Southern Pacific rail yard used mainly for local industries around the Bay Area. There are several different locals, switch jobs, and two heavier mainline freights that work the yard each day. The yard itself is only a mile or two long and a couple of tracks wide. 

The reason I decided to make this post is because Ozol is one of those places on the railroad that still seems somewhat untouched by the yellow borg and was once one of my favorite spots to take night shots at. The atmosphere was very chill. I never felt uncomfortable taking photos there at all and I'd be able to do my photography without being hassled by the "raildick" or any UP employee. 

Daily, UP ran an Oakland to Roseville manifest (MOARV, they also ran an MRVOA) that worked Ozol yard each night. The train would usually be brought out to 34th st in Oakland by a robot, power would be added later into the day, and the train would usually depart anywhere from 7pm to 10pm. It was always nice because there would usually be some foamer out and about that would call and inform one of us of any special power in the consist for that day. If there was we were guaranteed shots if we drove the 20 miles to Martinez where the train worked at Ozol yard.

One really neat thing about Ozol is that it had the neatest yard office that immediately screamed SP the second you saw it. I heard that the yard office itself used to be at Port Costa when the ferry operations were still alive but after that died down, the building was taken apart and put into a gondola and rebuilt where it stood at Ozol yard. Although the building was of SP heritage and looked very cool, it was also very old. The building had to have been at least 60 or 70 years old when UP decided that it was time for something new. Ive heard several stories about the place. Whenever a heavy train would pass through, the entire building would shake vigorously. During heavy rain seasons sometimes the building would flood and mice would climb onto whatever solid object they could find floating on the floor to stay alive. It was in bad shape. In 2007 UP brought in a portable building that makes ones eyes sore compared to the SP office that was eventually torn down on March 26th, 2008. Several of us knew that the building wouldn't last very much longer through inside sources so a couple of us went there 3 or 4 nights in a row, including the last night it stood. 

I haven't been back to Ozol since March 26th, 2008 but I think its safe to say that the place isn't the same with that office gone.

Ozol Yard Office

MOARV

Heritage

Ozol becomes alive after sunset

The Crockett Rocket

Changes

test - first post

Figured I'd start a blog to post some trip reports and photos onto, sounds like fun. It also feels like Im starting to slip from the hobby so hopefully this will get me back into it...

Once I figure out how to use this blog better hopefully I will be able to make a post every week or two.

This is just a test with an image

UP 6936 just after sunrise leading a UP Wimmer (engineering) special on the approach to the Benicia bridge in Martinez, CA. Trailing the power are former SP business cars Stanford and Sunset. In a several week period, this train traveled over a lot of the Union Pacific system. One of the main reasons for the trip was for managers to view the progress made where there was a large landslide that shut down one of the main lines in and out of the Pacific Northwest.