Any Oakland fans here

[ridgescan]

Sometimes my wife and I go do a trip to Oakland and I like to include Jack London Square in hopes of catching some freight street running. I got lucky once but only once. Anybody know what times in the day are heavy freight runnings? We have only gone midday. Also-frequencies? Thanks!

[Big_Ears]

I can recall my dad taking me down to that area when I was a kid. We use to burn up time while my sister was taking ballet lessons in Alameda. The busiest times use to be weekdays. This was before Jack London Square became a big tourist spot. The Southern Pacific line use to run about a block from the waterway, down the main steet and next to the KTVU Studio. The Western Pacific line was a couple blocks east twords I-880. I use to get a kick watching those freight trains going down the streets, while the cars run for their lives. It's been many years ago. I don't know if the rails are separated by now. We use to hang at the far northern area where the freight yard starts because that's where the switcher loco's use to go back and forth as they pushed railcars over the hump to get compiled. We use to monitor the Southern Pacific - Road Channel at that time. Perhaps the railway is operated by Union Pacific nowadays? That's about all I can contribute to this post.

[franks_ham]

Oakland is still pretty heavy for Freight traffic. You have the BNSF Warm Springs local going through around 10a-12p heading SB, then NB around 2:30p-5p. The AOASP/ASPOA as well as a couple other UP freights still come through Jack London. Plenty of Amtrak California (AmCal) action.

Although going West towards the West Oak yard would be a better idea, King Street is a great place to sit and watch them coming and going from Jack London. The trains still have street-running from CP N. Jack London to just shy of CP King St.

The local road channel is 46/46. The Yardmaster is on 46/46 as well as 66/66. If you have a good antenna and rig 42/42 is from Oakland Coliseum to San Jose, it used to be from 10th St. to San Jose and some crews still stay on it until 10th street although becoming rare.

I hope this helps!

Regards,

-Frank C.

[ridgescan]

Thanks to you both! Frank- thanks for the channel info-my Pro2066 desn't have the railroad svc. put in so I have to search the 160-162s in search mode Iwas out there last Thursday and I just rolled up to the gates as they came down and caught that southbound freight action-NICE. But then as the gates were on their way up and I started rolling forward, they came right back down on me, and I couldnt back up because the guy behind me rolled too!! So the gate came down onto my hood. I was VERY lucky-no dent or ding-just a few scuffs to the wax coat. HA! Imagine that- probably the ONLY train buff there and I get nailed at least they have that gate counterbalanced to come down onto a car very softly. Also, thanks for the time windows Frank-that'll help out a lot. I will check King Street too! I gotta get all this fun stuff in while I am out with this bloodclot!