California State Railroad Museum Flyover
The CSRM's Museum Railroad, the Sacramento Central performs some actual freight revenue service. They serve the Setzer Lumber company located about a mile south of the museum grounds but located on a spur off the museum's former Southern Pacific Walnut Grove Branch. This is a unique operation, because there is no direct connection between the CSRM and the Union Pacific as Union Pacific removed the crossovers from the Cal-P line several years ago. To facilitate the freight moves and museum moves as needed. a removable crossing was set up and ready to install in a very short time. while the flyover is in place, the Cal-P line is closed. The pictures on this page are of the flyover crossing as my wife and I watched the operation take place in the spring of 2001. The pictures are copyrighted by myself and are placed here chronologically. Click on the image to make it larger.
UP and Sacramento Southern Crews wait while clearance is given by the UP
Dispatcher to close the Cal-P so they can install the flyover and make the
interchange of empties out and loads in. Behind me and out of the picture is an
SW8 with 3 empty Centerbeam flats, and a light GE 44 Tonner awaiting the time
for them to cross over the UP mainline.
Close-up view of the flyover part that is permanently in place, All the crews
have to do is to install the 2 30' sections of rail, bolt them to existing
rails, and use the clamp type locks on the tie plates.
Installing the first rail
Prepping the ties for the second rail
Locking the rails to the tie plates and bolting the rail heads to the existing
rails on the approach ramp
Completed flyover is inspected by UP MoW crew chief. At this point only 20
minutes has elapsed from the time the UP dispatcher gave the UP MoW crew track
and time.
Closer view of the completed flyover
Once cleared for use, the SW8 took the empties to the Sacramento yard to drop
off for the UP. The 44 tonner at the same time picked up the loads. here the 44
tonner is returning with the loads.
Close-up view of the 44 tonner on the flyover itself. once clear of the flyover
and the SW 8 right behind it clears the flyover. UP Crews took exactly 6 minutes
by my watch to clear the mainline and have it re-opened to through traffic. The
whole operation took 40 minutes.
The SW8 which is now light and right behind the train will take over the train in the Sacramento Southern yard to deliver the inbounds to Setzer lumber as the grade off the levee and into lumber yard is too steep for the 44 tonner to handle.
This is a great operation to watch, and for those of us that are modelers, probably a neat little conversation piece to model, not to mention a dispatch nightmare for those doing heavy operations on their mainlines.