November 2007 Arizona etc

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Tuesday 6 Nov: First train near Java, CA taken with the 400mm Blunderbuss
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Second train is a stacker loaded with MSC containers
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And lastly, an unusual load of parts for wind turbines. Well that's not a bad way to start the day
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A little further west... 
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Squiggly trains cross at the Java loops
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More of the same. This is quite a neat spot
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As the railroad heads down to the Colorado River, it passes through an interesting moonscape
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On the Arizona side, approaching the Colorado River
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Taken from the same spot, the above train can be seen in the distance as an eastbound comes across the river
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Darryl finally gives Kingman a shot, Its certainly easy to get to...
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This was to be the only decent spot the sun would let me have in Kingman. Yet so many people rave about the place. 
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A little closer to Kingman
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And to wrap up the afternoon, a grab shot past the nicest smelling sewerage ponds ever. In Kingman, their shite don't stink.
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What better way to finish the day than at the Sportsman's Bar in Kingman. The awful wine is tempered by the BNSF mainline being right across the road 
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The next day I was up a little later and moving a little more carefully than usual. Things were also running a little slowly for the railroad this morning, as it took forever for this to come by. I filled in the time by identifying 7 different calibers of bullet cases.
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Back at the river again
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And again
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And again
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And again - awesome captions dude
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Near Park Moabi road
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Boing. You wouldn't want to see one of things with a hangover
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The KCS Southern Belle was a pusher for the stack train pictured above
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Just west of the Colorado river I went for a wee climb up the hills to get a few shots in the strange scenery.
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The same train for some non-variety
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The view looking east. Decent from this spot was by way of a controlled slide to the bottom. And in a first, I didn't fall over...
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A BNSF manifest climbs up from the Colorado River. As viewed through the 600+mm of the Blunderbuss on the 40D. With all that excitement over, it was time to visit Oatman.
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In this picture, our hero grimaces as he has just backed into one of those cactuses
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Cruising the old Route 66
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Oatman was a bit touristy for my liking, with its burros walking the streets and pooping everywhere, although they did have a nice pub, which was wallpapered in one dollar bills. The scenery on the climb to Sitgreaves Pass (between Oatman to Kingman) at sunset was nothing short of spectacular. And what a road! Serious windy driving material.
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Burro on Sitgreaves Pass - old Route 66
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Next morning saw me heading east to the Crookton overpass to capture this fine set of local power
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Just down the road, another eastbound leaves Seligman behind
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 And then it was back toward the west. An uncropped version of this pic is here
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Pica in awful heat haze. Must come back another time when its cooler
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More Pica
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Can never have too much Pica
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OK, that's enough Pica
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Just west of Pica and up the hill a little bit, I took about 5 trains that look like this. I think we could call that a waste of an afternoon.
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Mmmm, warbonnet
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Pica from the west end 
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And again as the sun sets
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Day 4 is a bit of a washout.  I chased some blue sky east from Seligman for a few hours without catching it before stumbling upon the impressive Canyon Diablo and its bridge.
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Luckily, the skies gave a little light
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And plenty of trains in the hour I was there
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And that was that. The Meteor Crater up the road was worth a visit. Winslow less so, but at least I can say I was briefly Standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona...
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Saturday Nov 10 is Crozier Day and the decision to stay an extra day is rewarded with SUN!!!
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Crozier is such an amazing place to go for a walk
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The same train - ah the beauty of having two camera bodies
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And what a day for it
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Trains and fall color
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Autoracks east
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The cutting at the west end
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Then it was time to go climbing
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Wheee!
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Damn eastbounds
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Love the view from up here
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Machines in nature
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A nice Ntrak module for someone
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Crozier from the canyon rim
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Coming through the canyon in the later afternoon
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Darryl gets screwed by too many trains for the third time
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Last train to wrap up an almost perfect day

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