Western Railroad Discussion > Mojave Northern Pt 1 - Two Fools on the Hill

After having gone up to Victorville to shoot Mojave Northern two weeks earlier, a good friend and I talked each other into going up again on Feb 15. We arrived at the cement plant and saw the blue SD40-2 pulling a string of empties. Assuming this was a mine train about to go out, we set up for the first stop of a chase just outside of the plant, only to the actual mine train come down the hill the other way behind the yellow SD60. We shot that and went back to the plant to see what was going on. Moments later the Knoxville showed up coming in light (I have no idea what it was running light from the mine). We set up on the hill (not that easy with the scree and the steep angle) and waited almost three hours for something to happen. We watched the Vernon stone train do a loop around the loop. And then all of a sudden the Knoxville was moving and the SD40-2 was moving at the same time and we didn't know what to do. We grabbed as many clean shots as we could.

First three images are the mine train that surpised us approaching the plant behind the SD60.

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Image four is the Knoxville having parked next to the Vernon rock train while the SD60 pulls an empty mine train out.

Image five is of an empty mine train (also behind the SD60) heading back out with the mine train and a landfill mountain behind it.

Image six is of the blue SD40-2 (which it turned out was switching, not running on the road)>



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/20 14:06 by erielackawanna.

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Image seven is of the Knoxville building a coal train - [NOTE - cables were photoshopped out of this image - you cannot take this image on film - only on digitial and only be removing the cables digitally]

Image eight is of the Knoxville running light again, gaining clearance to run around the other side of the coal train.

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Where is the mine in relation to Victorville?
 

It's pretty much Northeast, the plant is just North of town and the line runs at a mostly Easterly direction from there.
When we used to run the July Firecracker races out of Barstow  there used to be some funny notes about the railroad
and if you saw it you were way off course!

Out 

The mine is about 12.5 miles northeast of the Plant.  The railroad crosses over I-15 north of Victorville.
 

Ron Evans
Golden Valley, AZ