From time to time I check out the progress of the Niles Canyon RR pushing their railhead towards Pleasanton. From the looks of things, the track work has been terminated just past the overhead UP railroad bridge since the last image was taken just about 1 year ago. It looks like the grade has been prepared most of the way into Pleasanton, with even a section of track built on an OH bridge and track installed in a future grade crossing. I also noticed dozens of track panels stacked along the ROW just beyond the end of track.

Is there any one obstacle keeping the group from pushing the track any further? It looks like there is 1/2 mile or more of track to be built before actually getting into the thickly settled area of Pleasanton.

Thanks for any potential replies. Inquiring mind would like to know!

Rob Gardner

Recently the Pacific Locomotive Association's (PLA) track crews have been focusing mostly on the operating section of the railroad between Niles and Sunol. 6.4 miles of railroad is a lot of work for a volunteer group.

When track was restored between Hearst Jct. and Verona Rd (the UP railroad flyover) the rail was plopped down on existing ties, nothing was really leveled. Over the past year our crews have been jacking, lining, tamping, and restoring shoulders along this section. Another problem is that nature has tried to take back the right of way. Trees between Sunol and Verona Rd. have become dense enough we cannot run trains very far up the line at this time. Once the vegetation has been brought under control and the existing track brought up to PLA's rather high standard, crews will continue construction East.

Track construction East of Verona Rd. will mark a new challenge for PLA...rebuilding track from scratch. Up to this point all mainline reconstruction on the Niles Canyon Railway had existing roadbed with most of the ties in the ground. From Verona to Pleasanton the roadbed was stripped of ties when the line was scrapped by the Southern Pacific. The Eastward push requires additional grading and laying of ties which makes construction more expensive and time consuming.

Johnathon Kruger
Road Foreman of Engines
Niles Canyon Railway

I'm certainly glad that NCRy plans to extend its line east.

That said, however, PLA could be easily forgiven if they decided to concentrate on keeping the line from Hearst and Niles operational. That, and maintaining a large collection of rolling stock would seem to be enough. And, as long as we're talking about NCRy, restoration of that K-M seems to be coming along rather nicely. Looking forward to seeing it on a future photo train.

The Krauss Maffei has been out for a test run. In case you have not seen it, there is a nice video on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHtxG3ibwnw
Cosmetic work continues.

Howard Wise
SP9010
Project Manager

Jonathon,

Thanks for the update. Are the track panels seen from Google Earth going to be used to extend the track east? Looking forward to seeing the progress in the near future. PLA has quite a lot to be proud of.

Rob Gardner

Yes, the track panels are staged for when work can begin.

Johnathon

Howard or Johnathon -

I noticed in the video of SP Krauss Maffei #9010 that there were some lower quadrant semaphores out on the line. None seem to be operational. Are there any plans in the future, to get these working?

Thanks.

Les

Les

Short term, no. There is interest in our signal department to try and get a portion of the line operational between our yard at Brightside and Sunol. Along much of the line there are a number of telegraph poles that are missing or require replacement which complicates plans on restoring signals along the route. Our signal department stays quite busy keeping all of our road crossing signals up to FRA standards.

Johnathon

To add to Johnathon's answer, the PLA holds the lease for the right of way into Pleasenton, but there has been some resistance from the community which might block reconstruction of the line past Bernal Ave.

Randy

Yes, all the land we occupy is leased from Alameda County. Our lease ends railroad West of Bernal Rd. and there is no way a crossing would ever be installed again across Brenal. Much of the rest of the right of way East of Bernal through Pleasanton is privately owned now.

Johnathon