Random amusements

[brooksmoses]

Lately, I've been spending a lot of time on Caltrain, and a couple of months ago I was randomly thinking of the concept of "trainspotting" (that is, keeping a log of the various locomotives that one sees, since the railroad has been kind enough to place large identification numbers on them for the convenience of people engaging in such endeavors), and decided to keep note down the various Caltrain locomotives that I saw. The locomotives are all named -- well, the regular ones are; the bullet-train locomotives just have numbers -- and the names seemed to correspond to various stations on the route, so that added a bit of interest to the game, as well as meaning that the edge of my schedule was a convenient place to note down the numbers.

And one of the things that I've discovered from this is that even something as seemingly mundane as the locomotive names and numbers has many little entertaining and interesting things in it, if you look at it closely enough and actually pay attention.

For instance, there's the "Atherton" (914), which is now sort of orphaned -- there's still an Atherton station, but it's not on the main schedule, because the weekday trains don't stop there any more.

Most of the trains have the same name as "their" station, but the "California" (916) doesn't; its station is "California Avenue" in Palo Alto, but I guess naming a locomotive after a street seemed silly.

There are a few Caltrain runs that go past San Jose south to Gilroy; I believe that's a somewhat recent addition. And this is echoed in the fact that the "Gilroy" (917), "San Martin" (921), and "Morgan Hill" (920) are near the top of the list by number.

And then, of course, there are the exceptions, that prove that things are never as simple as they appear at first glance. I always thought that all the locomotives were named after stations on the route, and two months of keeping notes didn't provide any counterevidence. But then today I happened to see the "County of San Mateo" (918), which is rather surprising, considering that I'd already noted down the "San Mateo" (902) several weeks earlier. I'm guessing there's a "County of Santa Clara" as well, probably numbered 919, but I haven't seen it.

I also haven't seen the "San Francisco" yet, either. Or, for that matter, a "San Jose". I wonder if maybe those were older locomotives that got retired, or something; I haven't seen numbers 900 and 901 yet, which are the ones I'd expect to have those names.

Comments

[kiya]

Riding on the City of New Orleans
Illinois Central, Monday morning rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Three conductors
And twenty-five sacks of mail.

Also, necturus should read this entry.

[akosut.livejournal.com]

Yes, 900 is San Francisco and 901 is San Jose. I had always assumed the California was named after the state, not the stop, given the locomotives named after counties, but I bet you're right. 922 is Tamien, which isn't a city either. And while generally only the F40s are named, one of the MP36s is also: 925 is the Jackie Speier.

There's a complete list at http://www.caltrain.com/caltrain_commute_fleet.html

[brooksmoses]

But that would be spoilers!

Hmm; I see that I was right about the 919 being County of Santa Clara, and the only one other one I was missing was the 913. Apparently I was wrong about the Gilroy-branch engines being later, though, since the Gilroy was in the original 1985 set (though the other two and the Tamien are from a few years later), and it doesn't say anything about the 900 and 901 being retired, so maybe they just have them on trains that I don't usually see. Thanks for the link!

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

Funny you should post about this. Lately I've been thinking about trainspotting at work. There's a railroad track in front of our building: it seems to be just used for freight trains, but last week we also got to see the Ringling Bros train when the circus left town.

[leback.livejournal.com]

Lots of the stops aren't named after cities, really--do they all have locomotives?

[anghara.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of the "orphaned" engine, with no station to call its own any more. there's a "flying dutchman" kind of story in there somewhere if you dig for it hard enough...

[akosut.livejournal.com]

They are all place names except Tamien (922), the very last F40 Caltrain purchased. Of the rest, only California, County of San Mateo and County of Santa Clara are not cities served by Caltrain, and the other names are exactly the set of cities with Caltrain stations. I still think California is named after the state, especially when you consider that until 1991 (long after the locomotive was named), Caltrain was operated by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans).

One does have to be slightly suspicious, though. Locomotive 917, named Gilroy, was purchased in 1985, yet Caltrain didn't start service south of San Jose until 1992. According to http://www5.pair.com/rattenne/caltrans/CT_DetailedRoster.HTML it was unnamed until 1993.

[leback.livejournal.com]

I didn't know Tamien wasn't a place name... So if I understand you correctly, there's no San Antonio locomotive, or Hillsdale, or Hayward Park, or Broadway, or Blossom Hill, or...? In that case, yeah, I would be inclined to suspect that you're right about California.

[brooksmoses]

Hee. So my guess about the Gilroy-branch locomotives being named later was right after all.

You're probably right about the California, though, yeah, since the others are all cities as well as stations.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of the "orphaned" engine, with no station to call its own any more. there's a "flying dutchman" kind of story in there somewhere if you dig for it hard enough...

Or the train whose home station is "Special Service" or "Not Taking Passengers"...