OY Rotary Trip - 9, The tenth day

Hi, We spent our last night on the road in Kingman, AZ and then headed immediately into the canyon west of town. For me it was very illuminating. I learned there are places that were easy for me to get to (and I was never agile) in my 50s and 60s that are now out of the question. However, there are dozens of angles to shoot in this area so no one needs to go home without some pictures they will be pleased with.

While in the canyon we caught a westbound and

two eastbound trains (above and two below).

Dave is king of the mountain.

From I-40 a bridge can be seen west of the highway and I have photographed it with a couple of Santa Fe trains from the interstate's shoulder. I had always wondered if there was a way to get closer so while we were in Kingman I brought up Google Maps and found the way in. The photos above and four below were taken in the area closer to where the railroad bridges Sacramento Wash. The first four photos below are of eastbound trains while the fifth one is of a westbound.

Continuing west we got a grab shot of a westbound at Topack, AZ

and then stopped at Park Moabi, east of Needles, CA for an eastbound (above and below).

West of Needles we stopped at Arrowhead Jcn, AZ and got this westbound.

As we had heard Historic Route 66 was closed to through traffic we got on I-40 to Ludlow where we caught a westbound manifest train coming through town.

Then we headed east of Ludlow to find a grade crossing I had learned about from a video. While there we photographed an eastbound Herzog ballast train,

a westbound stack train (above and below) and

an eastbound stack train.

Our final shot of the trip was at Dagget. The track coming in from the left is Union Pacific's former Los Angeles & Salt Lake.

Thanks for looking.

OY Rotary Trip - 8, The ninth day

Hi, Having spent the night in Williams, AZ we continued our trip home with a stop on the Crookton Cutoff just north of town. This line, opened for service on December 19, 1960, eliminating many of  the sharp curves and grades of of the old main via Ash Fork. West of Ash Fork to Crookton the old main is abandoned. From Williams Junction to Ash Fork the old main is part of the route to Phoenix.

Soon after we arrived a westbound passed with DPUs (above and below).

Next Amtrak's Southwest Chief showed up (above and below).

Moving on to Crookton we stopped at the Route 66 bridge at Crookton. Here we photographed an eastbound (above and below),

a westbound stack train,

with DPUs,

another eastbound (above and below), and

a second westbound.

About a mile east of Pica we caught this eastbound.

At Pica, the site of a Santa Fe water pumping station, we photographed an eastbound baretable (above and two below) and

a westbound.

Moving west we stopped at Crozier where an eastbound and westbound met (above and below).

Next another train went east with DPUs

followed by a westbound.

Moving a little further west at Valentine we caught an eastbound with DPUs and

a westbound.                                    

The final train for the day was an eastbound in Kingman Canyon.

Thanks for looking.

OY Rotary Trip - 7, The eighth day

Hi, Days five and six of the trip were spent with the rotary while days four and seven were spent on the Escalante Western, all covered in blog posts 1 - 3.

It was now time to begin our trek back to California. We decided a revisit to North Guam was in order but we only had time for one train (above and two below) as there seemed to be a lull in traffic.

On a whim we took the Querino Rd. exit off I-40 near Houck, AZ and stumbled upon a rather interesting area (above and three below). Both trains were westbound. Hopefully I will get back for another, longer visit to this area.

After stopping on the east side of Flagstaff (above and below) for a westbound

we ended our day with another westbound passing the passenger station (above and below).

Thanks for looking.