A Rocky Sunset. With it's day of dumping riprap along the Surfline complete, today's work train has just taken on its new crew at Calafia Beach as the sun closes in on the horizon to bring another day to a close. While not entirely successful due to an unwanted quantity of dirt ending up in the loads that made dumping the cars difficult, today's train managed to dump more than 20 cars before the original crew began getting close to their hours of service. Riprap trains like this have been coming down the Surfline almost daily to dump between MP 207.6 and 207 in an effort to try and shore up the rocky defense between the pounding waves and tracks after this section of the line began geologically unstable. On top of passenger train service begin suspended for more than two weeks (tentatively scheduled to return October 3), freight service was also temporarily. The severity of the situation extended to houses located just above the work zone as well as large cracks in backyards and homes were discovered, proving that the earth was becoming unstable below ground level.
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)