Standing on the corner...

Today the weather just got better and better and I suspect tomorrow it will start to progress from warm to very warm.

Today's travels was half touristy stuff and half train spotting. We visited Meteor Crater which never fails to impress - another impressive hole that's not man-made.

We then went to Winslow, Arizona where we all did the obligatory "standing on the corner" thing on the official corner. For those of you not up to speed with this, The Eagles' song Take It Easy has the lyrics "I was standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona...." and "..it's a girl my lord in flat bed ford, slowing down..." etc.
So when in Winslow, you have to stand on the 'official corner', where there's also a flat bed Ford pickup. Winslow is a pretty small town so it's people are very friendly and were great to talk to. More Rte 66 fridge magnets for my daughter.

We then went back to Winona which is on the outskirts of Flagstaff to commence some serious train watching. The railroad many years ago called this place Darling and the name has stuck, with a small area being called Darling.

Being a Monday, the concern was that the BNSF Railway would not be running trains, however they did come, although in noticeably reduced numbers. Monday is generally a work day where track and signal maintenance is carried out and trains are not run. We more or less spent the entire afternoon here and the wind was noticed to drop over time.

We then relocated to the Rte 66 overpass from the previous night and caught a few more here, although we did have a one hour wait at one stage.

Shopping at Wal-Mart and retire early - the desert dry is taking it's toll - crack dry lips and early nights.

Jim is getting a bit annoyed with my timing - as soon as we turn up to a new location, a train is already passing through - never mind, there'll be another one.

More foreign power in the form of two Canadian Pacific units today, so that kept Jim happy.

Piccies below.

Standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona (insert piccie of me in there somewhere)

Foreign power on a BNSF stack train

The Darling Cinder Pit at Winona, where scoria is mined.

BNSF stack train at Winona

BNSF stack train at Flagastaff, Rte 66 overpass

Tail end charlie

BNSF trailer train at Flagstaff, Rte 66 overpass

Williams to Flagstaff

Today's drive was a short one on purpose - so we could sit around and play the waiting game all day - and so we did.

First stopover was the Grand Canyon Railway's station to check out the arrival of the GC train. Because of the number of tourists with cameras getting in the way, we re-located to a grade crossing by their depot so we could film the departure of this train.

Next stop was CP Chalender where the wind cut right through us. It was a clear day but the wind was really cold.

This pushed us further east to Parks where there was a bit of shelter and the peak of Mt Herbert could be seen above the trees.

Next stop was Flagstaff for lunch at an Irish Pub - excellent food (I had a chicken salad) and while sitting there, 3 trains went through.

Next stop was Cosnino Rd where we spent the rest of the afternoon.

Lots of BNSF stuff going on, but more important, the foreign power in the lashups - Canadian National & Norfolk Southern.

No piccies - it was all video today.

Kingman to Williams, Arizona

Talk about four seasons in one day - the day dawned bright, sunny, warm and partly cloudy. By the time we got to Seligman the wind had cooled a bit, and when we got to Crookton, it had picked up and off in the distance we could see lots of clouds oozing with precipitation. By the time we left Williams to go to the Grand Canyon, it was snowing !!

The road trip side of things was pretty good, departing Kingman and then following Rte 66 to Hackberry, Valentine, Peach Springs (no peaches) and Seligman, then Crookton Road (Rte 66) to I40 then Williams.

The trip to the Grand Canyon saw me having to pull over to the side of the road to avoid a definite head-on  - the car behind me did the same as well - it looked like a bunch of tourists in the car.

The only other excitement today was seeing a couple of hobo's getting a free ride on a train today.

The Days Inn at Williams is flash as.

Not many photos, but 11 trains filmed, although about 15 were seen.

Check out this guy.

Crookton Road Overpass

Crookton Road Overpass

A big ditch that the American's didn't build.

Needles to Kingman

Today we drove along Interstate 40 from Needles to Kingman, Arizona. The overall distance is not all that far, so most of the day was spent sitting, waiting and filming/photographing.

The day started at Park Moabi and Topock. At Park Moabi the tracks thread their way through the extensive gold mine tailings and just around the corner, there's a huge bridge across the Colorado River.

Last minute research had us exploring a potential location across the river at Topock which looked down on the bridge and tracks - chalk that one up for next time.

Next stop after a long drive was Kingman Canyon. Usually I'd follow Rte 66 into the canyon, however since it was late in the afternoon I went to the opposite side. Lots of trains - lots.

During the course of the day I filmed 21 trains, but in reality it was 24 as three of them were meets that occured in the same shot.

Tired, sore, cracked lips and sun burned again. Awesome day.

Piccies below:

BNSF intermodal at Park Moabi, CA

This is what the city of Needle is named after, the Needles Mountain range.

Chris Wilson doing his video thing at Kingman Canyon.

Kingman Canyon - no sunlight - another overcast day darn it all.

Hurtling through Kingman Canyon in low light conditions.

Kingman Canyon - again

Santa Fe unit on a Santa Fe bridge.

Mojave to Needles

Today we departed the chilling cold of the Californian west and crossed the Mojave Desert to Needles, on California's extreme east side - a total of 218 miles.

First stop was at Barstow where the group were allowed to look over the external exhibits at the depot, before popping off down the road to Daggett to commence some serious train spotting. Five trains seen in total, two of them using the Union Pacific line through Yermo, something I didn't see last time around. one of the trains that passed through had four GP60's on the point, which had us scratching our heads....

