Western Railroad Discussion > Z Trains in the Sonoran Desert (ZMQLC & ZMNLA)

Here are some leftover video clips from my trip to Arizona last month.

Jmf1910 and I were on our second day in Arizona, where we were in middle of searchlight foaming:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,4162955

The morning started with the westbound ZAILC-11, the entire train documented at Bosque in the first clip in the above thread. We headed back to Shawmut where an eastbound stacker was waiting for a fleet of westbounds, the parade led by ZMQLC-11, sometimes nicknamed the "UPS train" by a Yuma Sub dispatcher in SoCal. That's the first clip.

Later in the day, another eastbound got stuck in the hole at Shawmut, ILXDIX-11 as documented in the above thread. We kept seeing not-so-high-priorty westbounds so we figured a Z train must have been on the tail end. John must have been rolling his eyes by this time, because I kept telling him, "OK, now we get our Z train" and I was wrong for 2-3 times.

The last train to meet the ILXDIX-11 before it departed east was the ZMNLA-10, led by a GE Tier 4, second clip. This Z also carries UPS boxes and trailers.

Entire train is shown for both ZMQLC and ZMNLA. It's interesting that I often catch the same two trains in the late afternoon to early evening on Beaumont Hill, whenever I visit there.

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Nice vids, thanks for posting, and showing entire train.   As to dispatchers using "UPS train" on the radio, that seems common throughout the system, at least have heard it similarly on the eastern side.  The MQ trains are I guess the old DALAF/LADAF on what I would presume would be quicker schedules.