Jersey Mike's Rail Adventures: 10-03-01 PHOTOS: Caltran Caltrain III

Last March I was once again sent out to the West Coast on my employers dime to attend a week long conference in San Francisco. As always I took an early flight to give myself about 6 hours on Monday to ride the Caltran Caltrain down to San Jose to see a friend there. Unfortunately this is the crappy time of year in the Bay Area where the weather is uniformly gray and wet and this day was a particularly bad example. However I was not to be deterred and came away with quite a few good photos, even if they aren't railpictures.net quality.

Many of the photos were simply a third pass at documenting the signaling and stations along the route and because of the general "gray" quality of the pics I don't plan to subject any of you to them, but if you have an interest just follow the link to the main set of photos and check them out. I documented ever signal and interlocking between San Fran and San Jose.

The photos document a trip taken from the Millbrae Station to the San Jose Diridon Station, which also serves Amtrak and the Altamont Commuter Express and then a second trip from the 4th and King St Terminal to San Carlos.

You can find all of the photos at the following link.

http://acm.jhu.edu/~sthurmovik/Railpics/10-03-01_CALTRAIN_III/-Thumbnails.html

Also if you want to keep track of where things are a fairly up to date track diagram can be located in the 2007 Caltrain ETT Suppliment.

We kick off with F40PH-2CAT #918 in push mode with a mid-day local just north of Hayward Park.

Someone at the yard must have been trying to be clever as F40PH-2CAT #919 was pushing behind the following local just north of San Antonio.

The preserved CLARA tower is still standing next to the recently re-configured CP-COAST north of the Santa Clara station with some Caltrain maintainers standing by.

Since I had last been here the new yard and maintenance area north of San Jose had been completed. Here we see the new shop building with some gallery cars and F40PH-2 #907 hanging out behind it.

Also in attendance in the yard with trainsets are numbers 908, 916 and 906.

Moving through CP-JULIAN at the northern throat of the San Jose terminal we see that the leads to the old yard tracks west of the station have all been cut since my last visit. Moroever the old yard isn't just disused, its been completely ripped out.

Arriving at San Jose the Track 2 signal on the "473 Bridge" in CP-JULIAN was already displayed for the next northbound train.

On the adjacent Track 4 was an Amtrak California trainset with Superliner Cab Car #8313.

On the storage track 6 was another Amtrak California trainset with Superliner Cab car #8307.

There must be some maintenance issues as standard Amtrak P42 #177 was subbing for the more usual Amtrak California branded equipment. In the background we also have MPI built F40-2CAT #920.

The other trainset is also using substitute power in the form of P42 #13.

Behind #13 on Track 6 was one of the Baby Bullet trainsets lead by Bombardier Coffin Car #112.

I believe that #920 was behind the next northbound train. That would mean that on this day we would have trainsets powered by 918, 919 and 920 one after another.

Caltrain 920 is also the Operation Lifesaver unit. Huzzah!

Oh No!! The California budget cuts have hit the Amtrak California service!! Ha, that gives new meaning to the term "Amshack",

Some time passes and I return to the station at about 4PM to find an ACE train on track one lead by Coffin Car #3308. Don't try to take pictures from inside the ACE trains tho, security is provided by Hells Angles and they don't fuck around.

There was a Baby Bullet trainset on Track 3 pushed by MP36 #923.

Finally, a proper Amtrak California engine has shown up in the form of F59PHI #2011. Hmmm, don't those numbers conflict with the Acela Axpress trainsets?

That ACE train is being pushed by not one, but TWO MPI built F40PH-2CATs, #3105 and 3104.

Caltrain F40PH-2CAT #901 poses next to Amtrak 2011 on Track 5.

Gallery cab car #4007 poses next to Amtrak Superliner Cab Car #6963.

Back at CP-JULIAN, that track 2 signal on Bridge 473 is displaying an Approach Diverging for the Amtrak California trainset on track #4.

Which soon passes by before my northbound express train is set to depart.

Jumping ahead a few days to Friday evening we find Caltrain Cab Car #4007 again this time at 4th and King, lined up for the Southbound evening Rush. Caltrain is cool because it is dual ended with rush hour travel moving both north and south so the agency has to basically operate four peak flows a day instead of just 2.

The lineup at King Street.

The 4TH ST interlocking is weigh cool with pneumatic point machines, H2 searchlight dwarf signals and double slip switches.

The only remaining seldomly-powered Budd SPV, the former USDOT T-10, now belongs to Caltrain as an inspection vehicle, although I heard that it usually towed by a diesel.

Unfortunately since my last visit the classic Southern Pacific cantilever mast has been slightly modified with the two northbound signals having their top target replaced with marker lamps. I don't think it looks as good. :-(