Western Railroad Discussion > UP Rail Train on Redwood Harbor Lead(CA)

The Union Pacific ribbon rail train seen westbound along the Cal-P on Tuesday reappeared this morning spotted on the old Dumbarton main west of Middlefield Rd. at Redwood Jct. in Redwood City, CA. At 09:45 it headed east onto Chestnut Street and on to the Redwood Harbor Industrial Lead for a day of dropping its welded rail. This industrial spur runs 2.5 miles from the Caltrain main at Redwood Jct. out to the Port of Redwood City. The track east of US101 is in very poor condition and long overdue for replacement. Principal traffic is loads for Graniterock and imported cement from Asia that passes through the Cemex terminal at the port proper.

The UP5199-UP9812 are seen easing down the median of Chestnut St. and across Broadway this morning. Daylight moves on this trackage are quite rare and the use of six axle power even rarer--maybe the first time ever?

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Today's rail train curves off Chestnut and across Veterans Blvd. in Redwood City en route to the harbor where it's then staged along Seaport Blvd. prior to its first rail drop.

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Boy, Chestnut Street sure has changed a LOT since I used to rumble down the middle of it going out to the harbor (of course that was 30+ years ago).

136 lb./yd. relay ribbon rail is dropped at a walking pace along Seaport Blvd. at the Port of Redwood City. That's the Cemex terminal on the right in the final shot.

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Good catch of some unusual activity.

Regards, Jim Evans

Railbaron Wrote:
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> Boy, Chestnut Street sure has changed a LOT since
> I used to rumble down the middle of it going out
> to the harbor (of course that was 30+ years ago).


The lens and the morning light make it look very suburban, the houses on the hill (that's a few miles away) and the palm trees have that very California look. But some parts of Chestnut have not changed, nice new road and signals but from here south is a bit treacherous, let's say not railfan friendly for a different reason. Redwood City installed gunfire microphones at least 20 years ago. the port is very busy and there's a big glass building at the far end for some sort of software operation.

So that's where that ribbon rail went.

The pictures piqued my curiousity, so I checked it out on Maps.Live. You can see a lot this way. So what's a Caltrain F40 doing way out at the end of the trackage?

Stan

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Believe the F40 work is paint work or some other type of work which can't be permormed at this time, atleast that's what I have been told when I have inquired ;-)

sagehen Wrote:
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> So that's where that ribbon rail went.
>
> The pictures piqued my curiousity, so I checked it
> out on Maps.Live. You can see a lot this way. So
> what's a Caltrain F40 doing way out at the end of
> the trackage?
>
> Stan

Railbaron - "Boy, Chestnut Street sure has changed a LOT"

No kidding! I wonder if that "submarine" switch is still there? Just looked at Google maps, looks as if the lead to Coors and Diamond Shamrock is long gone. If I recall correctly that submarine switch used to take us out on Bay St.

Pretty amazing seeing the big power out there...

sphogger

I'm curious to know what the story is on the Budd Vista Dome car. Does anybody have any information about it?

Should have known shed47 would be out there. Also saw another photo taker at Chesapeake crossing shooting the rail train going away as I was leaving this afternoon.

Photo 1: Crossing Veterans Blvd

Photo 2: Crossing Chesapeake

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Any idea on what days the new rail will be put in place? That would make for some interesting photo sessions, also.

Great pictures. This not the lead to the Dumbarton Bridge right? If they ever build that I could not see lots of trains street running on this line.

Nothing like the old days...sittin' at Donovans Burger Stand watchin the trains on Chestnut street...dang, I am old...LOL

This is not the dumbarton lead. this is the port of redwood city lead that dead ends at the port. I work at the end of the granite rock lead and heard him blowing his horn this morning wondering what was going to the port. I guess now I know. All the old switches off the port of redwood city to bay street have been removed about a decade ago when the re-did chestnut street. The only customers left that I know of are lyngso ( covered hoppers filled with rock), granite rock (hopper cars for cement), BCS (tank cars with acid), and cemex (covered hoppers) It'll be interesting on when they replace the rail because the ties should be replaced too. Also if the ties are replaced it'll be a hell of a job because all the ties lie in hard to silty dirt that becomes mud in the winter. That's why the broadway local always derails during the winter months at least twice a year.

Railbaron Wrote:
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> Boy, Chestnut Street sure has changed a LOT since
> I used to rumble down the middle of it going out
> to the harbor.

The Chestnut in-the-pavement street trackage was completely rebuilt well over a decade ago(and all spurs off it removed). For the most part the track is in a curbed median but also occupies rubberized surfaces in several left turn lanes. Served five nights a week by UP's So. San Francisco-based Broadway Local.

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There was a branch that ran across Woodside road that had overhead crossing signals, it went between some buildings on a curve and then seemed to continue towards the old Ampex complex.
Gone.
There was a chemical operation of some sort behind the County yard, on that same branch next to Longs. I heard that went to East Palo alto and has recently been moved again towards Arizona, lots of clean-up there though. The property is a big glass building last time I went through, not even noticeable anymore, fits in with all the rest.
There is still a little casual restaurant on Chestnut, looks out of place. Harry's is still on el Camino though, awesome.

Here's a site that was posted on TO before, I think it's the Redwood City Library but it also goes up to the old South City feed lots and Bethlehem Mill:
http://www.plsinfo.org/bitsofhistory/owninglibraryrc.asp

The track that crossed Woodside Rd was the industrial lead that went back in to the original Coors Beer distribution building. It was later moved to Redwood yard from what I understand. This RofW still shows on google maps.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=401+broadway+redwood+city,+ca&sll=37.486948,-122.214017&sspn=0.012906,0.017145&ie=UTF8&ll=37.48648,-122.212762&spn=0.006453,0.008572&t=h&z=17

I can't remember other industries back in there, maybe an old spins book might show something. Was there a lumber place back in there?? Diamond Shamrock was a chemical plant that was switched off of Bay Road. Looks like something entirely different now. The landscape around Redwood City was much different 30 years ago in terms of SP. Ampex HQ was at 401 Broadway, looks like something else now as well.

sphogger

All I can say is.....WOW !!
I lived within walking distance of that whole area between 1973 and 2002.
The only reason that Chestnut St. was redone by the SP was that the City wanted to redo the street pavement. Before the tracks were redone the rail looked as bad as the stuff out at the port. If my memory serves me correctly, SP dug out the sub-roadbed down to 5 or 6' and put in membrane cloth and over sized ballast, all done to keep the rail from sinking into the bay-fill mud as the earlier rails had done.The entire area north of the SP mainline to SF Bay was a combination of pasture land and meandering creeks, which was turned into housing/industrial sometime in the 30's.

DaveL

sphogger Wrote:
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> ... I wonder if that "submarine" switch
> is still there? Just looked at Google maps,
> looks as if the lead to Coors and Diamond Shamrock
> is long gone. If I recall correctly that
> submarine switch used to take us out on Bay St.
>
> Pretty amazing seeing the big power out there...
>
> sphogger


Yeah, GR, the entire "Land Development" lead is gone. Diamond Shamrock, the chemical place right off Chestnut is now some huge shopping mall or something (Chestnut & Bay St.). It also looks like Accoustalite is gone and they've filled in a lot of the salt ponds, especially next to the cement plant. Yep, things gave changed since we were down there.

Hey, GR, you're on vacation; go down and relive the "Redwood Local" days by having a piece of pie at Stuckneys (or whatever the name of that place was). <G>