BTB Blog

Its time to watch trains “in the wild” again. From Sacramento I took a different turn going north towards the Feather River Canyon. This railroad, connecting Oakland, CA and Salt Lake City, UT was built by the Western Pacific a little over 100years ago. Being late in the game of crossing the Sierra Nevada this stretch of track features a lower grade than other mountain lines in the West but at a price of extraordinary engineering and construction. Besides numerous tunnels the…

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No visit to the Sacramento area is complete without stopping by at the California State Railroad Museum. This nation wide recognized institution is still one of the best of its kind and has been a role model for numerous train themed museums. I am always happy to return to the Old Sacramento district which the CSRRM is a vital part of. My favorite of the exhibition is Southern Pacific Cab-Forward engine 4294. Being both, a SP fan and a friend…

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Somewhere all those engines we train watchers meet along the lines have to be fed, maintained and staged. Roseville, CA is home to such a facility and, luckily for rail fans, action around the shops can be conveniently observed from the nearby Amtrak station. Not only gets regular UP motive power shuffled around the engine house, there is also an interesting collection of other railroad equipment waiting to be watched. In the background one of the several spreaders used for…

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One General Electric locomotive as well as two EMD built engines pull hard to get a double stack container train around several S-curves and up the more than 2% grade. They are at a point known as Cisco on the UP Donner Pass line. I climbed steep,  rocky slopes as well in order to get to this location. High above I80 (exit 165), enjoying a marvelous view of the line up to the crest, I waited for the notorious, daily Amtrak train and almost…

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The Coast Starlight is another Amtrak train that treats its patrons with amazing scenery along its route. The train travels between Los Angeles and Seattle along the Pacific coastline. It is kind of Route 101 on rails. I rode this train from Burbank up to Berkeley (Amtrak station: Emeryville) on my way from the Mojave desert to the Sierras. It takes about 12 hours for the 455 miles (732 km) and the service offered on board makes sure everyone gets the most out of…

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Amtrak train #6, the eastbound “California Zephyr”, just left Truckee, CA and rolls down the the eastern slope of the Donner Pass line towards Reno, NV. This train from Emeryville (Berkeley/San Francisco) to Chicago features on of the most scenic routes in the US that can be travelled by train. I crossed the Sierra Nevada on the Zephyr the day before and spottet an old steel  bridge as a good location for this picture. “Go-away” shots are not so opportune for…

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Railroaders tend to name every location of a line in order to insure proper recognition by crews and therefore support reliable operation. The specific point of Caliente lives up to its name on this Friday in August 2016. At plus 90° Fahrenheit (+32 °C) a set of UP engines lugged the train in tow around a horseshoe curve and, by doing so, turned the direction of travel the opposite way for several miles. This is another trick the engineers of the line across…

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A US train watching trip is not complete without a visit to the famous Tehachapi Loop. Placed in the hills between Bakersfield and its namesake town it is always amazing to see the trains circle around in order to gain altidude for conquering Tehachapi Pass. This BNSF intermodal train just completed a 360° turn and will show up on the track visible on the very bottom once it has negotiated another half circle. Beside of the twists and turns this is one of…

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When Herb Sullivan took pictures of steam powered Santa Fe trains at Cajon Pass in California, a lot of things where different- except for the scenery. His terrific photos featuring the distinctive rock formation gave the particular curve its name. I spent the morning hanging out in the area after hiking in on the Pacific Crest Trail, leaving the car behind on a trail head near the I15 exit. Several trains came through in both directions and this one made it into…

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