Western Railroad Discussion > Snow Day on Cajon

I haven't really had a lot of time to railfan on account of school and working taking up all of my time (I feel like I preface all of my posts with this but whatever) but I wanted to take some time today to go out with my dad and catch some trains, not only because we have a tradition of railfanning on Black Friday, but because Cajon pass was absolutely blanketed in snow. While traffic was sparse, it was great to get out in decently cold weather again as it's been almost a year since I've done any railfanning in what would be considered normal winter weather in a large part of the country.

-Amtrak #3 was running a few hours late as it heads downgrade through Sullivan's curve an hour after sunrise. We didn't see a single train on track 3 today and this is the first time that I've seen #3 take this track in a while.
-A few minutes later an an eastbound is seen approaching Silverwood. The last time I shot trains in the snow on Cajon was 5 years ago and I started my day here then, so coming back was nice.
-About a half hour later another westbound heads through Sullivan's.

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-Almost immediately afterwards an eastbound passes at the same location.
-And another westbound. We decided to move up to Davis Ranch after this one passed.
-While waiting for a pair of westbound UP trains, an eastbound passed in front of the snow-covered Mormon Rocks.

-Zach

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-As the eastbound passed in the distance, a westbound manifest dropped downgrade. Power was overall pretty grimy today.
-A wider view
-Shortly thereafter, another UP, this time eastbound, passed by.

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Great stuff!! Some of the best, lowest, and earliest (in the season) snow coverage the Cajon Pass region has seen in the past 15-20 years!

~ Mr. MRL

-The second westbound came a little bit later.
-Wider view.
-Having received word that a brand new AC44CM rebuild was on an autorack train heading up the Yuma subdivision we raced down to El Casco to get it. Unfortunately it was trailing, but the leader was still in nice shape.

-Zach

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MrMRL Wrote:
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> Great stuff!! Some of the best, lowest, and
> earliest (in the season) snow coverage the Cajon
> Pass region has seen in the past 15-20 years!
>
> ~ Mr. MRL

Thank you! I was certainly surprised when I saw the snow as low as Devore. Very different from what I'm used to seeing up in the pass.

-Zach

There was snow falling, but not sticking, as far down as Sierra Ave on I-15.

Fantastic shots!!
Sorry about the Autorack train:{

https://cdn.trainorders.com/attachments/fullsize/1004000/img460a.jpg---------Snow falling at W. Colton in 1987:}



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/19 15:03 by SP8595.

SP8595 Wrote:
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> Fantastic shots!! Sorry about the Autorack
> train:{
>
> https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11
> ,3788493,3788494#msg-3788494

Oh, no worries! Wasn't calling you out or anything, the leader on that train was still really nice!

Z, excellent stuff and I'm surprised on the snow, the storm didn't seem that cold at low altitudes,
great job at taking advantage!

Out

Great shots! It's been many years since I did any photography on Cajon Pass but I've never had the opportunity to shoot on Cajon in the snow.... Wow!

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

The snow level last night was down to 2000 feet in the Cajon Pass area.
Heck, the high here in Riverside today was 53 and at least the rain has stopped, for now.
There's more coming.

You did a fantastic job of documenting the the "Snow Day" from all angles!

I was going to drive the dirt road from 138 down to Sullivan's this afternoon, but the Highway Patrol had Lone Pine Cyn Road blocked off at Hwy 138, so I couldn't turn off 138 to get to the forest service road.. 
 

Christmas card photos
 

Great photos, Zach - that's an incredible amount of snow in the pass.

Rich

Amazing stuff, with all that snow it looks like other mountain passes instead of Cajon. Mormon rocks sure looked different covers in all the white stuff. Great photos of a unique day, thanks for posting - wish I could have been there in person!

Nathan

Posted from iPhone

nice shots.

What a bunch of beautiful snow shots in Cajon! Lots of low elevation snow! You had an excellent day!

Larry

Worthy IOTD win for a rare snowy So Cal scene!

~ Mr. MRL

Spectacular shots!!!