Western Railroad Discussion > A few more from the hills near Helendale

A couple of weeks ago I posted a shot from the hills just east of Helendale, CA on the BNSF Cajon Sub. Here is a quick follow up showing some more angles, all taken on January 11 and 12.

1) When we first arrived to the overlook, BNSF 3690 leads a short westbound manifest from Barstow.

2) Looking the other way, the Saturday morning eastbound Denver Z train behind UP 7676.

3) Relocated slightly west, BNSF 6291 with a westbound stack train.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/25 17:44 by oyw.

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4) Back again the following morning, Sunday’s Denver was led by UP 8875 without autos.

5) BNSF 7492 with more westbound stacks.

6) Eastbound BNSF 5950 from high above.
 

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...last one

7) The rear DPU of the 5950 was clean BNSF 8100 faced out and wrapped up this visit.

The following week we returned for what will probably be the final visit for a while, I will couple those shots with another round of miscellaneous stuff soon.

Thank you for looking,

OYW
 

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In the first pic, that's someone's house
on the hill at left?

Thanks for this fresh look at an area we seldom see.
In image 3 there appears to be a small cut through a ridge to the left of the train, can you tell from any observation whether that was the original alignment?
Over the years the Santa Fe made line changes to speed up trains almost everywhere.

timz Wrote:
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> In the first pic, that's someone's house
> on the hill at left?

Yes it is.

Posted from Android

EXCELLENT bunch! Way to go finding some great new angles.
JB

Great series!

Neat location. What re the realities of shooting up there?  Is it readily accessible?

Very nice! Being from far back east it is hard to imagine seeing more than 10 cars of any train, anywhere, between the Megopolis clutter and the Tree Tunnels!
Gonut

railstiesballast Wrote:
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 > In image 3 there appears to be a small cut through
> a ridge to the left of the train, can you tell
> from any observation whether that was the original
> alignment?
Sorry I can't answer if it was once the ROW, but very possibly.
 

march_hare Wrote:
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> Neat location. What re the realities of shooting
> up there?  Is it readily accessible?

Easily accessible in a car, go 2 1/2 miles east of Vista Rd (the main drag to Helendale) on old 66, look for Meadow View Rd and go north approximately 3/4 mile. Several dirt roads are available for exploring.

railstiesballast Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------Yes I believe you are correct on that original alignment and also any vehicle can drive into this spot extremely easily.
> Thanks for this fresh look at an area we seldom
> see.
> In image 3 there appears to be a small cut through
> a ridge to the left of the train, can you tell
> from any observation whether that was the original
> alignment?
> Over the years the Santa Fe made line changes to
> speed up trains almost everywhere.

In the last photo, there appears to be another cut in the distance that may have once been the original ROW.

Look how wide that Mojave river wash is--the RR stayed above it---but I've seen it when that wash was almost completely wet with water.  Doesn't happen often, but when it does, it can happen quickly and with power.

Stellar photography! Image #2 should be in the running for IOTD in the morning. Composition, light, and shadow. Woof! 🤗

Posted from iPhone

Nice photos all and neat to see a lot of this terrain and good sunlight from that area
Brian Stevens

Posted from iPhone

"WOW" doesn't come close to describing this group of images!  What great locations for both trains and scenery!  Well done!

JCL

Thanks for posting, owy.  The Pentrex video, "THe Ultimate Cajon" has many shots in the MP19 area where these were taken, but none of this angle so very impressed you got these.  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IAn



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/25 08:01 by ntharalson.

Awesome series! Way to find a Great new location with possibilities to shoot both ways!

This is a very interesting and remote area, so glad you sought this out and took pictures here. Santa Fe did do many straightening projects through the decades and especially here you can see the evidence of three of them. The first is the very curvy cut visible in some of the pictures. Then a partial straightening through more gentle cuts, and third is the current alignment. To the West is Helendale around the curve at about Mojave River level. Going East is a grade uphill climbing up the walls of the escarpment. Eastbound out of dynamics and up with the power or get a run in butt bump, then a runout if you do nothing. Back off the power toward the grade crossing and return to gradual Eastbound decending grade. 

Yes, those are homes on the distant conical hills. 
My favorite find along with the older rights of way out there is the squarish rock and concrete semaphore signal pads used long ago. These are not easy to see even from the cab as they can get broken up after decades of track maintenance. 

Story time. Westward stack train restricted to 45 MPH for TPOB or some such reason. Right exactly through here, my Conductor and I see in our mirrors a group of 3 or 4 train riders sky surfing on top of the doublestack containers about 5 cars back from the power. We knew about the riders leaving Yermo but they were not in the power, they were in the wells at that time. Didn't like it, but we wanna get home so we departed. 
    My Conductor, a very excitable type, comes totally unglued and shouts at me to "Stop this train RIGHT HERE NOW! "
Oh my, so I push full dynamic and a very heavy set of air, we stop right now (exactly where you see these trains - the middle of nowhere for all purposes). 
Conductor grabs the steel air hose wrench out of the nose and exits cursing out the front nose door, then speed scuttles back along the train to the roof surfers. I can see him back there in my mirror waving that wrench around looking for kneecaps to break. 
They pile off the train right here in the middle of nowhere, and he radio calls me to "Let's go NOW!" and scuttles up a few cars to swing on the rear motor steps. I slap a release from my deep set and start up with the power. "C'mon, C'mon, faster, pick it up!!!"
Air brakes releasing on the rear, ammeter touching 900 Amps, he swings on as we start to creep and then move faster. He walks up through the units, drops the wrench at his seat, gives me the stern but satisfied look and... rest of the trip was... normal. 
I'm pretty sure they swung back on the stack cars as my Conductor was walking up but looking and watching for them the rest of our trip to LA, they stayed mighty low out of sight.