UP 5488 West, a pig under rainy Winter skies

[Note: before we begin, I must greatly apologize for the change in my comments section.  You may notice that I have activated Blogger's Word Verification -- a ploy I most desperately despise -- because I despise the nature of Blogger's WV itself.  This has occurred because, during the latter months of 2012, I was bombarded by -- literally -- hundreds of spam comments throughout the depth and breadth of MP154.  I operate and control four blogs and this one is, for me, the most fun to run.  Resultingly, I tried to keep it the most "pristine" and unsullied by reality, if you will.  Reality, unfortunately, has now come crashing into MP154, and I have been forced into taking measures that are anathema to me.  I hope, frankly, that you will still continue to comment should you wish. --MP154.]

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High in the Sierra Nevada Mountains at the 4,000-foot level, less than a half mile from the original Central Pacific Railroad transcontinental tracks, I live in a two-story cabin that is now ensconced in the throes of Winter, despite all of the trials and tribulations this incurs.

There have been a few minor snowfalls, and a week of sub-zero temperatures which resulted in frozen pipes underneath the house and a nasty break.  Since then, the snow has been occasional, but the rains fairly consistent.  This video, recorded from a cell phone of all silly things, documents a Union Pacific manifest train rolling downhill towards milepost 152.  Please click on each photograph to enlarge.  These photographs are enlargements from stills of the video.

On point is UP 5488, a General Electric ES44AC, one of 141 such locomotives manufactured between 2005 and 2006 with 4,400 hp -- and labeled a C45ACCTE (the CTE for "Controlled Tractive Effort") by the Union Pacific.

Here, the video:


The YouTube link is here (3:27).  And, as with the previous post, this video was captured by a device that I'd never thought would result in anything approaching the quality delivered -- a Samsung Galaxy Note II cellular telephone.  As per normal, please click on the YouTube link for full expansion and listen with headphones.

As for the rest of the pig, the second locomotive was UP 7028, an elder GE C44 AC manufactured between 1995 and 1996 with 4,390 hp.  Third in line was UP 5271, a GE C45ACCTE with 4,400 hp and UP 5281 followed in fourth place, another such unit, one of 301 manufactured.

The DPU (Distributed Power Unit) was UP 7448, another GE C45ACCTE, manufactured in 2009, also with 4,400 hp.

Even now, as I write this in my second floor loft office (with window cracked open), I can hear another UP train approaching -- approaching the detector at milepost 154.4.

Hence the name of the blog.

Take care, be safe, guard your family and your assets in 2013.

MP154