Rotary OY Trip - 3, The Escalante Western

Hi, The Escalante Western is/was a railroad built to get coal from a Peabody Energy mine about six miles east of Crownpoint, NM to a power plant about four miles north of Prewitt, NM. The power plant was scheduled to close in April 2020 and with its closure the railroad would no longer be needed and would shut down.

The railroad consists of two short spurs splice by BNSF's Lee Ranch Sub Which runs from Baca on BNSF's Transcon to 43 miles to the Lee Ranch mine. The first segment is about two miles long from the power plant to Escalante Junction on the Lee Ranch Sub. The second segment departs the Lee Ranch Sub 22 miles north at Lee Ranch Junction and runs to the mine.

As we knew the railroad was scheduled to shut down it was the second main objective for our trip and Dave Busse and I planned to photograph it on Friday, 2/28, before heading to Chama, and on Monday, 3/2 as we began our return to the Los Angeles area. As it turned out everything went according to plan.

On the days the train operates it usually leaves the power plant between 7 and 8 AM. However, on Friday Dave spotted it on the road just about 7 AM so we immediately headed east and then north to get on New Mexico route 509. Between the road crossing just east of the power plant and the point where the railroad comes out next to NM 509 access is very limited and we were unfamiliar with the country. By heading immediately for NM 509 we were able to get ahead of the empty train. It is shown above and two below headed for the mine.

The train usually takes 1 1/2 to 2 hours to load so we scoped out a location along NM 509 (above and two below) and waited for it.

Then we took off for the Rout 19 grade crossing just east of the power plant (above and below).

On March 2 we decided to run non stop from Chama to the Peabody mine to see if we could get there before the train left. We thought we saw the train loading in the mine so again staked out a place to wait for it. It turns out we were wrong. The train was not loading in the mine. In fact a few minutes after we picked out our spot we heard a horn to the south and Dave spotted the empties (above and two below).

A little more exploration while the train loaded garnered this location (above and below) where NM 509 crosses the line north of Lee Ranch Junction on an over pass.

We then once again headed for the power plant. However, this time we turned east off Route 19 north of the crossing and went in to Escalante Junction. The photos (above and below) were taken from private property with permission.

Thanks for looking.

Rotary OY trip - 2

Hi, A night photo session was held following the plowing on Saturday, February 29. On Sunday, March 1, OY was to plow up to Cumbres and then down around Tanglefoot curve. Unfortunately the the flangeways for the rails crossing CO Rte 17 were filled with ice which the crew was unable to remove in a timely fashion. As it was feared the plow train would derail if it tried to cross Rte. 17 our time with OY ended here.

Once again, I have chosen a selection of photos taken on the second day to share.

I did not know how to shrink this photo so it would appear in its entirety here. However, if you click on it you can see the full photo.

Friend and expert driver Dave Busse (above and below).

The train plowed past Windy Point.

Next up the Escalante Western. Thanks for looking.

Rotary OY trip - 1, the plow in New Mexico

Hi, I spent February 25 through March 5 in the company of good friend Dave Busse railfanning in the Southwest. Our trip began when he picked me up at the Ontario, CA airport and ended there the morning of March 6.

The primary objective of our trip was to photograph the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad's rotary snow plow OY as it cleared snow on the west slope of Cumbres pass during the weekend of 2/29-3/1. A secondary objective was photographing the Escalante Western Railroad near Prewitt, NM.

I have decided to present this blog by covering the rotary snow plow first, the Escalante Western second, and BNSF (the railroad we photographed on our way to and from Chama, NM and the C&TS) last.

The first day of snow plow photography was between Chama and the New Mexico/Colorado state line. The photos here are in no particular order except that the first photo was taken at our first photo stop.

There were 150 of us on four buses. The buses would let us off at a photo stop, the plow would run by us and then stop, and the buses would take us to the next location. A contingent of New Mexico State Police controlled traffic in our viscinity. The railroad's staff did an excellent job of organizing this event.

This is just north of the first crossing of New Mexico route 17 and the railroad.

When I started to process this image I realized there was very little color so I decided to try it in black and white.

Thanks for looking.