Nostalgia & History > last freight through semaphores . . .

. . . made a trip from CA out to NM in MAY '04 to catch a few non Amtraks splitting the blades on the BNSF Glorieta Sub. BNSF 4380 east, a San Bernardino to Willow Springs empty pig flat (baretable) train was splitting what I "THINK" might have been the furthest east set of blades on the sub between Colmor and Springer and as it turned out my last shot of a non Amtrak move splitting blades as well (top and middle). Later that day an eastbound grain empty was climbing out of Trinidad toward Hoehnes with a nifty TFM CSX BNSF set of power (bottom). During this period there were pretty much daily eastbound baretable, empty grain and or empty coal trains running on this route in addition to the Barstow to Denver and Denver to Barstow manifests. Only thirteen years ago but not likely to be repeated thus placement on the nostalgia board.
JB



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/17 21:41 by 3rdswitch.

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Got to like your third shot! Marty

Nice trio JB, thanks for sharing. I really like that second shot!

Kent in CArmel Valley

time flies

Nice.Time does fly ,only faster when you get older.Bill Webb

Great shots!! I was out there in the summer of 2004 trying to get just what you got, but it didn't work out for me. Only thing running the day I was there was Amtrak. No. 3 was about eight hours late so missed it and had to settle for No. 4 in storm-darkened conditions.

Kim Heusel

JB:

Great shots!! My wife and I were out there over Easter Weekend documenting the last semaphore signals from Springer to Bernal (Still can't figure out how to get into Ojita !). We talked at length about how great it would be to see just one or two freight moves a day over this route. . Your photographs demonstrate that this real life mainline railroad museum made up of Track Warrants, short sidings, line poles, semaphores, and heavy grades, could still provide some value to the BNSF.

Of course its only a dream, operationally it just doesn't make sense ( for all those reasons listed above ) I just hope with all the talk of removing long distance passenger trains, this treasure can somehow survive!

Colorado is making big noises about a reroute of the Chief to reach Pueblo and that might be tough
if the train is running through Armadillo!

Out

Photo 2 illustrates what I love about the western United States. Some call it "empty". I call it beautiful! Thanks for posting!!

Steve
Somewhere in Nevada

Did most these sema's have the flat cap on top the mast or is this just these two sentinels? Most I've seen have the pinnacle which was original. These two along with similar ones there will be missed forever. I love the 3rd shot with the snowy mountain range in background and the hill the freight is taking on. Can't believe there isn't more smoke from these locos on this grade.