I am gradually posting my photo collection on a photo sharing site called SmugMug. For those of you that purchase prints from me at swap meets, these are also available for purchase on the site, including the popular snapshot sizes! I never have the full collection with me at any swap meet – it’s just too hard to check to see which ones are missing. It’s also expensive (and time-consuming) to have hundreds of prints made and only sell a small percentage at any given show.
Please check out the site at djcooley.smugmug.com and leave a note with your comments.
UP 6562 West crosses under itself at Williams Loop on the Feather River Route in California, June 10, 2011.
Photo by David Cooley.
Despite many years of making long trips on Interstate 5 through California, I had never yet seen the California Northern Railroad in action. This time, however, I spotted a northbound from the freeway sitting at a signal near Williams. We jumped off at a nearby exit, but reached the frontage road just as the train began to move.
A chase ensued and it wasn’t difficult getting ahead of it, but finding a suitable place to pull over and get some photos proved to be more of a challenge than anticipated. The low-lying communication wires kept hanging down in front of the train!
It was hard to believe the clear, blue Californian skies in late November after weeks of grey in Seattle. The temperature was unseasonably warm, too, even for California. Overall I was pleased to get these shots and was surprised at how old-fashioned the GP15′s were looking. Must be age, I guess. Not theirs, but mine. That California Northern paint scheme still looks great to me and it looks like the railroad has been taking good care of its equipment.
The train’s immediate destination appeared to be a grain elevator just north of town, but we needed to get back on the freeway and couldn’t stick around to watch the switching. 
The train’s consist was boxcars, a few covered hoppers and a string of reefers. 
Not real long but respectable for a small outfit working a line the big boys had given up on years before.
(Reposted from original blog)
