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| After
getting up to Mojave in reasonable time on the Sunday night I figure I might as well
shoot something. The sun goes down much earlier in winter eh?
Around
5pm, BNSF 7526 and SF604 head this northbound past Monolith |
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| Next
morning, there is snow on the ground at the higher elevations as
UP 5436+5442+4299 wheel downhill out of Marcel |
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| UP5459
on the back as the trains heads down around the Loop |
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| The
next train is a UP uphill |
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| Followed
by the 'Rio Grande River' geometry car being towed by SD60M
8162. Cripes it's cold. |
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| Speeding
uphill toward Monolith |
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| And
pausing in the late sun at Summit |
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| Its
hard to pass up a train with 'short' power for a night shot, so
I have another go at this one at Tunnel 2 just as the rain
starts falling. Dash 9s 4475 and 5098 |
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| Tuesday
morning sees a little snow and a little sun about at Summit as a
northbound DPU waits for this southbound empty coalie to pass |
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| Coal
power - the GP60 started smoking ahead of the GEs as tradition
demands. |
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| A
set of grubby UP power coming downhill at the Cable Crossovers |
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| UP
pusher between Cable and Marcel |
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| BNSF
down through the white stuff at Cable |
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| And
that's such a nice scene it warrants two shots |
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| Then
I head for a walk a little further uphill to snatch a fine perch
to watch the proceedings from. |
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| And
I'm spent... |
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| To
the west, the weather has turned sour as a late afternoon BNSF
manifest heads uphill through the horseshoe at Caliente with a
pair of DPUs on the back |
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| The
nice clean warbonnet on the back of that train |
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Something
is wrong with this picture... #9 in a series: I was sitting by
the road crossing setting up for a twilight shot with the cement
works in the background when... a car rips across the crossing,
misjudges the angle, catches the rails and slides down the track
about 100 yards in a shower of sparks. Stuck. The driver was a
little shaken but fine. I called 911 + UP and eventually a tow
truck removes the misplaced
car. Weird.
After all of that: Monolith
at night |
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| If
this was cricket, Wednesday would have been called off as a rain
day, or more appropriately a snow day. After spending the
afternoon drinking grape knee-highs in the company of my laptop
at the City Slickers bar, I head out at sundown to see what I
can see - which isn't a lot. |
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| So
I end up... |
|
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| ...playing... |
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| ..in
the snow. |
|
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| Thursday
morning... and although the back road is officially closed
to through traffic, I head up to the loop anyway, because that's
not really 'through' is it? The car thermo says 7 degrees F
(-14C) outside and the the snow is thick on the ground
above Tunnel 10. This barely qualifies as a train picture thanks
to the UP leaving Marcel in the distance. |
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| The
same train approaching Tunnel 10 |
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| And
through Walong at the loop |
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| With
it's pusher |
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| Next
we have a BNSF downhill Z train - boy this snow isn't hanging
around |
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| And
then another UP train. Highway 58 was closed until 11am and it
was unbelievably quiet until the farm animals started up |
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| More
of same |
|
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| Ditto |
|
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| While
floundering through the snow back to the car, this BNSF stacker
shows up |
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| And
again... |
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| And
a UP loop panorama to round things out for the morning. |
|
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| After
some lunch, it's time to hit Cable for a pair of uphill trains |
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| Which
were supposedly being followed by a pair of downhills that
didn't materialize for a few hours |
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| That's
not a trailer, this is a trailer. - Crocodile Dundee |
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| After
a few delays another uphill finally arrives after the shadows
have destroyed my shot here, but I think it's made in the shade,
to coin a phrase |
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| Cable
sunset |
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| And
again to make up for the lack of shots yesterday. |
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| Meanwhile,
next morning at Rowan Bridge, a little snow remains in the
shadows |
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| Departing
Rowan |
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| "Rumors
of my death..." Warbonnet pushers at Marcel |
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| A
nice shot at Cable |
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| Passing
the cement factory at Monolith |
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| A
little snow remaining among the Joshua Tree desertscape at
Warren. Drat should have come over here yesterday. Boy, did this
little trek make a mess of my now-brown rental car. |
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| This
guy was stuck at Cameron for a few hours this morning with a
traction motor pinion problem. Here it threads through Cable
siding |
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| A
pair of following UP trains cross at the same spot during a
break in the clouds |
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| An
uncommon combo at the head of a baretable train approaching the
loop |
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| A
colourful mix between Monolith and Summit to end the day |
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| Old
warhorses |
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| Friday
morning and I still have my pacing lens on for this UP pig train
heading out to Monolith |
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| And
here it is again coming down toward Mojave |
|
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| ...where
it crosses an uphill with these interesting fellows in spots 2
and 3 |
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| So
I head back into the thick of it to be stuck at the head of a
zillion cars behind this big lump... |
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| So
Friday becomes another slow day. This monster UP manifest breaks
down on the Rowan bridge for a few hours tying up the whole
railroad until it eventually gets moving again. I made it 3
locos, then 78 cars, then three midtrain helpers with 38 cars
following. |
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| The
big manifest makes a triple meet at Summit as the tangle begins
to clear |
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| A
BNSF stacker heads down the loop with part of its train visible
in the distance ahead of the cab windows |
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| A
bird? A Downy Woodpecker? A Hairy Woodpecker? A Plump Red
Crested Powerpolepecker? |
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|
Here
a loaded coal train is about to enter Tunnel 2 in the snotty
weather that reached between Tehachapi and Sandcut. Haven't seen
too many of these coalies on Tehachapi.
|
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| A
new take on intermodal? The
neat combo that I saw at Mojave this morning finally makes it to
Sandcut in fading light at the end of the day |
|
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| A
pair of stackers crossing at Sandcut |
|
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| The
loaded coalie again at Sandcut crossovers in the last of the sun |
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| And
finally, it's pushers heading off into the sunset. That will be
it for the trains, thank you very much. |
|
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|
As
its name would suggest, Sunday was sunny when I woke after an
abnormally pleasant night in my $19 motel at Mojave. Alas a
cloud came over as I was getting the car defrosted at 8am, so I
headed to the Mojave airport to have a poke around. I
bumbled about and came across a bunch of people hanging out
behind a security fence the far end of the airport … turns out
this was to be the maiden flight of the White Knight 2 -
mothership for the Virgin Galactic commercial space program. It
took off without drama, flew up high for 40 mins or so with its
chase plane and landed to great applause from the Scaled
Composites people who built it.
History
in the making! |
|
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| Eve's
bottom. This thing has the wingspan of a B29 Superfortress
according to the knowledgeable people at Wikipedia |
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| Safely
down again |
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| Detail
from the above shot - note the 'evolution' markings on the
engine nacelles |
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