The Spectacular Sacramento River Canyon | Jan 17, 2026

Welcome to another Railfan Dan production. This is the spectacular Sacramento River Canyon, a stunningly scenic piece of railroad on the Union Pacific Valley Sub in Northern California. I caught three trains on January 17, 2026, all in different locations between Dunsmuir and Redding. I'm ashamed to say I've barely spent any time capturing trains here yet, but it went very well for only spending a single day shooting. The first train is a southbound manifest at Conant, passing Conant Siding led by UP 5912 along the Sacramento River. Looking just above, we see Castle Crags in the distance, which is an impressive rock formation. We will get a closer look at it later as well. I edited this video together in the order it was filmed, so we will see this train at a number of locations, and then follow the second train, then the third. This is in the morning at sunrise. Please hit that like button, it really helps the video! Next is Gibson at the north end of Gibson Siding with UP 5912 cruising into the sunrise. This is a real nice curve in the canyon. The last shot of UP 5912 is south of Delta, coming out of Tunnel 12. Shortly, it will make its way through Tunnel 11, and then on a bridge over the river. It's quite a spectacular section! After this, I raced back north to catch the southbound intermodal train, the IBRLC, which is Brooklyn Yard, up near Portland, Oregon, heading to LA, California. This first spot is north of Gibson at Tunnel 13, with UP 2522 in charge. After this, I barely made it to Lemoyne, just as our train was rounding the curve at the north switch of Lemoyne Siding. We can also see the snowy tip of Mount Shasta way in the distance. This is one of my favorite spots in the canyon! Next is Lakehead, where our train is starting to get into the area of Shasta Lake. It's a huge lake with many arms! Now a ways farther south, we're in Redding at the massive Redding Trestle, with our same intermodal train approaching. It has descended out of the mountains and into the Sacramento Valley. This giant bridge was built in 1939, standing at 110 feet above the Sacramento River and spanning 4,348 feet long. Though no longer in the canyon, the train will cross the river here momentarily. In a couple minutes, we will also see Lassen Peak to the east. Look close, and you can barely see the snowy tip of Mount Shasta almost 60 miles away! Way back north at Castella, we're back in the canyon with the final train, another southbound manifest led by UP 6291. The line crosses Castle Creek, and then the creek immediately flows into the Sacramento River. This is a signature location to capture that impressive rock formation, Castle Crags, in the distance. We can see the tip of a much closer Mount Shasta at this location as well. Now south of Lemoyne, the same manifest train heads through another section that was burned by wildfire some years back, though it is another nice segment of curves through the canyon. The final scene is south of O'Brien, back at Shasta Lake, with our train at the south end of Tunnel 3. This is a really cool spot, where the railroad and Interstate 5 cross over the lake on the same bridge. I-5 is on the upper part of the bridge, while the UP runs down below the road. The railroad then immediately heads into Tunnel 2 after crossing the lake. I hope you enjoyed this one! I sure had a heck of a fun day, finally spending some real time on this piece of railroad. Thank you for watching, and see you next time!