Western Railroad Discussion > Trains in Arizona After 4014

After UP 4014 ("Big Boy") departed Tucson Amtrak Depot to head into the yard, I wandered around toward Picacho to kill time before flying home from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. There seemed to have been a lull in traffic midday, so I headed to Pinal Airpark to check out the airplane boneyard. Once I heard enough activities on the scanner (eastbound stacker waiting at Wymola for track and time to clear further east), I started to hunt for trains randomly.

There was an eastbound manifest setting out cars at Picacho. On my way there, a 1x1 westbound stacker showed up, but I couldn't beat it to the Red Rock water tank, so I kept driving west. Based on signal indication and radio chatter, the stacker was going to meet the manifest at Wymola, so I headed to the west end where there's a crossover.

A westbound intermodal ahead of the 1x1 stacker was going to do work at Picacho, so the dispatcher was running a single track railroad between Wymola and Eloy. FYI, the eastbound stacker I heard on the radio had already vacated Wymola.

In the first clip, the westbound 1x1 stacker slow rolling at Wymola meets the eastbound manifest which just finished work at Picacho. Entire manifest train is shown.

In the second clip, I intercept the 1x1 stacker west of Toltec, and the entire train is shown.

- Boeing 747 at Pinal Airpark.

- Video of two trains described, entire trains shown.

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While on my way to Toltec, AZ to intercept the 1x1 stacker one more time, I saw an eastbound military train. I was tempted to abandon the 1x1 stacker to chase this, but I stuck to my plan, and caught up to the military train eventually, but not in time to catch it at the Red Rock water tank.

I drove all the way to Cortaro where I found some cactus earlier in the day (planted there, not naturally grown) while doing advance scouting for the 4014.

This military train is complete with heavy armor, support equipment, and (possibly) ammunition containers. The leader, UP 6305, is an ex-SP C44AC, with a dead giveaway clue in the video... or people can look it up to verify that.

That's it for the report.

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Excellent job Charles!