I'm looking for info regarding signaling at Gold Run CA 1970ish, or...

[Ericmopar]

Hey people.
I'm looking for signalling info around Gold Run CA circa 1970, but current will do in a pinch.
I've been reading, that the sidings at Gold Run are strictly for MoW and RIP and aren't signaled. I can't see anything good enough on Google Satellite images.

Thanks Eric.

[BoostedFridge]

The siding at Gold Run is definitely used for regular freight use. Below is a link to a video from 2013 with an Eastbound UP stack train overtaking an EB BNSF manifest in the siding. I could see the two stub tracks there being used for MOW equipment or bad order cars though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnyS2Y7F8Dg

Below is a pic of the East switch of the siding. The image from Google Earth is blurry as hell, but there is what looks like a tall 'dwarf' signal for the siding track.

Gold Run East Switch.jpg

[Ericmopar]

Good work but alas it's the same info I've found.
That is probably something other than a signal, maybe an abandoned post for something. the other end of that siding has no signal at all and has a derail at the downhill end.
Also I've found good enough imaging to finally figure out the siding has manual switches not dispatcher controlled, at least at the west end. The signals at the west end remind me of "Vader" signals and are of the single head type.

The BNSF train is in storage for 2 days. That info was in another video.
In Google Street View pics of the west end of Gold Run, you can see the siding tracks are rusted up and virtually unused.

[BoostedFridge]

You're right about the manual switches. I guess thats a bit of a giveaway. I doubt UP or even SP would have converted from power switches on the siding back to manual ones.

The only other hint I could see of current use of the siding is there are several small piles of sand on the rails in the Google Earth overhead imagery from April of 2015. Looks like a train with 3 or so locos started out uphill from a standstill using lots of sand.

If you're really curious, I could ask on Trainorders. There is a lot of old SP engineers that frequent there.

[Ericmopar]

You're right about the manual switches. I guess thats a bit of a giveaway. I doubt UP or even SP would have converted from power switches on the siding back to manual ones.

The only other hint I could see of current use of the siding is there are several small piles of sand on the rails in the Google Earth overhead imagery from April of 2015. Looks like a train with 3 or so locos started out uphill from a standstill using lots of sand.

If you're really curious, I could ask on Trainorders. There is a lot of old SP engineers that frequent there.

Go for it, I'd love to hear what they say.

The more I look at the one image, it does look like a small signal of some type, but then the question becomes, why no signal at the other end?

[BNSFdude]

Related in a way.
We had an industry in St. Paul that was signalled out, but was protected by an ESL (electric switch lock, which you had to get permission on from the Dispatcher). If the signal didn't give you a proceed indication out of the industry (usually a restricting) you had to get authority from the Dispatcher to pass the signal displaying stop indication.
Note Permission and Authority on the railroad are two different things.

[cnwfan]

Here's the same view using Bing Maps. More modern day than the Google photo, but the principles are the same. The Google photo is blurry, but the siding signal looks like a drawf on a tall post, which SP did use to protect sidings (ABS and CTC territory). In this photo, there is a searchlight signal post minus the signal head. The signal would have been used back the ABS current of traffic days to protect the manual switch. Signal would go red if the manual switch ahead was reversed. Marc's Tehachapi route has a drawf on a tall post that should fit the bill nicely.

goldrun_ca_bingmaps.jpg