Think California, Think ... Potatoes??

This morning's travels brought me to Shafter CA, via Tehachapi. I left Ontario at 4:30AM, and did see a double stacks train headed toward Mojave just west of Tehachapi Summit. This wasn't my main purpose for the trip, so I ignored the shot and kept driving. Destination: Tulare & Kings Counties.

This wasn't intended to be a train adventure. I hadn't done any research. So as I wandered aimlessly west of Bakersfield, looking for Rte 43 north, it was a happy coincidence that the Santa Fe main out of Bakersfield hugs Rte 43 for over 50 miles, into both Tulare and Kings Counties. It's also the CalTrans San Joaquins route from Fresno to Bakersfield, so the track is in tip top shape.

On my way north I ambled through Shafter, and noticed a museum in the Santa Fe depot. It wasn't open yet, so I kept going up to Corcoran, padded the town's coffers to the tune of a large coffee, and headed back south. Along the way I caught a 100+ car SB freight (Warbonnets front and rear, of course - you'll have to wait for the slides) and on the way back to Shafter a 6 car San Joaquin.

Here are some photo highlights from this whale of a museum. Aside from all the train paraphenalia (which included a Santa Fe ice car that had been used for potato service from Shafter long, long ago), there was a modest and incredibly interesting set of old maps, captured as best I could by my instant note-taker that doubles as a digital Brownie.

I'd been asked by the HAPT Dean Of Styrene to capture car details in my travels. I did my best with the tools I had available.



One other display item: a wooden box made by a German prisoner at the local POW camp. I'll have to find some obscure German beer tonight to honor this find.



Counties Collected: 2 ... The Wheelman, out

History Outside My Window, and Good Beer Inside

This week I'm writing from Rocklin CA, a neighbor to Roseville CA and a stop on one of the most famous & historically significant rail lines in the world. This part of the world owns the line across Donner Summit, the Central Pacific route that met with the Union Pacific at Promontory Point, Utah to complete the first US transcontinental route. Here's a book I recommend to anyone wanting the story of how the line was built. If ever you visit, this book provides excellent context, and affords an appreciation for all that handwork needed to slice through the Sierra. A lot of men, mostly Chinese coolie labor, died building this route. I have some slides of the Chinese Coolie monument erected in their memory, located in Auburn CA at the Track 1 depot. BTW, Track 1 (the original track) skirts the east side of town, and Track 2 skirts the west side. AMTRAK (the California Zephyr) and Sacramento commuter rail use Track 2.

I get to snap a few pictures in & around Rocklin and Roseville, either before work or (at this time of year) after I leave the office. I've noticed traffic on the Donner Pass line (officially the Roseville Subdivision) is more frequent than it was when I first arrived here last November. It's no racetrack, but the chances are if you arrive trackside, you'll see something moving if you're patient enough to wait. I've spent a few lunch hours in Rocklin, at the point where Tracks 1 & 2 diverge - the tracks meet up briefly in Newcastle, and diverge again until around Colfax - and have been skunked, only to hear train horns sounding within an hour of my leaving.

Last night I left work and followed the tracks east, "up the hill" from Rocklin to past Newcastle on old US 40. I stopped for my weekly brew, and while making my selection I was rewarded with a WB autoracks. The engines were ... big, and painted Armour Yellow with "UNION PACIFIC" prominently displayed. There were 3 late-model GEs. Sorry diesel fans, that's all I recorded in my brain. The train was about 50 cars long. For the record, I spotted it just west of the center of bustling Loomis CA.

As for this week's beer: it's a selection from the Anderson Valley Brewing Company, conveniently located in a valley north of Ukiah CA and south of Fort Bragg CA. You hafta wanna get there - and get there I did, this past February. There are lots of places that call themselves God's Country, and I consider this location one of them. It's where I found the 11% Grade roadsign, on my way to the dramatic northern California coast. I wish I'd taken more pictures; next time I will.

The beer: AVBC's IPA. There will be a bottle or two present at the next HAPTening in The Center Of The Universe, Hebron ME

Wheelman ... out

I Found Some Great Beer - In The South!!

Here's what I hope will be the beginning of an series of eclectic posts from your US traveler, The Wheelman. I may mention trains, I may not. That's OK - Debate Coach said so!!

Work has brought me to Atlanta this week, arguably the home of the saying "wrong side of the tracks". Tracks - busy ones - slice through Atlanta as subtly as do its famously clogged Interstates. I happen to be working in a location within earshot of where CSX and NS essentially merge in the shadow of the downtown skyscrapers. My day is punctuated by frequent toot-toot-ti-toots; alas, I can't tear myself away to have a look. That's just as well; some of these neighborhoods define "rough".

Since I can't chase trains during the week, I adapt by pursuing a noble goal - find the Local Brew. Many blog posters/readers have been know to tip a few, so here's my first Local Find:

Sweetwater Brewery

I found this brew in a supermarket east of Birmingham AL. Normally in the south, I'm disappointed to find the most exotic brew on the shelves to be a guaranteed-to-be-skunked Heinekin, or the ubiquitous Modelo or Tecata. Well imagine my surprise when I read the following on the Sweetwater carton: "Sweetwater Georgia Brown Ale - Smoother than a Bill Clinton apology". This had to be worth a taste! It was pretty good, as was their Sweetwater Blue, purchased at one of Smyrna GA's finer liquor stores.

Someday there'll be a slide show at HAPT headquarters, and with any luck the bottles I sneak into my checked baggage won't break (again...) so they'll be available to sample.

Until the next beer .. Wheelman out

April Picture Worth A Thousand Words

This spring has been awfully quiet on the blog. A few too many things - mostly good though - going on with work and not much noteworthy railfanning to post here in my case. So, when I spotted that our favorite boxcar and paint scheme combo is 5 years old now (apparently shopped in 1-04), I had to use this close up.

The photo above is of the famous MM&A "State Of Maine" car #1. Many people have seen it and I won't go into the one-of-a-kind paint scheme itself. My first real photo op was last October on the "County Tour", which you can refer to if you aren't familiar with the car. At that time I took a few detail shots, the photo above being one of them.

What caught my attention wasn't something new, it was something from the past - a railroad owned car shop. Most railroads have thinned out or contracted out their car shop business. Mega-mergers have consolidated company facilities to a fraction of before and shortlines often don't have the volume for their own elaborate shop, unless that's part of their business. Derby Shops next to Milo, ME is a holdover from a past that has disappeared in most places. Places like Erie's Meadville shops, B&O's DuBois shops, Lehigh Valley's Sayre shops and dozens more across the country have all gone over to rail car contractors or simply been erased. The Wisconsin Central, which was run by the same folks that run the MM&A, kept a shop at North Fon du Lac, WI too. It was still run by CN when I saw it a year ago. I don't know about WC's habits, but I know that outside work is often part of the revenue stream that keeps these shops alive. Having a locomotive shop in the complex helps too. MM&A probably has just enough of it's own business and just enough contracted business to justify the shop.

I'll let others do a detailed analysis of why the shop exists and if it will continue. I just like the little shop stencil. It's doubly cool because it is a derivation of the old Bangor and Aroostook shield like the current MM&A shield. That MM&A shop logo on the car is something that shows up on many MM&A as well as SLC cars that travel from coast to coast. One has to wonder if someone in a far off state sees it and wonders if Derby, or Maine for that matter, is in the mystical place known as Canada. I would hope that on this one car that's not an issue.


BC