It wasn’t too long after I arrived in California and became acquainted with the local railfan community that I began wondering when, and if, any railfan trips would happen like I began to enjoy so much back in the Midwest. The trips to Gorham, IL., Princeton, IN., and handfuls of other places really became something I looked forward to doing with fellow Chapter members. So you can believe I was curious if it would be the same out here.
Well, it took a little time and getting to know some of these people better, but it finally happened. A co-worker, Craig, asked if I wanted to join him and a friend/railfan/photographer to make a trip east to Colton Yard, San Bernardino, San Timoteo and Beaumont Pass. In my mind, I was asking if he really had to ask, but decided a simple “yes” would be a better answer.
At first, I was rather curious as to why Craig decided to go railfanning on a Sunday of all days. My experience with Sunday train watching is a lot of sitting and waiting with not many trains. But I was quickly reminded that this is Southern California; trains originate all day, every day.
Our first stop was at the Pepper St. over pass on the East end of UP’s West Colton Yard. This was mostly to see if anything interesting was originating and heading east that we could catch going through Beaumont Pass. This stop also provided to be a little bit of a downer. Reason why is because there was a very heavy marine layer that moved in off the Pacific overnight and didn’t appear to be moving out anytime soon. Cloud cover? In Southern California? Yes, I was just as shocked as you!
So, after two westbound trains passed under Pepper St., we finally saw an originating train leaving the yard to head east. The best part was it had an oddball locomotive in consist, a GMTX GP38-2 from GATX locomotive leasing. This gave reason to head east without further question. As I mentioned in my last article, foreign power is a rarity in this part of California so the railfans give chase to anything out of the ordinary. (Head north to Mojave and Tehachapi and you can see foreign power all day long…)
We went to the furthest point east that we would reach all day which was Palm Springs, at the foot of San Gorgonio Pass. What I couldn’t get over was the sheer amount of wind that was blowing through this area. Definitely not a spot for shooting video without expensive sound equipment to prevent the sound of the wind on the footage.
We knew that we were ahead of the GMTX locomotive, but still knew that this was a good spot to wait for any train. Since Craig and our fellow railfan, Charles, are skilled photographers, they were very conscious of the suns position throughout the day. This spot proved to be a little tricky, but I feel the photo turned out well. But once again, I am happy with a lot less in my photography. I’m sure time around these guys will make me become a lot harder on my shots.
Due to the wind, and not having a safe place to shoot photos from, we headed west back towards Beaumont. On the way, we noticed that a rock train had left the quarry in Cabazon, so we headed in to Beaumont to look for a spot in which the sun, getting higher all the time, might be half-way decent. We finally found a spot at Hinda, in western Beaumont, which has a fairly new highway overpass. This spot proves that if I continue to do this, I need to invest in a different camera. But the shots turned out ok.
After lunch, we continued west to an area called Redlands. This was my favorite spot of the whole day. Double track main line (in this area anyway), brilliantly clear skies, and being in the middle of an orange grove was really pretty cool. The only down side was that we must have hit a lull in UP traffic as there weren’t too many trains. But, we waited around for a bit and managed to catch a few. I must say that I will be frequenting this area a lot I think.
After we caught a few trains through Redlands, we got word that a brand new UP GEVO would be rolling into Colton Yard before too long. New power is treated the same as foreign power or even Heritage units out here, so we quickly made our way back in hopes to watch it come down the cut off from Cajon Pass and into the yard.
We stuck around and chatted with a few other railfans that Craig and Charles know, watched a few more trains, and decided it was time to call it a day. It was 4:30 pm by this point and since Craig and I left Orange CA at 6am, we were starting to get tired. So as we are going to drop Charles off, we notice a train heading west towards Colton Yard, thinking its just another stack train. But no! As luck would have it, this was a train carrying nothing but wind turbine components! We quickly turned around to go back to the Pepper Street overpass, but as soon as we get there, this train takes the cut off to make its way towards Cajon Pass. So back in the car we go to give chase.
By this time, light was becoming a larg factor. The sun was setting and shadows were being cast giving us less than optimal conditions. Luckily Craig knew a few places that would yield some shots.
After we got these, I made the suggestion we head up Cajon Blvd and try to catch it one last time before we lost all daylight. Plus, there would be a chance to see BNSF trains making their way up and down Cajon Blvd, so it wouldn’t be all for nothing. Honestly, it was kind of nice seeing some BNSF as compared to nothing but Armour Yellow all day!
After hanging out at the top of Cajon Blvd while the windmill train waited on a few south/west bound trains, the sun had tucked in behind the mountains and any opportunities were lost to get it in good light. So we headed back down towards San Bernardino. But, lo and behold there were two unique locomotives at a grain elevator along the highway. Two BNSF PR30C locomotives. I had never heard of these before, and honestly, I think they are really neat looking locomotives.
The small story behind these locomotives is that EMD was so confident that UP would end up buying these units that they painted the demonstrators in UP colors just short of having them lettered for UP. But, you guessed it, UP didn’t buy them! BNSF actually bought a few, including the two that are in UP colors, which are the two we saw. They have four or six more in BNSF paint.
With the sun having completely set, it was finally time to end our day and head back to the city. I for one am very happy I went, plus I learned a fair amount for the next time I go out to shoot photos. All in all, a great day and I can’t wait to do it again and to go to new locations!
