MNRR: From Tuber to Alturas

 

October 21, 2006

 

Who knows why I was out driving around that day?  All I know is I wasn't re-married yet and apparently had no life.  Or just too much time on my hands!  I think I was planning a trip out to check on the old USAF Over-the-Horizon Backscatter radar receive facility near Clear Lake, east of Perez.  That's been another of my photographing interests. 

Nevertheless, early in the afternoon of October 21 I found an eastbound MNRR train switching the Newell Grain Growers Association elevators at Tuber, California.

Of course, whatever plans I had for that afternoon were suspended, and I opted to chase this train as far as I could.  So come along with me on this photographic trek, won't you?

 

We pick up MNRR 1011 switching the Newell Grain Growers Assn. elevators in Newell, California.
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Personally knowing the General Manager of the railroad helps get some different photo angles!

Today's train will be running long-hood first to Alturas.

And here we go.

Entering Stronghold, CA about to cross the BNSF Gateway Sub
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Passing the potato sheds of Stronghold
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Passing Staley
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Going past the station location of Copic, where SP's Copic Turn used to pick up cars filled with sugar beets
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Copic, California a year earlier. There wasn't much at Copic; there's even less now. The siding has been removed, and the only railroady thing still there is a defect detector, at left in the distance.

Once upon a time, there was a station along here somewhere that was known as Cornell. And a bit of trivia, just because it was called a station does not mean that an actual depot ever existed there; it could have just been a passing track location, or the location of a train order station, or just a convenient way for a railroad to know where there trains were.  Today, the siding is long gone, and the area hasn't been known for being a high maintenance priority.
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Photo taken just north of where the previous photo was taken.

I like caboose shots.

 Stopping at Ambrose to set retainers for the trip down the grade
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Starting down the grade

See you at the bottom!
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Arriving safely at Canby, at the bottom of the grade.
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Don Blansett, acting Engineer, turns down retainers at Canby

Accelerating eastward out of Canby as we approach late afternoon on the high desert.

Crossing California Highway 299
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Losing my light somewhere along the way.

At Juniper... three stored tank cars on the spur to an old mill site that was once the home of the Modoc Railroad Academy.  There is still some older rolling stock stored there.
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Before long, the train passes Juniper

Waiting for the train to arrive at Alturas Yard.
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For some reason, the train never got there before I decided I needed to head back home.

Don't ask me what happened to it, for I know not. Perhaps they died on the law at the west end of Alturas, where the original SP station used to be, where the tracks pass under Highway 395. 

I've forgotten by now, but I can assure you there was no train wreck or anything like that!

 

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