Western Railroad Discussion > Verona (ex-WP over ex-SP, in California)

Here's a wikipedia entry on Verona:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verona,_California

I suspect there are TO members, especially those involved with the Niles Canyon Railway that can elaborate more on the history of this location. Ex-WP is now UP, and ex-SP is Niles Canyon Railway (NCRY). In the future there maybe some over/under opportunities once NCRY's Pleasanton extension is completed.

I was hoping to catch UP 1988 leading the INPOA at this location in December of 2020. SCUfoamer showed up separately with the same idea. Miss Katy showed up too early, and we got skunked. I got my revenge later at Tunnel 1 in Niles Canyon.

To complete the revenge, I intercepted the ZG2OAB at Verona few weeks ago. I showed up early enough that I caught the eastbound IOANP first. Entire train is not shown, but it was a good mix of both domestic marine boxes, not long, and seemingly overpowered since it had yet picked up more cars at Lathrop.

IOANP and ZG2OAB met at Livermore, based on radio chatter as the IOANP wanted a signal to enter the ~12,000' siding about 8 miles away.

Entire 4x2x0 ZG2OAB is shown in the video. Nice to see a good number of older red-on-white K-Line reefer boxes on this train. That's it for the report.

You must be a registered subscriber to watch videos. Join Today!

Love the lower light you captured at these locations. I remember that mad dash for Miss Katy a few years back. We ran into eachother and then she roared by without time for a setup. I didn't even think about the new potential for over/unders here!

Here was my best shot from that 2020 Miss Katy chase, coming down off Altamont into Livermore.

Looks like Verona is on the east side of I-680 just west/south of Sunol, close to where the ex-SP Niles Canyon line ducks under the ex-WP and shortly after that I-680.

Is Verona a railroad name? Because I can find it on Google Maps (which often has railroad place names/station names) but not Apple Maps (where I worked 7 years as a map content product manager before retiring a year ago January).

While I'm proud of my work at Apple Maps (it was pretty lousy before they decided to build their own map content instead of buying it from vendors), I was unable to persuade anyone to devote much time and money in the rail layer (outside of the Transit/Passenger Rail feature). It was probably the right decision from a cost/benefit perspective, but it makes the Google competition more useful for our railfan/rail professional community here. It all makes me wonder whether Google Maps development had some foamers in their midst. I was the lone railroad nut at Apple (not quite true, one of the execs was a passenger and transit rail nut, better said I was the lone freight rail geek).



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/24 10:51 by pbouzide.

---

Verona is named for Verona Rd which is right in that area, on the other side of the bridge IIRC. Technically it's in Pleasanton.Verona RdPleasanton, CA 94566 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/24 23:25 by rattenne.

Verona was a station point on the early SP.  At Verona a private shelter was provided around 1895 by the Hearst family to welcome the family and guests when they arrived and departed on the train.  The rectangular shelter was designed by A.C. Schweinfurth to match the Spanish architecture of the nearby Hearst estate called the Hacienda del Pozo de Verona.  The name Verona came from the name of the town in Italy where the son of Phoebe Hearst, William Randolph Hearst, shipped a stone wellhead in 1892 to the Hacienda. Currently the station point on the Niles Canyon Railway is marked only by a station sign and the rebuilt spur track that previously accomodated the station.  The original station structure was moved further north (railroad east) to accommodate the building of the adjacent WP (now UP) overpass around 1908, but is long gone.   TomE.
 

...The light bridge on Verona Road over the creek is no longer open to vehicles. Not sure if you can walk or bike across it anymore either.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/24 20:07 by ChrisCampi.

---

Great video.  Wish I had spent some more time chasing trains in Niles Canyon.

Nathan