There are very few industrial locos still working in the SF bay area. The first one is a 25 Ton Plymouth that is used to switch in the Northrop Grumman (formerly Westinghouse) facility in Sunnyvale, CA. This plant used to be served by the UP, but since the Cal Train upgrade of a year ago, the plant's connection has been cut. The other industrial locos that are still active are used to harvest salt from the salt ponds that ring the bay. The Newark side is still active. Salt is still shipped from here by rail, from what I have been able to see, boxcars. Here are some photos of the equipment that was used. Some of these locos started out as Vulcans or GE, and some are homebuilt based on CAT drive trains. Side Dump Cars [ July 11, 2005, 11:44 PM: Message edited by: Tom Daspit ]
Though not a locomotive, this neat contraption is used to break up the dried salt before it is loaded into the dump cars. The following shots were taken in 1996 in Redwood City. This plant has been shut down for a couple of years, we - the tax payers are paying a ton of money to return the ponds back to the bay. These are some of my first rail fan photos. They are not the best shots, taken during the rain with a telephoto. I need to find the photos and rescan them. There are some action shots, and a shot of the dump area. The salt was then pumped about a half mile away, onto a large mountain, at the Port of Redwood City. Then it was shipped out via boat. I spent one lunch out there watching them work. The track that was used appeared to be very simular to panel track. When they wanted to move it, they just pulled it over with a tractor.
This last one is stuffed and mounted in San Jose. I do not know how long that it has, it appears that the building behind is being slowly torn down. I know that I have probably missed some. I have a photo some were of the GE 44 Ton that works the Port of Redwood City, but can not find it.
Neat stuff! The salt equipment looks like two foot gauge. Salt must have been hard on their machinery. Interesting to see the rail setup used to tip the loads. Glad to see these preserved and displayed. I'll bet that few folks even know where their table salt originates! Boxcab E50