Leaving Daggett, we followed the old Rte 66 to Newberry Springs, where we caught up with the GP60's about to do some switching with a tank car that supplies fuel for the local gas station - then we clicked - this is the Cadiz Turn and it is now run with Geeps instead of the usual Dash-8-40B locos. This was confirmed when we saw said Dash-8-40B's on another train returning to Barstow. Not sure where they were coming from though.

Anyway, we continued east to Ludlow, where I pointed out the Pisgah crater and associated lava fields along the way, and at Ludlow we had the first of many meals that would be indulged there - we stay at Ludlow later in the trip.

From Ludlow we did the huge push along the very picturesque Needles freeway to Fenner, we we re-joined Rte 66, which we followed to Goffs and Arrowhead Junction - obtaining many shots at these two locations. It wasn't an exceptionally busy day on the rails, but it was enough to keep us happy.

Checked in to Motel 6 where the water pressure is somewhere between drip and dribble - it's only one night and will be struck off the list for next time. Billy Bob and Zeb were checking in at the same time, I suspect they're off to do some snake wrangling tomorrow or some gator wrestling, after spending all night playing in the local Recovering Alcoholics Blue-Grass Jug Band - if you ever needed an example of red-neck - these two guys were it.

Speaking of snakes, can confirm that they are out there. Will have to be especially careful at Kingman Canyon tomorrow.

I didn't take many photos but filmed some of the best shots I've ever done - so I've attached some video frame grabs as well.

The weather was fine and warm all the way across from dawn till dusk.

Video frame grab - Daggett

Video frame grab - Daggett

Video frame grab - Goffs

Video frame grab - Goffs

Morning shot from Mojave.

Morning shot from Mojave.

Morning shot from Mojave.

Morning shot from Mojave.

Some sort of attempt to be arty at Arrowhead Junction - yeah right - I was on the wrong side of the tracks.

A day on Tehachapi

Hoping for a fine, sunny, warm and windless day on Tehachapi Pass was asking too much. We awoke in Mojave to a a freezing cold wind that cut right through us - and for good reason - it snowed last night and the surrounding hills had a good dusting on them. We decided to venture back north towards Tehachapi Pass to see what the state of the play was and came across a few trains parked up on loops quietly idling - one of them was being snowed on, so we all jumped out and got covered in the white stuff to get the photo.

The town of Tehachapi was getting snowed on and it wasn't looking good. However the further we ventured, the better the weather became, and by late afternoon the sun was out and the wind was dropping. Here's how the day panned out:

Bealville, Tehachapi Loop, Tunnel 2, Caliente & Monolith. I hit the record button 15 times (15 trains) and took about 250 photos.

While at Bealville, the local Ranch owner came out of his house to have a chat with us and hung around for a bit telling us stories of rattle snakes, bears and mountain lions that live in the area....what?!? Bears and mountain lions?  Apparently a mountain lion was killed on the highway recently. I guess the local attraction of farm animals brings them in.

Tonight the sky is clear, but the wind blowing off the snow covered hills is a tad chilly.

We are now five - Paul has had to go to the UK to attend to urgent business matters and couldn't hang around for the remainder of the trip.

Piccies below:

I've finally photographed a train in the snow, while it's snowing. Monolith.

Tehachapi township.

Tehachapi loop. 

Tehachapi loop.

Tunnel 2, near Caliente.

Caliente horseshoe curve

Monolith.

From Fresno to Mojave

Today we relocated to Mojave.

After last nights rain, the day dawned foggy, but it soon burned off to reveal patchy cloud. We spent 30 minutes at the Fresno Amtrak where we caught a BNSF freight and Amtrak's San Joaquin service.

A quick at the BNSF depot at Fresno revealed that there were almost just as many Canadian Pacific units on hand as there were BNSF. There was also a Norfolk Southern unit sitting there to be photographed as well. We saw one train pass through but the view was blocked, but was going slow enough to be chased. It ended up being a UP manifest and it gave us no end of grief. It was pulling into many loops to allow others to pass, but we couldn't manage to film it.

We then had lunch at Tulare where we over to Cororan and highway 43 which we followed to Bakersfield, which was by-passed so we could get to Tehachapi sooner. Along HWY 43 the signals indicated that a meet was imminent, so we hung around, and sure enough, it happened within 5 minutes.

On to Tehachapi Pass, we stopped at Tunnel 2 and filmed a slow intermodal crawling up-hill - which turned out to be one of the trains we saw on HWY 43. We attempted a chase to Bealville, but it beat us.

Things then started to go astray - the intermodal just stopped on  the main line while climbing out of Bealville, so we continued onto the Tehachapi Loop at Walong iteself. Along the way we noticed 3 trains were parked up in passing loops before the loop, and another four were parked up on the other side. Nothing was moving.... and nothing continued to move for at least another hour.

A spot of shopping was done at K-Mart and we moved on to Mojave to settle in for the night.

The weather: freezing cold wind at Tehachapi township, but warm and calm at Caliente and Bealville. There is a dusting of snow on the hills and the locals are talking about more tonight - great. It seems that the foul weather is a welcome sight for the locals - the land is very parched - especially for Spring time.

Photos below:

BNSF depot at Fresno - arty reflection shot

Union Pacific manifest at Selma.

A meet along Highway 43 somewhere between Corcoran and Bakersfield - third unit is CSX - yay !!

Easy to take photos like these when the train isn't even moving. Monolith, between Tehachapi and Mojave.

Another one at Monolith, but closer to Mojave.