Monday 25 March 2013

Day 9 - A 16 mile drive

Today was to be a back-up day in case nothing happened at Tehachapi yesterday. As it turned out, today is Monday and Monday is window day - where the Union Pacific & BNSF cease operations so they can carry out track maintenance.

Between 7:30 am and 4:30 pm we saw 3 trains and didn't drive any further than Monolith, 16 miles away - and that's all I'll say about that.

Thankfully I bumped into a UP signal maintainer early on and he was quite happy to power up his laptop and show me a graphical interface of the rail network and where all the trains were - it was looking pretty sad. Armed with that information we decided to head back to the motel and just chill.

By 5:30 pm it was all on again but the light was fading fast. Last night at Mojave. Wonderful place.




3 comments:

  1. Window days are annoying. Was the signal maintainer using ACTS?

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  2. I think I've heard of that before - it had a black screen, green lines and red blocks that indicated where each train was. Lots of data as well.

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  3. Yup that will be ACTS, you were in one of the few zones in the West that has ACTS coverage. Pretty neat stuff, every "device" on the line broadcasts its status, so points, track circuits, switch heaters, etc.

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