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They stopped wyeing the train in Bakersfield at least 4 years ago. Amtrak moved to its current station in July 2004. It was an Amshack about 1 mile uptrack before. Coming Northbound out of Bakersfield, you can still see the discoloration from the old Amtrak sign on the old shack (right hand side). When the station moved down track the extra mile or so, it became just that more impracticle and time consuming to wye the train. The wye WAS at LANDCO-which was a solid 4 or 5 miles away from the OLD station. I actually timed it once-it took the train almost 20 minutes from backing out of the station to returning back to the station loco pointing North. The round trip to the wye might take at LEAST 30 minutes now...with turnaround times on the San Joaquin only being 90 to 120 minutes on average. And that's if the train is on time.
-------------------- Patrick Posts: 387 | From: Bakersfield, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Humor (and rumor) has it that time keeping improved on all LD's running on UP tracks when express service was eliminated...and some were quick to point out that it was because was not taking freight business away from UP anymore. Some claimed (including myself to an extent) that UP dispatchers were purposely sabotaging trains that were carrying freight cars.Forget the fact that time keeping improved because the trains WERE SHORTER and could achieve HIGHER SPEEDS. LOL
-------------------- Patrick Posts: 387 | From: Bakersfield, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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The San Joquin trains are a poster child for what ought to be done in a lot of other places. Multiple frequencies, reasonably fast, reliable, a cooperative host railroad, crews that really seem to like and take pride in what they are doing.
Posts: 2810 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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Ahhh...if every LD train could travel on BNSF trackage. LOL. Maybe someone knowledgable can anser this. Is there more double track on the San Joaquin line than on other lines?
-------------------- Patrick Posts: 387 | From: Bakersfield, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Gilbert B Norman: What of course is of interest is that since Amtrak withdrew from the business during the Gunn presidency, no railroad has considered operating a like service for their own account. This suggests that the business model was flawed from the "get go'.
Or was it a good idea that was simply handled poorly like so many other facets of Amtrak management?
Thanks for the birthday wishes And for the info! I learned something today Posts: 82 | From: San Lorenzo, CA | Registered: Mar 2006
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quote:Originally posted by amtraxmaniac: Coming Northbound out of Bakersfield, you can still see the discoloration from the old Amtrak sign on the old shack (right hand side).
Interesting! I saw the amshack a few trips ago and was wondering what it was... I assumed the new station was at the same location as the old one...
Posts: 82 | From: San Lorenzo, CA | Registered: Mar 2006
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quote:Originally posted by amtraxmaniac: Ahhh...if every LD train could travel on BNSF trackage. LOL. Maybe someone knowledgable can anser this. Is there more double track on the San Joaquin line than on other lines?
I would say NO. There is really very little double track on the BNSF portion. Looking at the situation as in the 2005 ETT:
Bakersfield Subdivision: 106.9 miles Bakersfield to Calwa (Yard just south of Fresno): There are two sections of double track, one 4.5 miles long and the other 3.2 miles long. There are 12 siding locations between these double track sections. At three locations there are two sidings, meaning that three way meets/passes are possible without anybody having to back out. Most of the sidings are over 8,800 feet in length and have 40 mph turnouts. All are over 4500 feet in length.
Stockton Subdivision: 194.1 miles, 169.1 miles used by Amtrak Calwa to Port Chicago connection to Union Pacific. In the Amtrak used section there are six sections of double track, totaling 30.8 miles, varying from 3.2 miles to 9.6 miles in length. In addition, there are 19 sidings. Thirteen of these are over 8,900 feet in length and have 40 mph turnouts. Thre of the remaining are over one mile, and the other three are shorter with low speed turnouts.
So what you really have is a mostly single track railroad, but with closely spaced high speed sidings. With good dispatching and heads-up operation, everything can move with vey little delay.
In my few trips between the Bay Area and Fresno, it is rare to go past a siding or section of double track without meeting something. There is also quite a lot of freight on this line.
The UP line is single track Port Chicago to Martinez where in joins the ex SP main line, and double track from there on to Oakland. Once west of Martinez, you have the Capital Corridor trains plus all the UP traffic going across Donner and also to Oregon.
So, in summary, the BNSF part is 276 miles with 39.5 miles = 14.3% double track.
Posts: 2810 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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And for the info! I learned something today 
