Western Railroad Discussion > Another trip out west to NV and Southern California

In what is becoming an annual October tradition, my wife and I paid a visit from the northeast to Las Vegas and Southern California last week.  Rail photography was not the primary focus of the trip (as least in my wife's thoughts), but I did manage to get trackside for a few hours several days and thought I'd share a few of the images here.  

On Monday 10/8, we paid a visit to Valley of Fire north of Vegas, and I caught up to a stack train headed up the Caliente Sub, which I managed to get a head of and got some photos at the exit off of I-15 for Valley of Fire.

After spending Tuesday morning in Vegas, we starred to head west, and made an obligatory quick stop at the Yermo / Daggett / Barstow area.  UP and BNSF entertained me with a westbound UP stack train coming onto the BNSF line at Daggett, which then momentarily stopped at West Daggett and allowed me to get a second photo.

 

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We then followed old US 66 west from Barstow to Victorville, CA.   We passed several eastbounds (or should I say they passed us) but did not stop for photos, as we had a couple other stops on the way before eventually settling in at the Best Western in Cajon pass for the evening.

I did get a shot of some of the power at the CalPortland plant in Oro Grande (including an ex Norfolk Southern GP40-2.   We managed to make Cajon before sunset, and the BNSF welcomed me with a stack train coming down track 2 by Mormon Rocks which I got from Rt 138, then pulled up a bit to get the DPUs.

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Wednesday morning before departing for LA I built an hour and a half into our schedule to get out trackside.  The morning dawned with fog, but it quickly burned off and I was able to photograph 9 trains in that time frame, starting with mixed freights on both the UP Palmdale cutoff and BNSF lines from Rt. 138 at Mormon Rocks.

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It was then up to the summit to catch a parade of eastbounds.   7741 was quickly followed by 7515, which had been stopped, and made a pretty cool video too...

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The parade continued with another eastbound stack train at the Summit, which had DPUs and as the DPUs were passing, a UP baretable train was coming to a stop on the hill above (ther was some trackwork going on ahead, the mixed freight which I had photographed earlier at Mormon Rock's had stopped down in the canyon.

And of course as I was travelling back down Rt. 138 bacl to the hotel I spied another stacker heading east which I had to stop and photograph.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/18 12:16 by sscannella.

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The UP freight which I had photographed earlier and had stopped was now starting to make its move west again, so I went down to the next exit off of I15 and grabbed a couple shots of the head-end power and DPU before reluctenly calling it quits by 9:00 am.

We then set off to Warner Bros studio for a tour, then a ride down Santa Monica Blvd and than a drive up the Pacific Coast Highway to Ventura for the next day's adventures.

My plan railwise was to get a couple Surfliners along the coast.  What I didn't realize was the southbounds shove toward LA, so I was a bit disappointed with what I got from the Seaside Wilderness Park above Ventura Thursday morning.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/18 14:12 by sscannella.

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So I had to settle for this going away shot of the head end power.  Ironically, I've photographed this Amtrak P42 - #165, back home in the Harrisburg, PA area several times a few years back.

I wanted to head further up the coast, but because of traffic Coming out of Santa Monica and driving most of the way from the Malibus in darkness, we decided to stick around Ventura for a bit before driving back south on the PCH.  While my wife was packing up at the Best Western in Ventura, I managed to grab a shot of 763 heading north behind the hotel with F59PHI 459 leading.  Unfortunately we don't get to see this power out east.

After driving down the PCH to Topanga Canyon Road, we were hoping to take the 101 / 134 / 210 back toward San Bernardino and eventually Cajon again for our overnight stop.  The GPS had other ideas though as there was major congestion or accidents or a combination, and she decided to route us north up above the mountains eventually to 14 and 138.   Not what I planned, but a really interesting and beautiful drive.

