Western Railroad Discussion > Catching Up

I don't think you can get more socially distant than being out in the Mojave for a day. My dad and I went out to Ludlow yesterday to just get out of the house and wound up catching a surprising number of trains, considering well, everything going on. I also have a bit of a queue to post from last month so let's go!

-An eastbound BNSF train out of Hobart approaches the Washington St. grade crossing in Riverside. Always wanted to get the hogback here but hadn't been able to with my 7D until I purchased my 100-400 in December.
-Another eastbound out of Hobart climbs upgrade towards West Riverside.
-On another day, the southbound Brooklyn Z heads towards the summit at Hiland as it exits Phelan, California.

---

---

---

-A westbound passes by the Mojave River bridge on old Route 66 as it approaches East Victorville.
-Another westbound, this time at Hodge.
-We attempted to go to Trona on that day but were informed that they wouldn't be running until after sunset. A northbound with a healthy mix of power heads through Hinkley.

---

---

---

-Yesterday morning the Needles Subdivision was really hopping. An eastbound manifest heads into Ludlow.
-Another eastbound with a pristine looking Executive Mac 3rd out heads upgrade towards West Ash Hill.
-Vistas are great. Another eastbound heads into Ash Hill.

---

---

---

-As a westbound autorack train heads up the balloon track, an eastbound drifts downgrade towards West Siberia.
-Another eastbound that we had caught previously at Ludlow (posted below out of order) curves through Trojan.
-The train at Ludlow.

---

---

---

-We found a really cool mural featuring the old Santa Fe mascot Chico on the side of a wall at East Siberia.
-Another train passes it.
-And another.

---

---

---

-After the sun swung around we relocated to East Siberia to catch a parade of westbounds. I love the vista of the mountains in the background.
-Another westbound. Love the SD75 (can't tell if it's an I or an M and I don't care to look it up, so don't get pedantic) second out on this one.
-Another westbound is illuminated through the gaps of an eastbound.

---

---

---

-We chased a westbound down to Lavic after stopping for some much needed water. Despite being a port train this one didn't stretch around the curves.
-But this one did. Lots of interesting stuff on this one, including an SD70MACe mid-train DPU. First time I've seen midtrains on a domestic stack in a few years.
-Finally, as the sun was setting another monster stack passed by.

Thanks for looking!

-Zach

---

---

---

Excellent series of shots, great composition and that new lens is nice.

Very nice day out. Thanks for sharing.

Very NICE series! Looks like you had FUN time!

​Larry

Great series of images. This place is on my bucket list.

Kim Heusel

Really nice work, Z. 
A friend turned me on to the Canon 100-400mm about a decade ago, it is a terrific lens.  Did you purchase the newer design with the twist to zoom feature?  I have the older "trombone" push to zoom out, pull to zoom in.  Works quite well with trains but was a bear when filming sports.
Tim Costello

Every single one of these is an absolute banger! Nice work!

Great shots!

Nice pics!!

tgcostello Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Really nice work, Z. 
> A friend turned me on to the Canon 100-400mm about
> a decade ago, it is a terrific lens.  Did you
> purchase the newer design with the twist to zoom
> feature?  I have the older "trombone" push to
> zoom out, pull to zoom in.  Works quite well with
> trains but was a bear when filming sports.
> Tim Costello

The newer one - I'm considering eventually selling my 70-200mm and using the 100-400 as my primary telephoto since I hardly use the former anymore, so having the ability to carry it around and use it handheld was a serious selling point.

-Zach