For those of you in the SF Bay area, here are two suggested places to view the Union Pacific #844 in action soon after it leaves Oakland, headed east Wednesday morning 4/22/09. There are many others, but the following are two that I suggest if you are not familiar with the area. Both are close to freeway exits.
The #844 is supposed to leave Oakland at 9:00 am and arrive in Stockton at 11:00 am Wednesday morning, so the following two locations should see the #844 between 9:30 am and who knows when - this is a busy piece of (mostly) single track UP mainline so problems with either freight movements or the ACE commuter train could delay this schedule. 1. Hearst Siding (interesting history involving William Randolf Hearst of Hearst castle/Hearst newspaper fame) parallel to the Pleasanton Sunol Rd, between (of course) Sunol and Pleasanton. The Niles Canyon Railway will have two of its steam locomotives there under steam to meet the #844 as it goes through. UP told the NCRY folks that they would stop for a photo op if their schedule permits, but may just blast on by if they have a tight schedule. In either case, three steam whistles will likely be blowing! The two NCRY locos will be the Southern Pacific pacific-class #2472 and the Robert Dollar #3, a 2-6-2 tank loco. If you are using Mapquest or other mapping software, search for Pleasanton Sunol Rd zip code 94566. Hearst Siding is south of Verona Rd, where the NCRY crosses Pleasanton Sunol Rd. There is also a place where the NCRY crosses Pleasanton Sunol Rd right at Verona Rd, so don't get confused. If you are using Google Earth, see Lat 37.617422 Lon -121.878792. There is an embedded pointer on Google Earth for Hearst Siding (little blue square) but it is too far north, at least on my computer. 2. Uphill climb over Altamont Pass. The spot we have chosen is near the intersection of Altamont Pass Rd and Goecken Rd. zip code 94551. Goecken Rd crosses the UP mainline. GPS coordinates are Lat 37.725370 Long -121.692247 for Google Earth reference. I suppose if you are a really insane railfan, you could try to get to both places as the #844 will be limited to about 35 mph through Pleasanton and Livermore since both towns have at-grade street crossings. After the Hearst siding event, get back on Hwy 680 headed north, drive like crazy to Hwy 580 and head east. get off at Greenville Rd (last Livermore exit). Altamont Pass Rd intersects with Greenville Rd on the north side of Hwy 580. I saw Tom King and Paul Gamlin at the UP yards near Jack London Sq in Oakland this morning (Tuesday) checking out the #844 at rest so I know that someone has been reading my emails to the Live Steam list! _______________________________________________ SSLiveSteam mailing list Send messages: [email protected] Cancel subscription: http://postfix.45mm.com/mailman/listinfo/sslivesteam Rules: http://www.45mm.com/sslivesteam_guide.html
