Southwest Trip - 8

Hi, We spent the night in Kingman, AZ and headed for Crozier Canyon, about 1/2 hour east of Kingman, the next morning.  Our first train, a westbound, hit the detector a couple of miles east of the canyon as we were getting into position.

About 35 minutes later we heard an eastbound approaching and after about 10 minutes it came into view.

Another westbound, this one with a former ATSF GP60M splicing 2 former ATSF GP60s, showed up 35 minutes later.

We now decided to move further into the canyon.  However, at this point our trusty Chrysler Town and Country Van thought otherwise.  It got down off the hill from which the above photos were taken but spun its wheels part way up the next hill.  We backed it down into a wash and proceeded on foot further into the Canyon.  This eastbound train was shot from the first hill we walked up.

As we continued into the canyon trains kept running westbound

and eastbound.

Traffic was steady.  Here is another eastbound train.

We finally got to one of the best spots in the canyon.  However, clouds came up so I elected to include this photo as a black and white.

A little light came back for this westbound a few minutes later.

However, it was over 3 hours until the next train came along and by that time the light was on the other side of the track.  The photo below was taken as we were walking back to the van.

The eastbound train above had a pair of DPUs.

Almost immediately after the eastbound train disappeared a westbound came into view.

We left Crozier Canyon and headed for Needles, CA.  On our way we paused to get a couple of shots out in the desert.  This area is not flat as there is a sustained grade from the Colorado River at Topock, AZ up to Kingman. 

After photographing the eastbound we moved further west for this westbound.

Just west of the Colorado River in California, some 10 miles east of Needles, is an area called Park Moabi.  The remaining photos were taken in that area.  An exit off I-40 leads into the area and this photo oa a eastbound was taken off the side of that road.

The sun came out for the westbound we had photographed out in the desert.

Finally, one more train came east before the clouds settled in for the rest of the evening and we called it a day.

I hope you enjoyed the photos.