Western Railroad Discussion > Recent ZMQLA (Yuma Sub, CA)

4 years ago, I caught a similar train (ZMQLC, Mesquite, TX to LATC) in the same area, ex-SP, UP Yuma Sub near Indio:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,5267930

Instead of 3x2, it ran 5x0 this time. Instead of UP 1996 leading, it was 2nd in consist, facing forward.

Thanks to the heads up on heritageunits.com (you know who you are) when it was in Arizona, I made an easy intercept of the ZMQLA at the famous Southern Pacific bridge near Ferrum along the Salton Sea. I didn't have to drive 500 miles from Northern California - I was already in the Palm Springs area.

I caught the train running track speed at the SP bridge (entire train shown), then accelerating to track speed at Indio (note the Palm trees). It was running slow at Rimlon.

Normally, it would not have been possible to nab the Z train both at Ferrum and Indio... but thanks to UP's current practice of underpowering Long Beach stack trains, an eastbound "monstacker" was involved in train congestion in the Indio area. I didn't know this when I spotted the ZMQLA oddly slowing down between Mecca and Thermal.

Just for kicks, I detoured away from I-10 to gamble on meeting the Z at Indio. There are numerous signal lights to get to CP Indio, so normally, that would have been a stupid gamble. However, when I spotted the top containers of the eastbound monstacker just starting to move, the stupidity of UP's greed made by stupid gamble pay off. :-)

The ZMQLA is just starting to move at Rimlon, because it got signal indication just after I got there. I had plenty of time to find a parking spot, and crawl underneath the overpass to go to the other side to get my angle. ZMQLA was stopped between Myoma and Rimlon when I was driving west on I-10, so I gambled for this intercept that I normally wouldn't have gotten.

My guess for this multiple ZMQLA slowdown was the DS 244 was busy clearing up multiple train congestions in the area. Hint of that is ZMQLA on Main 2 at Indio, but back on Main 1 at Rimlon, possibly crossing over at Myoma. There was another Z train ahead of ZMQLA, which I didn't document, but I did see it at the SP bridge just before I got there. 

There was a recent thread discussing the Dispatching errors leading to a fatal accident in 2022, which happened near the area I covered during the chase. My rant/conclusion is that when PSR greed makes railroading practices more difficult, dispatching errors are more likely to occur. So there's bigger blame than just dispatching errors to that accident, but I guess the Wall St. idiots won't learn until more people die.

That's it for the report.

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Excellent vid!

Fine video; interesting narrative, too!
GK