Western Railroad Discussion > Tulsa To Clovis Along the Transcon

When a good friend who pastors in Clovis asked us to photograph their ladies retreat in Clovis this weekend I knew there would a lot of blessings!  And I have to confess that all of those weren't going to be church related...as getting from Tulsa to Clovis meant driving along the Transcon.  Yes!  Not to mention a day's drive alone with Mrs. Palmer!!!  Years ago I recall an article in TRAINS about driving US30 along the UP through Nebraska and how the author was impressed by the passing trains "taking apart one-grain elevator towns at track speed."  Among many impressions of the drive from Woodward OK to Clovis brought this story to my memory.  The sheer volume of trains is just staggering.  And relentless.  I have read many lamentations on TO and Facebook as railfans express their feelings about the boring uniformity of one orange set of power after another.  I"ll give you that one train looks just like the next...and the next...and the next.  However my lifelong enjoyment of trains makes the sameness take a distant backseat to one of the greatest railroad shows to be found anywhere.

1.  I woke Phyllis up at 0300 to get to Belva OK in time for a spectacular sunrise directly down the tracks.  I guess I should have checked the weather the night before we left, bcause our sunrise looked like this.  When God gives you lemons you make lemonade.  So this was our sunrise at Belva.

2.  Less than optimum light means a different approach to pictures.  While I would not pray for clouds a hundred feet above ground level, the challenge of using the available light makes me think about how to do something other than a 3/4 sunny day wedgie.  This is an eastbound empty grain train, one of four we passed this day, taken at East Woodward OK.

3.  Gage, OK.  I've never been thorugh Gage on a cloudy day.  On a sunny day this pic is impossible because the sun is always on the south side of the tracks.  Westbound manifest.  We saw five of these in the course of our drive.

---

---

---

4.  We drove out of the clouds near Glazier...right at noon.  Now that's desirable sunlight if I've ever seen it.  I'm thinking to myself what in the world can I do with this light???  One of four back-to-back eastbound stack trains.

5.  Canadian, TX.  Lunch stop came compliments of the Staggering Donkey which I highly recommend.  This is where the lines separate for the bridges over the Canadian River.

6.  I'm generally not too excited to hear a track inspector request track and time, however the conversation did reveal three westbounds tail-to-tail coming out of Lora.  We pulled off US60 and waited.  And waited.  And clouds were building to the west.  After about a half hour the group rolled past one after another. 

---

---

---

7.  Pampa Texas...yeehaw!  Garden spot of the planet.  I love the track layout on the east end of town.

8.  The following day we continued our trek towards Clovis, with sun...at least for a brief time.  I'd tell you where I shot this but it wouldn't make any difference because from western Oklahoma all the way to Flagstaff it all looks the same.

9.  A few miles down the road we encountered this eastbound stack train.  James Michener wrote a novel entitled Centennial many years ago and in that he spent a lot of time talking about how a man either loves or loathes the open spaces that characterize the West.  Phyllis and I love this part of the great country we live in. The sheer volume of wind generators is amazing.

---

---

---

10.  Anyone who has ever driven past Bovina Texas knows this town is synonomous with the massive feedlot to the west of town.  Mercifully for the residents the winds generally do not blow in the direction of town.  The huge grain elevators that sit trackside make great backdrops from any number of angles.  Here an eastbound Z8 blows through town.

11.  The parade of trains is seemingly ceaseless.  Two Z's pass, each running track speed of 70 as nearly as I could guess.

12.  Last entry.  My Sigma 150-600 impresses me more each time I use it, and it's the only affordable way to capture an image like this.  The elevators in the background are well over a mile distant. 

Thanks for looking!
Jerry

---

---

---

Very good.

Bob Wilcox
Charlottesville, VA
My Flickr Shots

Thanks for posting all of these excellent photos.  And thanks for mentioning what lens you used; I like the results and may have to look into that Sigma.  Twenty years ago I dispatched all of the territories shown but never got to see any of them in person, so I really appreciate the geographic variety you presented.

Have a Santa Fe day!

Rich

That grain elevator is huge!

where is the SF chief

ATSF5669 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> 8.  The following day we continued our trek
> towards Clovis, with sun...at least for a brief
> time.  I'd tell you where I shot this but it
> wouldn't make any difference because from western
> Oklahoma all the way to Flagstaff it all looks the
> same.
>

Interesting set of photos, Jerry.  However, I strongly beg to differ with your comment in caption #8.  The scenery all the way to Flagstaff does not look all the same!

Very nice bunch.
JB

Nice shots!
Randy Lundgren
Elgin, TX

ATSF5669 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 1.  I woke Phyllis up at 0300 to get to Belva OK
> in time for a spectacular sunrise directly down
> the tracks.  I guess I should have checked the
> weather the night before we left, bcause our
> sunrise looked like this.  When God gives you
> lemons you make lemonade.  So this was our
> sunrise at Belva...

No matter how patient Phyllis is, don't waste your train-watching capital with tactical errors like this!  As a senior, I find these errors hard to avoid, but avoiding them has a big payoff.  I once took the wife on a hike, only to return to our car locked into the parking lot, didn't read the sign.  Alone we might starve ourselves while baking/freezing, but I make sure she's got snacks, that she brought reading material and that the weather is in her comfort zone.  A happy wife is a happy life!

mapboy

I have shots at several of these spots, but #4 I distinctly remember.  All are good.  Thanks for posting.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

GOOD stuff....!! Thanks.....

Fantastic shots! Nos. 2, 7, 11 and 12 are over the top.
I sure wish I had an eye like yours to take pictures like these!

Posted from Android

A fun trip indeed. Very nice stuff, Jerry! Your photo-study here makes me want to finally take that driving trek along the Santa Fe mainline (albeit now BNSF) in the great southwest. I've only been contemplating a trip like that for 30+ years...

Lance/199 

Jerry... What a great series of shots! You caught an excellent collection of shots with some less than desirable lighting, obviously someone who knows how to use the light in his favor. Thanks for posting these.

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer