Western Railroad Discussion > Escalante Western

I spent some time from June 6the to June 9th in western New Mexico along the BNSF Transcon. This allowed me to explore and photograph the Escalante Western. On June 9th I had the opportunity to talk briefly with the train engineer's wife. She said the train ran M, Tu, TH & Fr with Wednesday off for servicing. She also said the train left at 6:00 AM but our observation was that the train could leave anywhere from about 6:30 to 8:00 AM. Note that the train runs a lot faster than you might expect so plan accordingly. Power when we saw it was 3 SD40s (not dash twos) and train length was 52 cars.

After shooting the train at the grade crossing just east of the power plant I suggest you use County Route 23 off Historic Route 66, just east of Prewitt, to get over to state route 609 if you plan to head up toward the mines. The road is marked with an arrow to Haystack. I hope this information is helpful.

Thanks for the Intel, it's hard to get good info on these guys.

Posted from iPhone

Once it starts to get warm the crews lock all the car body doors on the long hood to keep the engine cool. EMD says that's not the way it works but that's the way they were operating the last time i chased a few years ago. It was a good chase me in spite of that.

If its still the same 3 SD 40's ,they were ex B&O 7597,7598,and 7599.

Randy