smp11512
08-22-2006, 04:59 AM
First of all, beware ! There are ALOT of pictures in this report. I'm putting enough up here to tell the story, I will put extras at www.shanestrains.socalrails.com in the trip report.
Enjoy !
We arrived at Roseville after a 6 and a half hour drive at at around 11 P.M Friday night, as I arrived at the yard I was amazed at the long train of UP passenger cars that were stretched out infront of Atlantic street. I picked a spot that was thought ideal for the unveiling and met Alex Ramos who told me that the Yard Hostler to pull the unit out of the shops was coming on duty at 5:30 A.M. It wasn't long before Drew and Scott showed up and Ryan made his way back down the street, we speant the night hanging out and deciding where infront of us they'd spot the SP unit. This got us the nickname of "The Hardcore Atlantic Street Gang"( I think Scott won on that contest BTW )
5 A.M came sooner then I thought it would and I piled in the car with Drew and Scott as we were going to go over to the shops to watch them pull the unit out and take it to where the bigwigs passenger cars were parked. We all had the same reaction when we arrived at the shops to find out that they had untarpped it early and it was sitting with a portion of the nose visible through the open shop door. Drew , Scott and I were the very first railfans to see/get shots of this unit minus the tarp, followed up by Alex and Ryan who came about 5 minutes after.
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/1977/0819202106608tq4.jpg
The shop worker came over to the fence where we were gathered to tell us that the unit had been untarpped a few minutes before we arrived and that they'd be pulling it out around 7:00 A.M.
By the time 7:00 A.M had come the railfans started to assemble infront of the shops and by the time they opened the garage shortly after 7 there were about 40 of us. We stood paitently waiting to watch them pull the unit out, but due to battery problems they were delayed for a bit, they finally fired up the E unit and pushed it out sometime after 7:30, giving us the first view of this Heritage Paint Scheme.
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/6937/0819202106516nh4.jpg
The shop workers took their pictures of the unit and it got on the move, they ran it down the main past the engine shops and around to get it access to the yard switches so they could get it acrossed to the ceremony
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/382/0819202106544el3.jpg
Posing infront of the Rotary Snow Plows
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/533/0819202106577pf0.jpg
After a few stops it finally made it to the ceremony tracks, the crew member looks like he's amused by the number of foamers lining the tracks.
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/2527/0819202106603ai0.jpg
We headed down atlantic street to where we had our ladders and I climbed for this shot
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/1452/0819202106436ix3.jpg
There were quite a few employees there
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/1525/0819202106429cb9.jpg
The security was strict on the unveiling to invitation only so there were alot of railfans outside the gate. A few of them didn't bring ladders after Scott used it I could have leased it out :+ While we were waiting on the ground for someone who was using the ladder, Alex walked by with an employee and told us to follow him, that we'd be getting into the unveiling ! I owe him big time for this trip :P
For this shot, note the CEO of UP , Jim Young in the brown shirt ( Bottom right hand corner ) admiring his unit
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/3755/0819202106248kf7.jpg
It was hard to get a shot of this unit without the railfans, lining up next to Ryan got this one
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/9914/0819202106404gq3.jpg
Same with the E Unit
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/1764/0819202106351hd1.jpg
From the gate, note the Gyralight on the E9 :D
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/6255/0819202106489sm6.jpg
I had to accomplish one thing on this trip for Curt, he wanted a cab shot of the 1996 and I got him one ! More then one actually, having an open cab allowed us to spend a while just hanging out inside :D
http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/2013/0819202106331uq1.jpg
This one matches the one I have of the 1983 :P
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/3669/0819202106504is7.jpg
I had never even seen an E unit before, let alone been inside one, it had two engines and seeing as it was freshly started it was very warm inside, Good for Donner in the winter I suppose :P
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/5668/0819202106360ei1.jpg
They also let us tour the passenger cars, these were quite nice inside ( and they should be, they carried the biggest bigwigs of Union Pacific for this trip )
From the observation car, they had a car like this on each end, both with big glass windows on the back and theatre seating inside. Also, each car had a pull down projector screen with a camera wired to the head engine so they could see the track ahead of them and a two built in TV's, one with CNN and the other with GPS navigational system showing exactly where they were.
http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/5919/0819202106253qs1.jpg
1996 from the Dome
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/7934/0819202106258em5.jpg
And the door
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/5648/0819202106262xm8.jpg
We had lunch with thanks to Union Pacific as well as a nice cold bottle of water :P tried out the handcart and watched as the people started to leave. The ceremony was over by one, making it easier to shoot the units without railfans
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/6989/0819202106152we6.jpg
The passenger train was readying to depart as they needed the yard track back , and the E9 hooked back up to the 1996 before getting clearance back to the roundhouse lead. Before they left we walked acrossed the street to the hobby shop
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/5527/0819202106234yh1.jpg
When we got back they were getting permission to back them in
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/7358/0819202106056fp3.jpg
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/9104/0819202106086ju3.jpg
We hung around for a bit longer to see what else would come by, couple manifests with nothing special on any of them other then filthy UP engines. Did manage to get some night shots of the unit in the shops though.
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/8906/0819202106114gl0.jpg
The next day was spent in and around the yard finding the last unpatched SP tunnel motor which I'm sad to confirm is in the deadline and looks horrible ( if any SP can look horrible, it does :'( ) Roseville is a huge yard with alot of opperations going on, but we spent most of the time at the engine shops and watching the RC guys do their thing.
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/5499/0819202106122mf0.jpg
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/8027/0819202106012gz4.jpg
Not much was happening so I just went to the amtrak station and chilled with Drew, Alex and Scott until they saw a BNSF train worth chasing and I got started on the 6 hour drive back :D
It was a fantastic trip, and I'm loving the new SP unit !
