Western Railroad Discussion > Another visit to Ash Hill North

After I was done at Ship Mountains, I neaded back to Ash Hill and hiked up the northern hill of the two hill setup. A few weeks ago, I shared the pictures and view from the southern hill. This time I wanted to see what the northern hill had to offer. Well, in a nutshell; not much. Take it from me. Unless you want a nice view of the Ash Hill "Y", or some angles different from the south hill, dont bother. I thought I would get a good view of the tracks over to Ludlow, but I too optmimistcally interpeted the topo map.

Picture 1: A stack train is heading east, having just passed the summit.

Picture 2: Out at Klondike, a manifest slowly chugs up the hill.

Picture3: Both trains come into view.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/15 13:23 by syscom3.

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Picture 4: Its now past Klondike and is heading back to where the tracks diverge/converge.

Picture 5: Same

Picture 6: It's passing by the small cut thats popular with photographers.

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 Picture 7: Another view of it.

Picture 8: Heres the whole train.

Picture 9: A westbound tanker train is now at Klondike. Note the far dustant mountains in the background. A good 25 or more miles away.

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 Picture 10: The manifest is now at the "Y"

Picture 11: The head end has now rounded that non descript hill next to I-40 and it heads towards Ludlow.

Picture 12: The whole train. The Rt66 crossing is just a bit to the left, out of frame. Note the huge dust devil out on the flats near the mountains.

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Picture 13: The tanker train has now reached the cut.

Picture 14: A close up.

Picture 15: The whole train.

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A topo map of the two hills. In case anyone wants to hike to it.

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GREAT stuff...!! Thanks for posting.

Roger! Ditto...THX...Steve in cool, cloudy Grossmont, CA

Here's something different. I took a sequence of photo's of the manifest wondering how they would show up in a panorama. Not bad. I think the Adobe panorama feature isnt very good though.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/15 14:15 by syscom3.

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Thanks for this posting with the map. I have found this map with the coordinates you told three weeks or so back.

Erwin from Austria

Sorry I didn't see your photos from South Ash Hill before now.  Bob Finan and I spent a warm September full moon night on top of that hill back in 2002 to see what sort of night images could be had from there.  The hill is too far from the tracks for trains to be large enough to photograph with anything but a really long lens.  However we bagged what was available.  Attached are a couple images from that night.  These were all shot on Fuji Provia 400F, my favorite night film at the time.
As I recall, I had to make a couple runs back down the hill to get water during the night, and the rough Peach Springs Tuff rocks the north side of that hill did a number on my boots.  Part way down the hill in the morning one boot sole came completely off the boot and the other was detached from the toe through the arch.  It made balancing on that broken rock in my up-all-night exhausted state quite a challenge.

- Kit
 

Kit Courter
Menefee, CA
LunarLight Photography



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/15 19:45 by CimaScrambler.

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Glad you mentioned the night shots. I was wondering if it was going to be worth it to do something like that. I bet the night sky was great though.

In daytime its a heck of a place to watch the trains. Im definitely going back.

One more night image from a 4x5 negative. The higher resolution with the view camera really helped with the distant subject.  The textures in the foreground were worth the three hour exposure.

Kit Courter
Menefee, CA
LunarLight Photography

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The lights in the middle distance must be Kelbaker Rd.

Interesting shot.