Again, I had about an hour and a half or so to roam around Cajon.  My plan was to focus on stuff from Cajon Jct. and in the canyon below, but as I was heading in to grab some breakfast in the hotel lobby an eastbound UP empty hopper train headed by, so I started the day up at the summit photographing that guy and eating breakfast.

 

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Next up was this BNSF mixed freight which I was able to get several times, including these three seen here - track #1 at Mormon Rocks, at Cajon Junction, and then in the canyon below...

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Again, the action was constant in the hour or so I was up and down old Rt. 66 in the canyon, with 7 trains total in a little over an hour.  A 5-unit intermodal (I guess this is what you call a Z train) met a westbound, and another intermodal seen below Cajon Jct with cars coming around Sullivan's Curve seen in the second image.

My wife wanted to do 66 again back from Victorville to Barstow as she wanted to see and photograph some of the Rt 66 signage and mementos along the way, I had no problem with that, but told her plan to make a few train stops along the way, starting withthe Victorviulle train and bus station.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/18 14:35 by sscannella.

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We thought the Rt 66 museum across the street was pretty cool, but it looked like it was closed.  Maybe next time.

While turning around I saw what I guess to be power for some local jobs at Victorville, so I grabbed a few shots of them (we did have one train pass by here while we were pulling into the parking lot, but no time to set up for photos.

Quite a bit of activity while travelling on 66 toward Barstow, could only get in position for a few, including this UP stack train at Robinson Ranch Rd (La Delta, CA???).

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My last three for the trip....

As we were approaching the west side of Barstow, I sighted a UP coal train heading west under 58, so I stopped and grabbed a few shots of the head end power and the DPUs. 

And lastly over in Daggett, we were watching a military train sitting on the UP line, then went up to check out the Daggett Pioneer Cemetery when my wife says that the military train was coming down the hill.  Actually it was a different one coming down the BNSF line, so I went over to West Daggett where it stopped and appeared to be getting ready to shove back in toward Yermo and the Marine Corps facility there.  Unfortunately I got dinged by a cloud on the power, and I didn't want to waste to much time (and push my luck with my wife) as we were returning to Vegas for one more night before flying home in the morning.

I envy you guys out here who see this on a regular basis, although I guess as Norfolk Southern across PA sometimes gets boring out here, this becomes routine and mundane at times.

I have a hard time following symbols for UP and BNSF (I rarely hear anything on the radio), unlike out here in the east where NS and CSX use them regularly.)  if anyone has any insight on symbols for any of these trains, I would appreciate them.

Thanks, and hope you all enjoyed.

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Power at Oro Grande is HRSX--Harbor Rail Services--a growing Pasadena-based car repair and contract switching operator. 

It looks like you had a very nice trip.  Thanks for the tour....

Sam - nice images! Quite a big difference from shooting in Pennsylvania's landscapes, isn't it.

Very Nice series!

Larry

sscannella Wrote:
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> ...I have a hard time following symbols for UP and
> BNSF (I rarely hear anything on the radio), unlike
> out here in the east where NS and CSX use them
> regularly.)  if anyone has any insight on symbols
> for any of these trains, I would appreciate them.
>
I wish they used the symbols more out here.  Westbounds coming into Barstow call the router with their symbol to get yarding instructions.

The train in the video led by 7515 looks like a late Q LACCHI6, with 3x2 power and a few marine containers.  You certainly captured a wide variety of trains!

mapboy

Great shots!

Thank you for a great set of photos, a fine video and great narrative. Always wanted to do Cajon but circumstances never feel into place, and now age and health say forget it dude. so thank you very much. A very enjoyable way to spend the late evening watching trains in the Great Cajon Pass.

SuperChiefDon

I don't get out to Cajon Pass or the Barstow area that often myself. But may I add my highest congratulations to those already offered on this excellent tour of the California desert area and the great photos and video of the BNSF and UP action. A solid "10" on anyone's scale.

Pattenburg Wrote:
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> Sam - nice images! Quite a big difference from
> shooting in Pennsylvania's landscapes, isn't it.

Indeed it is.