Western Railroad Discussion > Random Beaumont Hill

Back in June, I made a non-railfanning visit to Southern California. I had some spare time in the late afternoon, so I headed east and hunted random trains on both sides of Beaumont Hill.

I ran into two 1x1 trains, which for me was rather odd. Maybe UP is being stingy with the power again? First one in the video is a westbound intermodal I caught inside the orange groves near Ordway. Entire train is shown. With Tiger Cool Express reefer boxes and trailers, I'm tempted to call this an underpowered Z train, but I'm not sure.

Second 1x1 train departed out of Mira Loma, most likely an eastbound autorack repo, probably not underpowered, but the locomotives on either end were working hard. I caught it at the S curve past Ordway and at the Centennial Memorial Bridge near Beaumont.

- Also saw some tanks on flat cars.
- More tanks (in the second video).
- Video of UP's 1x1 trains.

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I kept driving east towards Palm Springs and got more trains as I neared Fingal. I had passed an eastbound manifest near Cabazon, and now, I saw a westbound manifest approaching, second video. The westbound had some interesting military loads. I got it twice, the second clip a meet with the eastbound.

I kept driving east towards West Palm Springs and saw what looked like the ZAILC (with Tropicana reefer cars) but it stopped short of the crossing. It got passed by a higher priority intermodal train with loaded autoracks up front. I stuck with the Tropicana reefers, which departed after a meet with the eastbound manifest at West Palm Springs, rounding the curve past Fingal, third clip.

- Train on the right is passing ahead of the ZAILC-ish train on the left, east of West Palm Springs.
- Video of the military loads and the Tropicana reefer intermodal.

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I heard the hotbox detector go off at 582.6 after the ZAILC-ish train departed, so I figured another westbound was coming... and there it was.

- Westbound autorack near Fingal.
- Around the curve, several seconds later.

That's all folks.

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cchan006 Wrote:
Thier is a good probability that is the ZATLC.More likely to have Tropicana reefers than the ZAILC
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> I heard the hotbox detector go off at 582.6 after
> the ZAILC-ish train departed, so I figured another
> westbound was coming... and there it was.
>
> - Westbound autorack near Fingal.
> - Around the curve, several seconds later.
>
> That's all folks.

Posted from iPhone

I have never previously seen a military load with a main battle tank included in a manifest train.   New policy?

Skygevo Wrote:
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> Thier is a good probability that is the ZATLC. More
> likely to have Tropicana reefers than the ZAILC

Yeah, I got the two confused (I called it ZATLC in a report posted few years ago).

The late afternoon westbound parade on Sundays led by Z trains is something I've been counting on often when I have no targets and have to foam randomly.

cchan006 Wrote:
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> ... I kept driving east towards West Palm Springs and
> saw what looked like the ZAILC (with Tropicana
> reefer cars) but it stopped short of the crossing.
> It got passed by a higher priority intermodal
> train with loaded autoracks up front...

ZATLC (not ZAILC, as you later noted) with the Tropicana reefers was replaced in 2015 by ZATSA and ZSALC/ZSALCB.  The only wbd. Sunset Route Z with autos that I know of is ZAILC.  The autos are for BMW on the Ventura County RR.

mapboy