Christmas '90 Train Trip

Hanging out at the bridge over the river in Dunsmuir - cold and snowy at 3:30 pm. The PTLAF is at Mott on his way down the hill, hopefully to pick me up and "whisk" me to Roseville. I saw Tom Track's and Old Bo's monikers from 4/30/90, the same weekend Shelley and I were up here. Unfortunately the first southbound was the UP detour train with only about a dozen cars, so I waited until 6:30 p.m. (3 more hours in the snow) and got the back end of a snow-filled hopper on the front of a mile long pig train. Had good but chilly ride to Roseville, but the train took the mainline to the west end of the Antelope yard to change crews, so I was again faced with the dreaded "Antelope walk". After coming in under the Rainbow Bridge at 2:30 am, by the time I walked back to the main yard and found an empty to sleep in it was 4:00 am. Weather is clear and cold - it's now 11:00 am and Bruce should be here in an hour or so. I met Bruce about 12:30 or 1:00 p.m., and we left to drive to Reno. We crashed in a boxcar in the yard with about 3 or 4 inches of snow on the ground and had a very cold night as it got down to 7 below! Got up at 4:30 am and went to the Casino to get warm. Drove to Carson City, found that the roads were too icy and drove back over to the Valley. It was 12 degrees in Carson at 1:00 p.m.! Drove as far as Stockton and got a motel cuz we were cold and not sure what to do. Bruce went on down south and I'm waiting for a bus to Sacto and Roseville, where I'll catch back up north and deal with frozen pipes, etc. It was 2 below at my house! I don't even want to talk about the bus ride - but I got into Roseville at 7:30 p.m. and slept in a wooden-floored boxcar. Great sleep and now (9:00 am) I'm waiting for a northbound - it was 13 degrees this morning when I got up. This cold weather is too weird! I caught out at 10:00 am in 21 degree weather on a piggyback and had a fast, cold ride to Dunsmuir.