Western Railroad Discussion > Massive 239-car UP Manifest at Maricopa, AZ

03/19/23 - A long 239-car manifest train passes the 1887 Southern Pacific water tower at Maricopa, Arizona on the UP Gila Subdivision.

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Wow impressive!!! How did you stay awake counting 239 cars?
Blaine
American Fork

That really should be 2 trains at 120 cars each.  UP is getting nuts.

I wonder if they made it from Tucson to Yuma without getting patched.

Nice catch I assume it is 20-30+ trains a day on the sunset route these days?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/20/23 15:07 by jayman.

jayman Wrote:
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> Nice catch I assume it is 20-30+ trains a day on
> the sunset route these days?

I caught 16 during daylight hours, and I noticed it gets pretty busy on the ATCS layout at night.

Big trains like this are pretty standard now on this route.

coach Wrote:
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> That really should be 2 trains at 120 cars each.
>  UP is getting nuts.

And it would use two crews instead of just one. When you don't have enough crews in the first place you try not to waste them.

Any ideas on the best time of day to hit Maricopa to see trains? We've been down there once (me and my two boys) and sat around for 90 minutes... just one train. It was a good train, but disappointing frequency. Wonder if we caught a bad time of day. It was memorial day...

Seems busy in the mornings, a mid day lull and then picks up in the afternoon. Holidays are probably slower.


jericson Wrote:
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> Any ideas on the best time of day to hit Maricopa
> to see trains? We've been down there once (me and
> my two boys) and sat around for 90 minutes... just
> one train. It was a good train, but disappointing
> frequency. Wonder if we caught a bad time of day.
> It was memorial day...

Posted from iPhone

PHall Wrote:
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> And it would use two crews instead of just one.
> When you don't have enough crews in the first
> place you try not to waste them.

Yeah, I've heard this logic before. The sad thing is on the rails it usually STILL takes more than one crew to move these monsters.