July | 2019 | Silicon Valley Lines

It was a packed house last Friday when we held our monthly Operations session, with members and guests a plenty in attendance. Once trains got moving, there was nary an open space of track available as long trains and multiple section trains traversed the layout.

Everyone had fun and much freight was moved. Check out the pictures below for some railfanning shots taken during the evening.

We had a special sighting during Ops, as NS 911 (Decorated for First Responders) made a cameo pulling a run-through autorack train. Here it is passing through Silicon at speed while a local is switching the tracks.

Crews waiting around Nowheres above, while a long freight passes through Jacksonville below.

Frisco GP38-2 #695 creeps across the High Bridge at Mt. Nicholls with a trainload of gravel and covered hoppers for switching in Silicon

Western Pacific Uboats wait just outside the cover of the snowshed as an autorack train passes by just south of Mt Marvel.

More Western Pacific power waits in Nowheres as SVL’s own GP-15s pull into Nowheres with train 690, having finished their switching on the lower level.

The Hallelujah Paper Mill switcher is parked on the pulpwood lead waiting for the next shift change, when it will be back to work moving cars around the mill.

Rio Grande GP60 3155 cools its heels in Nowheres after working hard to pull a gravel train up from Jasper into the yard.

We had our June operating session a couple weeks ago, and thought we’d post some photos of the evening. In total, about 24 trains were run by members and guests, including a bit of varnish and some commuter service. Feel free to contact us if you’d like to stop by and check us out at our next Ops on Friday, July 26th – We look forward to seeing you!

Photos

Our intrepid Engineer is working the Yardmaster in Nowheres to sort out the engine and cars he needs for his Southbound train

Northern Pacific 5138 (a Challenger) is pulling into Paso for a water stop and to let Nowheres clear up. It’s lugging 30 cars for Nowheres to break down and sort into future trains.

An NKP Berkshire is crossing right in front of McKeown coal with some hoppers for switching in Jacksonville.

Mail pays the bills, and so here both 400 (coming off the branch) and 220 (outbound to Hemet) have to wait while train 99 makes its way through Dayton Junction and on to Bakersfield.

SVL’s Pathfinder pulls into Hemet’s new station platform to ensure that proper clearances were adhered to when it was built

Hopefully the crew for 220 has a clean stack and won’t need too much power to pull cars – they forgot to use an idler, and as you can see, there’s not a whole lot of space for exhaust…