We are spending a morning in the spring of 1992 at the Southern Pacific Yard in Carlin, Nevada watching the action. The first train in is a westbound Ogden to San Jose coal loads being pulled by an SD40 and a C44-9W, both painted in the speed lettering scheme.
Carlin is a crew change point for the Southern Pacific with east bound trains also taking on fuel here. Turnouts have been aligned to give this train the path shown with a red line in the photo below.
No fuel is needed for this westbound going downgrade. The new head end crew is walking out to their train as it reaches the west end of the yard. On this layout we still have full crews and the new rear end crew has been taken down to the other end of the yard by one of the yard's motor vehicles. This crew is based in Sparks and had brought an eastbound train here late yesterday and spent the night here at the railroad rooming house. The crew getting off is based in Ogden and will spend the night here and take another train back to Ogden tomorrow.
About 20 minutes after the coal train left, another westbound freight entered the yard. This one was an Ogden to Roseville manifest that will exchange a few cars here. The power on this train is a GP35 in Kodachrome paint and a B23-7. The yard's MP-15 switch engine has gotten into position to do the switching work.
The yard switcher is pulling the caboose and the last two covered hoppers from the rear of the train. The SP covered hopper is an empty bound for the EP Minerals plant in Lovelock and the leased unit is a load of plastic pellets bound for the Diamond Plastics plant in Battle Mountain.
After setting the two covered hoppers out on the siding, the switcher picks up two empty tank cars from the storage track. These two empty tank cars are bound for the Chevron refinery in Richmond, California.
The two empty tank cars and the caboose are then coupled to the rear of the train.
After the manifest train departs, the switcher grabs the empty D&RGW covered hopper that had been on the storage track with the tank cars and with it moves the two covered hoppers from the siding to the storage track. The D&RGW car is a load from the Halliburton facility in Battle Mountain that will be picked on on the next West Colton bound train and placing it at the east end of the storage track will make that transfer easier. The other two cars will go out on the next Lovelock local.
With it's work done for now, the yard crew parks the switcher on the siding and heads out for lunch.
No comments:
Post a Comment