Sunol Train Ride

Saturday afternoon, March 22nd, Frank and I decided to enjoy a train ride on the Niles Canyon Railway. The drive to the starting point at the Sunol Station, about 10 miles southwest from our home in Livermore, took less than a half hour. The roundtrip train excursion from the Sunol Station to Niles District and back would last 1 hour and 20 minutes. We chose the trip option that left at 1:00 pm. 

The weather was sunny, gorgeous, and pleasantly warm. We chose to sit in a covered but open air car and were rewarded with a lovely, gentle breeze. Once on route we passed other railcars, railroad crossings, and just the general steep hillsides of the canyon. 

On an adjacent track was an M200 refurbished rail car. Frank, Alex, and I had taken a ride on that vehicle shortly after it had been released for transport in August of 2022. Frank is wearing the hat he got as a souvenir from that ride. The skunk logo is symbolic of M200's nick name. Per my 8/28/22 blog post for that outing, when

 M200 had been used as a commuter bus, its route went past some fish processing yards, ripe with the stench of rotting fish. The name stuck and was adopted as a logo.

When the train's route passed very close to the road, on the opposite side from the M200 tracks, I snatched a quick photo of the railroad crossing signs, too.

The train tracks wound through a canyon. Our perspective from the railcar made it impressively clear just how steep those walls were. The track itself remained fairly level. The elevation at its start in Sunol is 266 feet above sea level. Our ending point in the Niles District of Fremont is about 200 feet lower.

We ended at the Niles Depot Museum, the same area where Frank, Alex, and I went antique browsing earlier this year in February. There was no disembarking in Niles this trip, but we were OK with that. We got to watch how the engine decoupled and navigated to the other end of the train for the reverse trip back to Sunol.

I risked life and limb (really, only my cell phone) by leaning out the window for these shots as the engine trundled by and passed to the far end. I had to snap my shots swiftly because all those other pesky passengers were hanging their heads out the windows as well. Some of my photos are not as level as I would have liked, but I left them crooked lest I crop out too much of the engine.

Our route ran along side the bubbling waterway known as Alameda Creek. In looking it up I learned Alameda Creek is an antecedent stream, which means it is a stream that maintained its original course and pattern despite the changes in underlying rock topography. Like the Grand Canyon, it kept eroding soil to maintain its path as hills rose on either side of it.

We were in the second car of the train on the trip out. On the return trip we were the second to last car from the engine. This vantage point allowed me to zoom in and catch a glimpse of 1423 as it rounded a bend.

Bobber cabooses, especially red ones are Frank's favorite. Bobber Cabooses are known for their wooden bodies, 4 wheels, and single-truck frames. Allowing little stability, they bumped and swayed while in motion – hence the “bobber” nickname.

Here is Frank posing next to 1423, the engine that pulled us for our afternoon ride. In general locomotives have numbers for names. There are a few legendary exceptions like the Wabash Cannonball and the Flying Scotsman but in general they have numbers. The first photo shows off the locomotive; the second photo shows off Frank! He and I had a fun time.