Shane
http://shanestrains.socalrails.com
"Some Call it Innovation, we call it KAAAAHHNNN!"
Enjoy !
We arrived at Roseville after a 6 and a half hour drive at at around 11 P.M Friday night, as I arrived at the yard I was amazed at the long train of UP passenger cars that were stretched out infront of Atlantic street. I picked a spot that was thought ideal for the unveiling and met Alex Ramos who told me that the Yard Hostler to pull the unit out of the shops was coming on duty at 5:30 A.M. It wasn't long before Drew and Scott showed up and Ryan made his way back down the street, we speant the night hanging out and deciding where infront of us they'd spot the SP unit. This got us the nickname of "The Hardcore Atlantic Street Gang"( I think Scott won on that contest BTW )
5 A.M came sooner then I thought it would and I piled in the car with Drew and Scott as we were going to go over to the shops to watch them pull the unit out and take it to where the bigwigs passenger cars were parked. We all had the same reaction when we arrived at the shops to find out that they had untarpped it early and it was sitting with a portion of the nose visible through the open shop door. Drew , Scott and I were the very first railfans to see/get shots of this unit minus the tarp, followed up by Alex and Ryan who came about 5 minutes after.
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/1977/0819202106608tq4.jpg
The shop worker came over to the fence where we were gathered to tell us that the unit had been untarpped a few minutes before we arrived and that they'd be pulling it out around 7:00 A.M.
By the time 7:00 A.M had come the railfans started to assemble infront of the shops and by the time they opened the garage shortly after 7 there were about 40 of us. We stood paitently waiting to watch them pull the unit out, but due to battery problems they were delayed for a bit, they finally fired up the E unit and pushed it out sometime after 7:30, giving us the first view of this Heritage Paint Scheme.
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/6937/0819202106516nh4.jpg
The shop workers took their pictures of the unit and it got on the move, they ran it down the main past the engine shops and around to get it access to the yard switches so they could get it acrossed to the ceremony
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/382/0819202106544el3.jpg
Posing infront of the Rotary Snow Plows
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/533/0819202106577pf0.jpg
After a few stops it finally made it to the ceremony tracks, the crew member looks like he's amused by the number of foamers lining the tracks.
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/2527/0819202106603ai0.jpg
We headed down atlantic street to where we had our ladders and I climbed for this shot
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/1452/0819202106436ix3.jpg
There were quite a few employees there
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/1525/0819202106429cb9.jpg
The security was strict on the unveiling to invitation only so there were alot of railfans outside the gate. A few of them didn't bring ladders after Scott used it I could have leased it out :+ While we were waiting on the ground for someone who was using the ladder, Alex walked by with an employee and told us to follow him, that we'd be getting into the unveiling ! I owe him big time for this trip :P
For this shot, note the CEO of UP , Jim Young in the brown shirt ( Bottom right hand corner ) admiring his unit
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/3755/0819202106248kf7.jpg
It was hard to get a shot of this unit without the railfans, lining up next to Ryan got this one
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/9914/0819202106404gq3.jpg
Same with the E Unit
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/1764/0819202106351hd1.jpg
From the gate, note the Gyralight on the E9 :D
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/6255/0819202106489sm6.jpg
I had to accomplish one thing on this trip for Curt, he wanted a cab shot of the 1996 and I got him one ! More then one actually, having an open cab allowed us to spend a while just hanging out inside :D
http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/2013/0819202106331uq1.jpg
This one matches the one I have of the 1983 :P
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/3669/0819202106504is7.jpg
I had never even seen an E unit before, let alone been inside one, it had two engines and seeing as it was freshly started it was very warm inside, Good for Donner in the winter I suppose :P
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/5668/0819202106360ei1.jpg
They also let us tour the passenger cars, these were quite nice inside ( and they should be, they carried the biggest bigwigs of Union Pacific for this trip )
From the observation car, they had a car like this on each end, both with big glass windows on the back and theatre seating inside. Also, each car had a pull down projector screen with a camera wired to the head engine so they could see the track ahead of them and a two built in TV's, one with CNN and the other with GPS navigational system showing exactly where they were.
http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/5919/0819202106253qs1.jpg
1996 from the Dome
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/7934/0819202106258em5.jpg
And the door
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/5648/0819202106262xm8.jpg
We had lunch with thanks to Union Pacific as well as a nice cold bottle of water :P tried out the handcart and watched as the people started to leave. The ceremony was over by one, making it easier to shoot the units without railfans
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/6989/0819202106152we6.jpg
The passenger train was readying to depart as they needed the yard track back , and the E9 hooked back up to the 1996 before getting clearance back to the roundhouse lead. Before they left we walked acrossed the street to the hobby shop
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/5527/0819202106234yh1.jpg
When we got back they were getting permission to back them in
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/7358/0819202106056fp3.jpg
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/9104/0819202106086ju3.jpg
We hung around for a bit longer to see what else would come by, couple manifests with nothing special on any of them other then filthy UP engines. Did manage to get some night shots of the unit in the shops though.
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/8906/0819202106114gl0.jpg
The next day was spent in and around the yard finding the last unpatched SP tunnel motor which I'm sad to confirm is in the deadline and looks horrible ( if any SP can look horrible, it does :'( ) Roseville is a huge yard with alot of opperations going on, but we spent most of the time at the engine shops and watching the RC guys do their thing.
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/5499/0819202106122mf0.jpg
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/8027/0819202106012gz4.jpg
Not much was happening so I just went to the amtrak station and chilled with Drew, Alex and Scott until they saw a BNSF train worth chasing and I got started on the 6 hour drive back :D
It was a fantastic trip, and I'm loving the new SP unit !
Shane
http://shanestrains.socalrails.com
"Some Call it Innovation, we call it KAAAAHHNNN!"