Western Railroad Discussion > Raton Line ghost trains of January 1

Oops, this should have been on the Passenger Board along with the rest of the photos, a thousand pardons - - 

The Southwest Chief trains that should not be visible on the Raton and Glorieta line according to Amtrak President Anderson appeared again maybe in spirit on January first of this year, perhaps a train-bridge of a bus route? These are the trains that were not to happen but did uninterrupted.
Photo 1 - No. 3 flies into Trinidad, CO with a BNSF GE in the lead, and I'm about to get doused in snow...
Photo 2 - Rounding the curve at Wootton Ranch while Climbing Raton Pass.
Photo 3 - Rolling at speed creating its own ground blizzard at East Colmor, NM.

There's mooore...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/19 15:33 by highgreengraphics.

---

---

---

Photo 4 - No. 3 rolling through the semaphore grouping at East Chappelle.
Photo 5 - The not-so-great-almost shot to close my trip at West Chappelle - I did a lot of bush removal to improve this photo angle and weather that I first did 3 years ago, and hacked away at the side of the pine tree, but the snow weight made the tree branches hang lower. This No. 4 was late over an hour, giving me a lot of time to hack away trying to get the foliage out of the way. I did not quite get all of the tree when the semaphores dropped, and I had to get into position. It was only 9 degrees outside, and when I got on the ladder with the Nikon, I took a couple of test photos before the train showed up, and everything seemed normal. I waited longer, and here comes the train. I fired, and after two shots of the continuous mode, it quit, and the train slid by. I think the camera balked from the extreme cold. But if you look close, there is blood splatter and animal parts on the front pilot, marring the photo anyway, so guess it just wasn't meant to be. Here's what I got, about two releases too soon, my Mama told me there would be days like this, maybe that's what I get for trying to photograph ghost trains that should not be. It was my time to drive home anyway, and oh well maybe there will be a next winter! 

Happy frozemybutt railfanning! === === = === JLH
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/19 22:15 by highgreengraphics.

---

---

Five slam-dunk A+ images, Jim! And I have to say #3 is a can't-miss IOTD! If for some odd reason it doesn't win, just keep re-posting it until it does...

Lance/199 (drooling with envy... ;^)

Great photos.
SD-45

I think #5 is my favorite, not counting the blood. You still got a beautiful shot there no mater how it was done.

The othere are great as werll. WisH i had the time and to be bale to run out and do these series that you have done.

Gary

What a great snow series!! All excellent shots!

Larry

JLH ... Thanks again for sharing your work!

What a great series of images!
Well done!

Odyssey
Evergreen, CO

SN711 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think #5 is my favorite, not counting the blood.
> You still got a beautiful shot there no mater how
> it was done.
>
> The othere are great as werll. WisH i had the time
> and to be bale to run out and do these series that
> you have done.
>
> Gary

Same here, and if you hadn't mentioned the blood, I likely would have never known!  Fantastic shot(s) inspite of your cold battery.

We cleaned up one curve down in Oklahoma one summer.  By the next summer, you couln'd tell anything had been done!

Rob



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/19 21:21 by OregonOldGuy.

Those are some cool shots.That last one is really spectacular.

Robert Morris
Dunsmuir, CA
Robert Morris Photography

Thanks for the wonderful winter shots.

Great stuff, all keepers.

Curious if the battery died or the camera froze.

wonder how many years till the transcon will need a relief valve again, or will autonomous trucks  take care of it?

dan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> wonder how many years till the transcon will need
> a relief valve again, or will autonomous trucks 
> take care of it?

It won't need a relief valve. BNSF will just add more tracks.

maybe they will get a time sensitive market for colo-sou cal that today is the domain of the UP?

dan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> maybe they will get a time sensitive market for
> colo-sou cal that today is the domain of the UP?

In spite of the adverse grades, going via Raton for that traffic would save a lot of miles. A big problem is not controlling the route through Albuquerque anymore.

Overall, Raton will never be a relief valve for the Transcon again, but I'd like to see traffic flow that way as you suggest that could get an advantage.

All incredible pics!!

You out-did yourself this time.

BB

 

Amazing work! #3 gets my IOTD vote.

PQM

Posted from Android

Phenomenal shots all! Thanks for taking the extreme hard work to get these images and sharing them here for us to enjoy!

You FLAT DONE GOOD !