Community Response Locomotive Details Location/Date of Photo
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Locomotive No./Train ID Photographer
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Remarks & Notes
In a scene out of the midwest a lone air horn calls on a grade crossing echoing off ancient, ageless grain silos and blanketing the land in a soothing five-chimed sound of fierce dominate and reign over all within earshot. I am coming. I am here.
Yet. This is not the midwestern US. This is the western Sacramento Valley of central California along Amtrak Califoria's Capitol Corridor on a sunday afternoon where in just over six hours I photographed eleven trains at this location, called Tremont; which is five miles west of the university town of Davis.
While this train is flying at a brisk 80mph through California's heartland, these very trains have been racing through my heart since I was a boy; these beautiful machines that serve a magnificent but simple purpose - and it seems that millions of Californians agree on this notion. While 3000 feet to my right is Interstate 80 it was a complete parking lot from Sacramento to Fairfield; about 40 miles; while these trains made that distance at 116 feet per second. Meaning this entire trainset moves its own length in less than six seconds. For 96 miles - from Sacramento to Oakland. This trainset did that at least three times today.
While not the Heartland Flyer many conjure when hearing the term; this is California's double-deck, fast pace version. Cutting through a Greenbelt on a right-of-way nearly as old as the state itself - that's something to hold near and dear.
Taken with Canon EOS 60D f8 at 1/1000, iso 200
© D. Felice Strong-Baker Photo, All Rights Reserved.
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