Starting the morning of Tuesday January 26th all work on Main 3 has stopped while the UP 8911 West rolls by on Main 2 making the transition from power to dynamic brakes as the train starts down the west slope of Cajon Pass.
You can see the old rail laying on the right while a crane pulls the new rail into place on the special plastic pads on top of concrete ties. In the next photo I am looking west down the hill while the gang continues to work on Main 3 on the left. The Form B foreman has given us permission to occupy Main 2 in the middle while an eastbound BNSF intermodal train roars up the grade on Main 1 to my right.
Even though we have permission to stand here until the Foreman needs Main 2 to run a train and lookouts are in place, it still feels strange and I keep looking over my shoulder. Snow covered Mount Baldy in the San Gabriel Mountains can be seen above the train. In the third and fourth photos I am about 100 yards further west down the grade standing on the outside of the curve next to Main 3. While I am photographing each machine in the gang as it performs its specific task another westbound UP train on Main 2 where I was standing earlier starts the 25-mile, 3000-foot drop down to San Bernardino.
A few minutes later a BNSF train follows suit. Notice that both trains have ample head end power and take my word that both have single DPU’s on the rear. A few trains even had mid-train DPU’s. Every precaution is taken to make sure there are no more run away trains on Cajon Pass.
The day ended in time to get back to the hotel and have a good dinner and rest before starting the second day of the assignment at Summit.