Wish You Were Here ... Volume 04 - Cajon Gathering #1

Wish You Were Here ... Volume 04 - Cajon Gathering #1 - 01/15/05 ... Posted on: 03/30/05

Wish You Were Here - Volume 05 .... 2005 Cajon Gathering Number One - Jan 15th 2005

Cajon Pass is a mere 60 miles away from where I live so organizing a large group of friends to gather for a day out on the pass is not really all that hard. This trip was acutally planned tp take place the weekend before, but Saturday the 15th of January worked for more people so that day was set forth. The group consisted of myself, and fellow railfans that hang out at Fullerton Station on Friday & Saturday nights. Some of us met at Fullerton Station to caravan out to the Cajon meeting spot at Cleghorn Road, but most of the other's drove. The meeting took place and it was determined that a few of the guys needed to Adventure Day passes since we would be in area's that required them in order to park vehicles. The forest service actively patrols the area to make sure they are visible. So, the rest of the group decided to head up route 138 to meet at the Garden at MP 58. Jerry, Brett, Rick and myself followed up after the three of them purchased their passes. As we got up to the garden it became clear that the rest of the group was not there. It turned out that somebody was set up just west of the area and would effectivley be in everyone's west facing photos.... so they picked a place west of the other railfan and back on a nice mole hill that stares straight down to Dell as the trains climb out of the Alray area. We had I think 9 cars up there so finding a good spot with adequate parking was choice.

UP 3869 heads down the hill passing the Garden with a train of autoracks.

My first photo was taken after a brief pause trying to find the rest of the group at MP 581

Another view of UP 3869 with a train of autoracks.

Rick and Gordon listen for a whistle in the distance.

And one more view of the UP 3869 leading west down the Cajon Pass with a beautiful snow covered mountain scape in the background.

Jeff and I hiked up to the ridge between the UP and BNSF in order to get a few new angles on the area. Here a eb BNSF train passes the rest of the group.

Mixed into the eb BNSF was this TFM engine. Scott calls these "Trains From Mexico"... I like it and this SD40-2 was a good catch for my engine photo area.

UP 5781 showed up as anticipated with a nice manifest train up on the UP Palmdale Cutoff as I sat between the two mainlines up on the cliff area.

Here is a wider angle of the spot I was sitting at. The left track is the BNSF and the right is the UP Palmdale line.

This set of SD40-2's were working as helper duty and are seen here heading down the south track to assist an uphill train

And one more view as the train forks to the left. Jeff was hiding out on the little hill on the right just out of site.

These hoppers caught my eye mixed into the manifest mid-train.

I made it back to where the group was so I could get some refreshments and socialize a bit when this wb UP train showed up with UP 3885 leading.

I started heading back when I heard an eb BNSF train blow for the tunnels, so I turned at waited for them to show up.

CSX 7396 was mixed into the consist next to a BN SD60m. I turned to face east for a semi-glint photo capture.

At the end of the eb stack train was the other set of helpers assinged to the hill for the day. Here is BNSF 6344 on the end.

And I took another photo of it coming up on Phil and Ken who were standing in the wide open space between the two lines.

Two camera's were taking in the scenery of the majestic snow covered mountain range - I joined them.

Next coming down the hill was a BNSF empty trailer chasis train led by BNSF 5359

Here is Scott with his ATCS and chef-boy-ardee breakfast (cold)

Jeff had injured his ankle earlier in the week and took advantage of a break in the train action to rest a bit and get his ankle elevated.

Finally another westbound was spotted coming down from Summit so Ken and I drove down to the south track and crossed over for a different view. A few of the other guys joined us before the train arrived at our location

Same train and we see BNSF 5217 passing bye Gordan and a few of our parked vehicles.

And another view as they approach the signal and a strange word filled the air "Swift"

The rest of the crew including myself were ready to move to a new location, however Jerry and Rick were still hanging out at the tunnel's waiting to catch an eastbound coming through, so I waited at Dell and the rest of they guys went to set up Camp Bass at Silverwood.

The UP trains was a mixed manifest and had a short section of cement hoppers tucked in the middle. GACX 258 caught my eye.

Next up the hill was BNSF 833 with a trailer train.

UP 5724 caught me by surprise as I was taking a micro nap in my truck. I got the camera on in time to catch this photo.

After 833 came through I decided to drive up the manitainer's road and pick up Jerry and Rick so we could all move on to Camp Bass. Before we left the area though BNSF 4835 brought a manifest train up the hill. I photographed that one from the truck. The Garden was now vacant, and from what I could see, there was another westbound coming down the hill. Neither Jerry or Rick had been to the Garden before so instead of heading to the Knoll at Silverwood and Camp Bass... we detoured to the Garden.

Here is BNSF 4835 mentioned above in the text.

BNSF 4026 seen from the veiw point of MP 58 as it comes down the hill

We hung around at the Garden for a little bit and relaxed in the shade of the tree's and read some of the journal entries - made new ones. Then started our short trip over to the Knoll at the Silverwood connector. This is where the UP and BNSF have a crossover track and the south main also branches away from the north main.
The rest of the group had set up what I called Camp Bass on the knoll. This consited of an easy-up shade bordered in by vehicles to create wind breaks, a table was set up in the middle courtesy of Brett and ATCS was running on the lap top. It was a nice crafty set up wich gave us all the more reason to pretty much tie up the rest of the day there and relax as the trains came and went on either side of us.
Jerry and I broke to McDonalds for lunch and returned to eat and take in some more trains... but that was after our first two trains came up the hill.

Mixed in the middle were 4 GT (Grand Trunk Western) box cars... cool to see them in a row.

BNSF 4756 was our first train here, and it is seen pulling the Kaiser Hauler up the hill.

Next up was a BNSF trailer train with BNSF 4422 on the point. After this train Jerry and I went down to grab some lunch.

Again we seemed to catch a break in the rail action so Ken set up look out near the Silverwood landing pad and surveyed the landscape with some high powered binocs.

We arrived back in time to catch BNSF 4502 bringing a mixed train down out of Summit.

Scott started what I think was his third can of Chef-Boy-Ardee and chased it down with a Coca-Cola Classic as Jeff relaxes and takes in the view.

BNSF 5054 brought the last of the group of southbound trains down the hill

My final image from in the hills was this helper set coming back up the hill. They paused breifly to greet us and chat a little bit before continuing up to Summit or points beyond.

BNSF 977 was next in the onslaught of westbound trains. It was seen here leading a trailer train past the connector.

Next coming down the hill and taking the connector to the UP palmdale line was the M-BARWCL which is the manifest train BNSF interchanges with. It runs from Barstow to West Colton and back with new cars. Today's train was lead by BNSF 5074

After Silverwood, we tried our luck down at Swarthout Canyon, but the mountains quickly swallowed up the light, so we started our journey back home. Along Cajon Blvd the trains were all lining up to go up the hill with the exception of a few. Brett, Bob, Scott and I traveled Cajon Blvd taking in as much of the light left to get a few extra images.

This nice engine set of EMD's was sitting at Verdemont with a short Herzog ballast hopper train.

I ended up back at Fullerton, I was really exhausted but decided to hang at the station for a bit. So my final images of the trip / day took place with a BNSF eastbound train stopped in the station on a red signal.

CN 2424 was the third engine back. These engines are distinctivley Canadian.

BNSF 5414 was on the point of the eastbound train stopped at the Fullerton Station.