Dan’s Train Blog

The Northwestern Pacific Railroad was an amalgamation of some 60 different railroad companies and was the result of a business agreement between the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific railroads to jointly own and run one railroad through a rugged and sparsely populated region of northern California. The NWP’s 300 mile route ended up full of sharp curves, bridges, tunnels, and short steep grades.

Despite the railroad’s diverse beginnings the motive power roster was remarkably simple in the 1920’s and 4-4-0 and 4-6-0 locomotives provided nearly all mainline power. The only trend through this period is as 4-4-0’s built in the 1880’s wore out they were retired while 4-6-0’s were purchased and maintained.

The chart below shows the numbers of different engine types in this period. Note that the NWP had five 0-6-0 switchers and five Moguls (2-6-0) in this period so their lines overlap.

Averaged over the 1920s, here is a pie chart of the different engine types. Americans and Ten-wheelers clearly dominate.

On my NWP I plan on having lots of 4-4-0s and 4-6-0s but I’ll also have a 2-10-0 or two (surely those cheap Russian decapods would have been attractive?), some 2-8-0s and one small 2-8-2.

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This nice Ford road-rail truck caught while the driver was picking up his lunch in Point Richmond, California.

The track of the truck’s wheels always looks narrow on these road-railers since they need to match standard gauge tracks.

Previous road-rail truck posts:

More Hy Rail trucks

Neat BNSF HY Rail Truck

I try to go for a walk every day at lunch and I usually climb this big hill behind the office where I work. From the top of this hill I can look down on a mini-yard which is dedicated to loading and unloading auto racks with automobiles imported from Asia and other parts of the US.

This whole area of Point Richmond used to be Sante Fe trackage. BNSF now handles the moves in and out of this yard. I’m not sure if BNSF owns the yard or if it is owned by an import agency of some kind. However, the office buildings seem to have BNSF logos so this all may be owned by the railroad.

As I can see it, cars are unloaded from ships docked at piers about a half mile south of this yard (out of sight to the right in the photos) and held for a short time in a large secure parking lot. They are then driven to this yard and either loaded onto auto carrier cars or onto trucks.

In addition, some cars arrive by rail from other parts of the US to this yard and are unloaded and then loaded onto trucks for more local delivery. Lots of traffic in and out. The cars move by being driven on their own wheels on/off ships, on/off the rail cars, and on/off trucks. There is an office where the teams of drivers work from and a bunch of vans to return drivers from their short trips between the various areas of the yard.

Here’s a Google Earth satellite shot of the yard.

Link to a Google Earth KMZ file to this location

I made this sketch to show schematically how the yard is laid out.

Main rail entry is gauarded by a hefty bar gate, cyclone fence gate and a small watchtower. A yard full of new cars is pretty valuable!

There’s a RIP track (Repair In Place) along the east side of the yard (the far side in these photos) where you can often find auto carriers jacked up getting minor repairs. There are several small tool sheds and a rack of welding gas and supplies nearby to support this. There are also lots of spare wheelsets of various diameters nearby.

Note that these photos were all taken from over 2000 feet away so there are heat ripple distortions in all the close-ups taken with extreme telephoto.

Mobile ramps are used to load/unload the cars from the auto carriers.

Lots of trucks coming and going.

Switchers — usually this single beat-up GP35 (I’m wrong — I’m not a diesel guy and I learned that this is a GP9) still wearing Santa Fe colors comes in and shifts cars daily. There are some REALLY sharp curves in and out of this yard, something like 300 foot radius which is sharp for these huge cars. Anyway, there have been several occasions where this single switcher is not enough to pull out a long loaded string and the crew has had to either split the string and double the move or go borrow another unit to yank it out.

These moves foul all the streets nearby so I need to plan my exit from work or you can easily be stuck 20 minutes waiting for the switcher to finish its work.

Note all the little work trucks.

The graffiti work on the cars can get pretty intense.

Various office structures around the edge of the yard. I think this one is the main driver’s office with vans to carry workers to and from their driving assignments. Note the BNSF logo on the office.

Or is it Hi Rail? Seen in Point Richmond, Ca. See also this previous post.

I work in Point Richmond, California and we have a big BNSF yard (formerly Santa Fe) nearby. I have always loved trucks that have been heavily customized for their work and  this of course includes HiRail (or HY Rail) vehicles. This spanking new BNSF work truck is just too cool. I took these pictures over a couple days when this crew was working on tracks around town.

Front bumper and front rail wheels.

Rear rail wheels. Note the caboose style steps up into the truck.

Note the piece of rail up in the overhead rack.

Waterfronts have always been interesting to me since they are often funky and usually have lots of history visible.

I live just across the bay from San Francisco and a couple weeks ago I took the ferry over to the waterfront and took some pictures.

The tracks on the San Francisco waterfront were operated by the State Belt Railroad and were standard gauge with a large portion dual-gauged with 3 foot trackage to handle narrow gauge cars ferried over from the south-east bay and north bay.

Here’s a nice bit of old pier left. There are railroad tracks on it as well. This is the remains of Pier 22-1/2. That little bridge in the background is the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge. A beautiful bridge in its own right but forever outshone by the nearby Golden Gate bridge.

If you have the free Google Earth application (HIGHLY recommended) you can go right to this location and follow along the next few photos by clicking on the location link here: San Francisco Fireboat 1 Phoenix

Close up showing the girder style (like street traction) track in the old pier.

This bit of pier is near the San Francisco Fire Department’s Fireboat Station No. 1 station which is itself built on a pier. The fireboat was away that morning.

Just south of the Bay Bridge is this tight little space between buildings with the track intact. This is the north side of Pier 26.

A little further south is Red’s Java House. When I first saw this building ten years ago it was very funky. Imagine it without the spiffy new paint.