An Afternoon With The Cal Northern In the Vallejo Area 9-26-16

Upon getting off work on Monday morning, I was advised that the California Northern's "Napa job" would be making another trip to Mare Island. With trips to Mare Island getting farther and fewer between, I ran out the door to see what I could get. We follow the Napa Job through Mare Island and Vallejo with two Amtrak California cars, then catch Cal Northern's "Fairfield Job" powered by two UP SD70Ms battling the Creston Grade through American Canyon. Thank you to engineer Steven Welch for the heads up regarding the day's movements. Enjoy.

[@Ferromexfan4081]

5:14 my second favorite railroad crossing in Vallejo! Love the RACO and griswold mechanical bells

[@Alwaystrains]

Indeed they are quite a pair.

[@russbay2963]

Good Stuff as always. Great shot at 5:57 of the UP slowly crossing. Notice the nice Piece of Rail Fan Real Estate in the back Ground :-)

[@Alwaystrains]

Thanks Russ! It did occur to me that the house was quite oddly placed so close to the track.

[@russbay2963]

Would be nice to sit in your own front or back yard and Railfan if you lived there.

[@russbay2963]

Check out Bronze Cowboy Pranks and see if his theme fits you. Living Statue in Old town Scottsdale. If you like him drop a comment or 2 on a couple of his videos. Good mix of people and someone can pick up on your name. I was cruising Urban Exploring with Kappy today and came across railfanning101 and told him to check you out. He has alot of stuff in and around Vermont.

[@georgegong6813]

Great video & yes you are correct. Those movements are becoming farther & fewer in between. Even though Alstom has new contracts to do work on among refurbishment of light rail trains from Los Angeles. Sad I used to be able to keep an ear out as well. Even after coming home from work late nights a light nap & around 11am-1pm on was it Wednesday, or Thursday afternoon there be @ least one movement. Wished I had an "In" to just take pictures or video myself like before.

[@Alwaystrains]

Thanks George.

[@alexrobison19]

The last time I saw a train in Vallejo was right before the plant closed in like 03 I was like 5 years old tho. Sweet video

[@Alwaystrains]

Thanks. The trains have still been running, just on a much less frequent basis. There have only been three trips that I know of to Mare Island this year.

[@HorstHelmutHenßen]

An interesting story and nice cut.

[@Alwaystrains]

Thank you!

[@kodachrome9319]

We were only making like 9MPH when we crested the hill Eastbound. Something like 4900 tons not including the Amtrak cars. (Creston is 1.8%)
Definitely picked the wrong day (or maybe it was a good day!) to take our Budweiser cars over the hill with us.

[@Alwaystrains]

Yeah, I believe that. It was good for one heck of a show, that's for sure.

[@schleusenmeister]

Always great to see action on Mare Island. Do the crossing gates always hiccup like that at Lewis Brown Drive?

[@Alwaystrains]

Indeed, I wish more of the old Mare Island industries were taking rail shipments still, but ya gotta take what you can get I suppose. I'm not sure about that particular crossing, but a lot of the crossings do "hiccup" like that. I've seen that happen at other crossings on the line too. I believe it happens because the rails are so infrequently used that dirt clogs up the shunts that activate the crossing when a train approaches. Earlier this year, they went to Mare Island and had to flag almost every crossing.

[@mythicmesa]

I swear you took me to another time and place, a rich piece and those political signs. perfect! Thanks for running out the door.

[@Alwaystrains]

I swear those signs were an accident. They somehow eluded my sights when I was setting up the shot. Though they do certainly manage to put a date label on the video. Thanks for watching. It was nice to get out that day.

[@Nicola636128]

Nice video.

[@Alwaystrains]

Thanks!