Western Railroad Discussion > BNSF Santa Ana Canyon last Sunday

I hiked up Scully Hill at the east end of Santa Ana Canyon west of Corona, CA last Sunday to see what could be done with the drone on the BNSF ex-Santa Fe main line out of Los Angeles, CA.  The tracks are on the north side of the canyon for most of its length, and the photo angles and lighting are probably better in winter, but at the east end, the tracks cross the river near Prado Dam and the Green River Golf Club, offering some possibilities for summer afternoon shooting.  The line is triple track with one track frequently used for parking trains, but this day the parked trains were thankfully west of the bridge.

1) The eastbound Southwest Chief crosses the river in the late afternoon.  The golf course and careful cropping can almost make the area around the bridge look rural...for eastbounds.

2) Shooting westbounds, there's no escaping the truth - BNSF 6569 west crosses the same bridge amidst the urban sprawl.  The new interchange between the 71 and 91 freeways in the upper left background unfortunately obscures the view of the bicentennial mural on the Prado Dam spillway.  

3) An eastbound stack train wasn't too far behind Amtrak.  One handicap of my consumer-grade drone is that I can't blow the pictures up very much to read distant road numbers, so I'm not entirely confident which one of BNSF's zillions of orange, wide nose, 6-axle GE's was leading this train.  I usually try to pan around and shoot a broadside when the power is closer and the numbers are legible just to have a record, but failed to do so this time.

---

---

---

These are awesome views. Thank you for posting them.

Gary R Clark
Griffith IN

Hiking to use a drone shows real dedication and resulted in some great shots...thanks for posting.

Those shots turned out great.

Posted from iPhone

Excellent trio from a place I spent a lot of time in my later BNSF years. Carls Jr and Jack in the Box near by. I'd say it's changed just a bit from 1974.
JB

---

Great photos!
Regards, Jim Evans

3rdswitch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Excellent trio from a place I spent a lot of time
> in my later BNSF years. Carls Jr and Jack in the
> Box near by.
> JB

The Carls Jr closed, it's a Starbucks now.

Excellent shots!

Tom

That's one of the more interesting and beautiful little areas in SoCal.  The Santa Ana river, and its history of being associated with all the old citrus orchards, is fascinating.  One of the original canals which delivered water from the Santa Ana (the Gage canal?) is still in place and used at times to irrigate the California Citrus State Heritage Park in Riverside.

coach Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That's one of the more interesting and beautiful
> little areas in SoCal.  The Santa Ana river, and
> its history of being associated with all the old
> citrus orchards, is fascinating.  One of the
> original canals which delivered water from the
> Santa Ana (the Gage canal?) is still in place and
> used at times to irrigate the California Citrus
> State Heritage Park in Riverside.

The Gage Canal is still in operation and does a LOT more then just irrigate the State Park. 

PHall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> coach Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > That's one of the more interesting and
> beautiful
> > little areas in SoCal.  The Santa Ana river,
> and
> > its history of being associated with all the
> old
> > citrus orchards, is fascinating.  One of the
> > original canals which delivered water from the
> > Santa Ana (the Gage canal?) is still in place
> and
> > used at times to irrigate the California Citrus
> > State Heritage Park in Riverside.
>
> The Gage Canal is still in operation and does a
> LOT more then just irrigate the State Park. 

Um, yeah, and, OK, what???

Good photos and work you did with the drone to get angles I've never seen before from an area that was very familiar to me, although that was nearly 50 years ago and it sure has changed. At least the Green River mobile home park is still there. Over the years, I had two friends that lived there at different times for a while.

Many years ago, I scouted the area based on the terrain, but did not any angle that was satisfying... well, you found them, drone or not. Very nice!

Nice shots!!