Western Railroad Discussion > Arizona & California (Parker, AZ and Rice, CA)

My first encounter with the Arizona & California Railroad (A&C) was in September of 2006. I was driving from Kingman, AZ to Blythe, CA and stumbled onto the railroad in Parker. Not yet a TO member then, and no research or train hunting skills at all.

After I became a TO member, I got inspiration to actually do something from erielackawanna's report in 2016:
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3949363

Unfortunately, I procrastinated and missed doing a chase of A&C's standard cab era.

I sometimes run into oyw and his film-only railfan friend Mike at Pepper (West Colton Yard). I had a chat with Mike after one of their adventures:
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,5667074

Mike told me earlier this year that A&C's running patterns have become irratic, possibly due to BNSF's bad PSR habits, but he told me that Sunday westbound out of Parker was consistent. So I decided to quit procrastinating.

My first attempt and my second visit to Parker was a failure. A&C did not run the westbound to Cadiz that Sunday. This was the first weekend in February when that big storm hit SoCal. While it was nice and sunny in Parker, maybe they didn't want to risk dealing with flash floods - there were reports of that further west toward Palm Springs.

- Camera facing NE, September 2006, at Parker.
- Crane and Parker Depot, February 2024.
- Video of Parker to Rice chase, described next post.

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My second foamer attempt (and 3rd visit to Parker) was a success.

This was on March 31, a week after oyw's latest A&C adventure. Weather was somewhat unstable, with lots of clouds seen on my 2+ hour drive east from Palm Springs. The instability created some wind near the Colorado River - wind noise in the first clip as the train proceeded across the bridge from Parker to Earp.

I had several options for the next intercept, as I had scouted the locations on my return trip in February's failed attempt. Due the sun playing hide and seek with the clouds, I went for angle at the Hwy 62 crossing near Grommet, second clip.

Third clip is dedicated to erielackawanna, as he posted a pacing video, but with the beige and green standard cab units instead.

Clouds have taken over the skies by the time the train arrived at Rice and the water tank, fourth clip. I was puzzled as to why the train was slowing down... but decided to record the entire train anyway. Good and lucky decision as the entire train was setout at Rice soon after.

- Shot of the A&C yard at Parker while waiting for the crew to show up (failed attempt in February).
- Setout at Rice in progress.
- Power took the wye, turned itself around, then coupled to cars parked on the Blythe Sub.

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While watching the setout at Rice, I guessed wrong that the crew would pick up the cars on the adjacent siding then take off for Cadiz. I looked for a location that would be good for picking up the sounds of the GEs accelerating.

Thanks for the foamer-friendly crew for the hints on the radio that I was wrong. :-)

While driving east earlier in the day, I noted the oddness of a long string of cars parked on the Blythe Sub at Rice. Besides the autoracks, there were some centerbeam loads. Why would cars that seemed to have been just interchanged from BNSF sitting on the Blythe Sub?

The second video documents the use of the wye across Hwy 62 at Rice. The train was about to pick up the cars on the Blythe Sub. From the looks of it, the train was heading back to Parker. Unfortunately, I was counting on a run toward Cadiz, last intercept near Freda, and a drive back to Ontario to catch my flight. So I didn't have time to chase the new train back to Parker. I had to ditch the A&C right after I finished documenting the wye move.

First clip in this video has the freshly-reported crew moving the power south to pick up the cars at Parker. The power had just come out north from the locomotive shed in the yard.

That's it for the report.

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Great report and videos! I think you did well indeed with the wye move; that doesn't happen every day.
GK

Always enjoy your reports Charles! The videos give a much more interesting perspective of this "hard to figure out" outfit, their mystery just adds reason to keep returning.

Nice Charles! The A&C definitely has my number but i'm not going to give up on them and the two shots I have been trying to capture.

The cars on the Blythe branch are most likely a BNSF HBARPHX, set out there to not plug the mainline in Parker. On my last trip out there in October, a train was parked on the Blythe branch and 3 BNSF GE's were parked at Parker. Upon tracing the BNSF units, they showed on a Barstow to Phoenix freight. On another note, I shot a HBARPHX this afternoon at Griffith, AZ on the Seligman Sub heading east, set up 2x2. 

Anyone know the lineage of the SD-45-2's in the first pic?  It got me thiking if they might have been the former Trona engines that Trona leased... anyone recall what happend to those?

BeaumontHill Wrote:
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> The cars on the Blythe branch are most likely a
> BNSF HBARPHX, set out there to not plug the
> mainline in Parker. On my last trip out there in
> October, a train was parked on the Blythe branch
> and 3 BNSF GE's were parked at Parker. Upon
> tracing the BNSF units, they showed on a Barstow
> to Phoenix freight. On another note, I shot a
> HBARPHX this afternoon at Griffith, AZ on the
> Seligman Sub heading east, set up 2x2.

Thanks for the info - helps decipher the A&C "mysteries."

that explains the 2x2 manifest i saw yesterday on the seligman sub.

interesting..........

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